Free Things To Do In Oaxaca, From The Zócalo To The Santo Domingo Church

Costs for free things in Oaxaca fall into three tiers: some sights are free outright, some are free with a condition attached, and some of the famous names charge everyone from abroad. No sight on this page hides a fee, and the paid ones sit right beside the free ones, so the splits matter.

Free outright: the Zócalo and Alameda de León are public squares with no ticket, and the Andador Macedonio Alcalá is a pedestrian street with no ticket. Entering the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán is free, as it is a public church. The Catedral, Basílica de la Soledad, San Felipe Neri, La Compañía and San Agustín are public churches too, and no admission charge is reported at any of them, though hours follow services. Walking into the Mercado 20 de Noviembre, Mercado Benito Juárez or Mercado de Abastos is free, while the food and goods inside are paid. Cerro del Fortín is a free hill park. IAGO's exhibition entry has no charge, per its own site, and no admission charge is reported at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca or MUFI. During Día de Muertos, the public panteones and street altars are open without tickets.

Santo Domingo is the clearest example of the ladder, because three different rules stand within a few steps of each other. Entering the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán is free. The Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca in the ex-convent beside it is a ticketed INAH museum: foreign adults pay 210 MXN, Mexican nationals 105 MXN. The Jardín Etnobotánico behind it is guided visit only, with no self-guided entry, and guided visits are free per the state government. The museum and the garden never inherit the church's free status.

Free with a condition, beyond the garden: the INAH Sunday free entry, which applies to Monte Albán, Mitla, Yagul, the Museo de las Culturas and the Museo de Sitio Casa Juárez, is for Mexican nationals and residents of Mexico with ID only. Visitors from abroad pay on Sundays as on any other day. At the Auditorio Guelaguetza on Cerro del Fortín, usually active the last two Mondays of July, sections C and D are free, first come and unreserved, while sections A and B are ticketed and sold only through the official online channel.

Paid, and outside the city besides: Monte Albán, Mitla and Yagul charge foreign adults 210 MXN, Mexican nationals 105 MXN, and Mitla charges 730 MXN for visits outside normal hours. The Museo de Sitio Casa Juárez charges foreign adults 145 MXN, Mexican nationals 80 MXN. Lambityeco is ticketed. Hierve el Agua is community-run, not INAH, and charges 70 MXN in total: 20 MXN road toll plus 50 MXN park access, cash only. Getting close to the Árbol del Tule in the churchyard costs about 20 MXN per person. The Tlacolula Sunday Market, outside the city, is free to walk into, with food and goods paid.

Every walk on this site is free, pay what you want, and reserved on GuruWalk. That single fact simplifies the choice: there is no price to weigh, only the theme, the language, the duration, the meeting point and the review count behind each rating. Start with those, and the right walk tends to announce itself.

Theme splits the walks along clear lines. The Centro Histórico And Santo Domingo walks meet in the historic centre and work the streets around the Zócalo, the Catedral and Santo Domingo. The Jalatlaco And The Street Murals walks meet in or near the barrio of Jalatlaco, whose walls carry much of the city's mural painting. The Xochimilco And The Markets walks meet at Plaza de la Cruz de Piedra in Xochimilco or at Café Kapel Nana and Eden MiniGalería, and take the market and neighbourhood side of the city.

Language matters more than it looks. Street Art Of Jalatlaco, run by Oaxaca by locals, is English only, as is Oaxaca Free Walking Tour, History, Culture & Local Secrets. The rest of the walks run in English and Spanish, so a mixed group can join either language line. Check the walk's own GuruWalk page before reserving if the language matters to your group.

Duration separates the walks into a 2 hour shape and a 2 hours 30 minutes shape. Free Walking Tour Oaxaca by locals, meeting at Cosijoeza 110A in the Centro, runs 2 hours, as do the walks meeting at Jardín El Pañuelito, at the Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños, at the Iglesia de San Matías Jalatlaco and at Café Kapel Nana and Eden MiniGalería. The walks meeting at Plaza de la Cruz de Piedra, at the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá and at ARIPO, next to the fountain, run 2 hours 30 minutes.

Popularity, Measured In Reviews

Review count is the closest thing to a popularity fact, and GuruWalk publishes it openly. Free Walking Tour Oaxaca by locals is rated 4.63 out of 5 across 1,165 GuruWalk reviews, the largest count on this site. Street Art Of Jalatlaco follows with a 4.91 out of 5 rating across 636 reviews, and Xochimilco Start, Through Time sits at 4.99 out of 5 across 496 reviews. Smaller counts are not a mark against a walk: Oaxaca City Walking Tour: Markets, History and Art carries a 5 out of 5 rating across 28 reviews, and Free tour in the Magical Neighborhood of Jalatlaco: Murals and Art Workshops rates 4.93 out of 5 across 96 reviews. Read the numbers, then read the walk's own page and decide.

Area is the last filter, and the simplest. If you are staying near the Zócalo, the Centro meeting points keep the start close. If Jalatlaco or Xochimilco is your base, walks meet in those barrios too. Every walk page on this site lists its meeting point exactly, and the free walking tours index lays all of them side by side.