Oaxaca: From Tourist Markets to the Commercial Heart of Oaxaca

Discover why the tourist markets are no longer the ones used by the people of Oaxaca, and experience real local commerce at the Central de Abastos, with food tastings and a host who knows the traders.
Most of the markets that tourists visit in downtown Oaxaca, such as the 20 de Noviembre Market or the Benito Juárez Market, have changed over time: due to their location in the historic center, today they are mainly geared toward visitors, not toward Oaxacans doing their daily shopping. On this food tour, you'll discover that difference firsthand.

We'll start right there, walking through the 20 de Noviembre and Benito Juárez Markets, so you can understand their history and how they were transformed by tourism. This context is key: it will help you notice, minutes later, the radical difference when you reach the true commercial heart of the city.

We'll then move on to the Central de Abastos, the largest and most important market in the state, and the one that thousands of Oaxacan families actually use every day. There are no aisles designed for tourists here: there are entire areas dedicated to specific products, such as the section where only merchants from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec sell, with products brought directly from that region.

During the tour, you'll taste several of the specialties that are prepared and sold in the market itself, getting to know firsthand the vendors behind each dish. You will also meet producers who prepare black mole and coloradito mole pastes by hand, following family recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. For many of these families, that daily sale is their main livelihood, so every purchase and every food tasting you do directly supports their economy, not that of an intermediary.

You'll visit different areas of the market that showcase the cultural and gastronomical diversity of Oaxaca: from fresh produce stalls to spots where entire generations have kept a trade alive.

More than a food sightseeing tour, this is an experience to understand how local commerce in Oaxaca has changed with tourism, savoring some of its most representative flavors along the way and spending time with the people who sustain, day by day, the city's most authentic commercial and cultural life.

لضمان التوفر، احجز في أقرب وقت ممكن. الحجز المبكر يستحق النظر خاصة إذا كنت تخطط للرحلة خلال موسم الذروة مثل العطلات العامة أو عطلات نهاية الأسبوع.

يمكنك إلغاء هذه الرحلة بدون تكلفة حتى 24 ساعات قبل بدء الرحلة. إذا قمت بالإلغاء بعد 24 ساعات أو لم تحضر في الرحلة، فسيتم تحصيل السعر الكامل للنشاط. التأخر في الاستلام أو المغادرة سيعتبر كعدم حضور.