Discover Mexico - Day of the Dead (Oaxaca)

An unforgettable, tiring, enjoyable experience. Wouldn’t have missed it, but was glad to say goodbye to that coach we travelled in most days. Would highly recommend being in Mexico for the Day of the Dead festival. Oaxaca was a great place to enjoy it - a beautiful city where we were welcomed and felt part of the celebrations. Our guide really helped us understand the history, culture and story of Mexico, from the outset in Mexico City, then led us through it over the following 16 days. I thought that the numerous visits to classical sites would be too much, but every one was different and visits were interspersed with meeting local families, learning to cook local dishes, experiencing local traditions, like following wedding parties, exploring fabulous old cities, enjoying scenery, rivers and mountains. A complete journey through what Mexico offers.

This was a really well -planned full itinerary with little down time and early starts every morning! The traffic in Mexico City meant that journeys between locations always took a long time but Berto, our driver was very calm.  On the first day you are still recovering from the long day of travel but the visit to the Frida Kahlo House was very worthwhile and the canal boat "dodgems" at Xochimilco was great fun! It was nice to get out of the City to the site at Teotichuacan the next day - the large pyramids are stunningly impressive but you can no longer climb them. The best time was in Oaxaca as we spent 4 nights at the same central hotel and we had plenty of opportunity to soak up the festive atmosphere and see plenty of costumes and parades. The food is very good here and, of course, we learned how to make some salsas and mole. We were lucky enough to spend time at the cemetery with a family where the son was playing the guitar and singing ballads to the dead relatives - very moving and atmospheric. Monte Alban was my favourite archaeological site, partly because of the stunning views but Palenque was lovely because of its jungle location with the howler monkeys screeching in the background and the fact it was possible to climb the Pyramid of the Cross to have a view across the site. Unfortunately, we only had less than an hour at Uxmal as we arrived late in the afternoon and our visit to Chichen Itza was quite short as we had to leave for the airport. We did so many extras and Arturo always ensured we had good places to eat and drink!

Very good trip overall. The local guide was extremely knowledgeable, highly motivated. The hotels were variable good to very good. The bus was somewhat crowded. I managed to find some vegetarian selection at each location. Local people were quite friendly and ready to help, despite my very limited spanish.

An excellent introduction to the sights , sounds and culture of Mexico. It involved long days travelling on occasion, and a larger bus would be an improvement. The one provided had the exact number of seats for the passengers so there was no possibility of spreading out, the seats in the back being particularly cramped.

This trip packs a lot in - culture, Mayan sites, eating, seeing local craftsmen at work, and just soaking up the atmosphere in the old Spanish colonial towns. Around and about in Mexico city, beautiful Puebla, San Cristobal and then lots of Mayan sites. The hotels were all good (had one slight problem in one of them but hopefully Exodus can get that sorted out for future trips). There are some long travelling days due to the distances which need to be covered, but it's worth it and a lot of the scenery is just amazing to see.