Oaxaca with Andrew Zimmern

Bienvenidos a Mexico! Today we welcome you to Oaxaca City, where you’ll arrive at your oasis: a beautifully restored 16th-century convent in the heart of the historic center.

Once settled, we’ll begin our time together with a guided walking tour through Oaxaca’s colonial core, getting acquainted with its cobblestone streets, vibrant plazas, centuries-old architecture, and layers of Indigenous and Spanish influence. Along the way, we’ll start to understand the city’s culinary culture and deep sense of place.

In the evening, we’ll gather for a welcome cocktail, where our Tastemaker, Andrew Zimmern, will raise a glass to the days ahead and the shared adventure to come. After, we’ll sit down to our first dinner together at the acclaimed Origen, led by chef Rodolfo Castellanos, for an exquisite opening-night meal rooted in the flavors of Oaxaca.

We begin with a market breakfast in Oaxaca, easing into the morning rhythms of the city before heading into the valley toward Teotitlán del Valle, a Zapotec community known for its culinary and craft traditions.

There, we’ll be welcomed into the home of a local family for a hands-on cooking experience alongside Andrew. Together, we’ll learn about ancestral Zapotec foodways, rituals, ingredients, and family recipes passed down through generations—grinding masa, forming tortillas by hand, and working over the comal.

We also explore the weaving traditions that have made Teotitlán renowned for the past 14 generations, from wool and natural dyes to cochineal, plants, minerals, and patterns rich with cultural meaning. After, we’ll sit down to a home-cooked lunch of tamales, mole, handmade tortillas, and the warmth of being invited into a family kitchen. It’s a grounded encounter with one of Oaxaca’s vibrant Indigenous communities.

In the late afternoon, we’ll continue to Monte Albán for an after-hours visit to one of Mesoamerica’s great archaeological sites, dating from 500 BC. With the valley stretching below, we’ll explore its ancient plazas, pyramids, and carved stone monuments in the softer light of evening.

We return to Oaxaca City to freshen up and enjoy a casual street-food-style dinner centered around one of the city’s great pleasures: tlayudas. Warm from the comal and layered with asiento, black beans, Oaxacan cheese, and grilled meats, they’re smoky, crisp, generous, and deeply satisfying. From there, the evening is yours to keep exploring live music, mezcal bars, or simply the magic of the city at night.

This morning begins with a leisurely breakfast, a journey in itself through the sweet and savory flavors of Oaxaca.

After, we drive into the agave landscape to a community known for its traditional mezcal production. Here, among the fields, we’ll get close to one of Oaxaca’s most important agricultural traditions: the agave plant, whose transformation into mezcal has become both a deeply rooted local craft and one of the region’s most celebrated exports.

At our palenque, we’ll meet a fourth-generation mezcalero who generously shares the art of mezcal-making. We’ll see how agave hearts are roasted, fermented, and distilled using time-honored methods, then taste the finished spirit in the place where it was made.

Lunch today is rustic and deeply authentic: a pit-cooked whole goat barbecue, prepared in the traditional style, served simply and close to the land. It’s the kind of meal that connects place, smoke, fire, and hospitality in one unforgettable afternoon.

Later, we return to Oaxaca satiated. Perhaps with a few bottles of artisanal mezcal in hand. The rest of the evening is yours to enjoy at leisure, whether that means shopping, visiting galleries, wandering the city’s colorful streets, or settling into a relaxed dinner on your own.

We begin early, traveling out of the city to Tlacolula Market, one of Oaxaca’s great rural markets and a gathering place for communities from across the valley. Here, Indigenous producers arrive from near and far with cultivated fruits and vegetables, chiles, herbs, pottery, textiles, baskets, bags, and handmade goods. It’s a snapshot of the everyday artistry and abundance from the region laid out stall by stall.

Alongside our chef, and our deeply knowledgeable local expert, we’ll move through the market, learning about the villages, producers, and traditions that come together here each week. This is a place to observe life as it happens: families shopping, vendors calling out, cooks sourcing ingredients, and generations of knowledge carried in the food and conversation of the market.

As we explore, Andrew will select ingredients for this evening’s farewell meal, helping us see the market through a chef’s eyes: what’s in season, what tells a story, and what belongs on the table tonight.

After a bit of time to relax at the hotel, our evening destination is a beloved ranch on the outskirts of the city. Once arrived, we’ll settle in for an afternoon and evening of cooking, conversation, music, and celebration. Together with Andrew and the group, we’ll prepare a hands-on feast, then gather around the table for one final shared meal.

Wrapped in the warmth of Mexican hospitality and the regional spirit of Oaxaca, this is the joyful culmination of our journey: a celebration of place, people, and the simple pleasure of cooking and eating together.

All great things come to an end, alas. This morning unfolds at your own pace. Some guests may rise early for airport departures, while others can enjoy a slower start and a final wander through Oaxaca. We will bid farewell and bask in the adventure that was Oaxaca with Andrew Zimmern. Until the next time. ¡Buen viaje!