Oaxaca

Oaxaca stretches far beyond its celebrated capital. One of Mexico’s most culturally and geographically diverse states, it moves from the mountains and indigenous villages of the central valleys to tropical forests and a spectacular Pacific coastline. Zapotec and Mixtec traditions remain deeply embedded in everyday life, while centuries of craftsmanship—from weaving and ceramics to woodcarving and natural pigments—continue to influence a new generation of Mexican architects and designers. Along the coast, particularly around Puerto Escondido, this has helped create one of the country’s most exciting laboratories for contemporary architecture.

Food and drink are inseparable from Oaxacan identity. Corn, chiles, cacao, wild herbs and countless regional varieties of mole reflect culinary traditions that change dramatically across the state. Village markets and family kitchens remain as important as ambitious contemporary restaurants, while mezcal connects landscape, agriculture and culture perhaps more powerfully than any other product. Small-scale producers work with different agave varieties and terroirs, making travelling through Oaxaca as fascinating for what you eat and drink as for what you see.

For DNA Hotels, Oaxaca is particularly compelling because some of Mexico’s most adventurous hospitality is happening here. Raw concrete beach houses, palm-thatched coastal retreats, restored haciendas and intimate design hotels use local materials and traditional building techniques in radically contemporary ways. We curate the places where architecture, craftsmanship, food and landscape become inseparable—hotels that reveal Oaxaca as not simply a destination, but one of the most creative regions in Mexico.