Oaxaca Old Town

Oaxaca's historic centre is the most seductive colonial grid in Mexico - a UNESCO-listed chessboard of low baroque buildings cut from pale-green cantera stone, inscribed in 1987 together with Monte Alban on its mountaintop above. The church of Santo Domingo is the showpiece, its interior a golden storm of gilded stucco, with the superb cultural museum in the former convent next door and an ethnobotanical garden of agaves and cacti in its old orchard. Around the arcaded zocalo, life runs on chocolate, mole and mezcal: the 20 de Noviembre and Benito Juarez markets grill, grind and pile their stalls a block apart, while the pedestrian Alcala strings galleries and craft shops toward Santo Domingo. In July the Guelaguetza brings the state's indigenous communities to dance in full costume, and in late October the city stages Mexico's most atmospheric Day of the Dead.

What you actually see

• Santo Domingo's gilded nave - the baroque explosion and its convent museum.
• The zocalo arcades - marimbas, balloons and cafe life under the laurels.
• The twin markets - smoke alley grills, mole pastes and chapulines by the scoop.
• The ethnobotanical garden - agaves and cacti in the convent's walled orchard.

When to go

October to March is dry and mild at this 1,550-metre altitude. July's Guelaguetza and the Day of the Dead around the start of November are the great spectacles - and the two moments when rooms must be booked months out.

Honest expectations

The centre is compact and genuinely walkable, but festival seasons swamp it and prices have climbed with the city's fame. Mornings belong to the markets, evenings to the streets - plan museum hours around the midday heat.

Nearby

Monte Alban's mountaintop, Hierve el Agua, the Mitla ruins and the mezcal country of the valleys.