Oaxaca: a large building with a dome and a courtyard with people walking around — Photo by ryan doyle on Unsplash

Best time to visit Oaxaca

Mexico · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Oaxaca

Tap a month for its page

Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Mar–May — these months score within a whisker of each other; 31C max, 1 rainy day. Feb is the next best.

Dry season: Nov–May, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.

Plan this trip

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Flights

Choose where you fly from

Where to stay

Things to do

Car hire

Rent direct

Travel insurance

SafetyWing Ad

Mobile data (eSIM)

Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.

Things to do in Oaxaca

Monte Albán Pre-Columbian archaeological site in Mexico
Arbol del Tule This tree has the largest base of any tree in the world.
Mitla An important Zapotec city and religious center, built between 1 AD and 200 AD, famous for its Mesoamerican buildings intermingled with the modern town.
Templo de Santo Domingo A spectacular church built from 1570-1608, with subsequent Baroque renovations.
Teotitlan del Valle A village famous for its weaving.
Catedral Metropolitana Oaxaca's largest church dates from 1533 and is known for its unique interpretation of baroque style architecture.
Benito Juarez National Park Large natural park with hiking trails, zip lines, and great opportunities for bird watchers.

Tours and tickets in Oaxaca

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Oaxaca (city)), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	26°	0d	55%	10.9h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Feb	28°	0d	51%	11.1h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Mar	30°	0d	49%	11.5h	sweet spot	30C max, 0 rainy days
Apr	31°	1d	50%	12.0h	sweet spot	31C max, 1 rainy day
May	30°	5d	57%	11.8h	sweet spot	30C max, 5 rainy days
Jun	26°	15d*	74%	10.3h	good	26C max, 15 rainy days
Jul	26°	12d	73%	11.7h	good	26C max, 12 rainy days
Aug	26°	16d	75%	11.0h	ok	26C max, 16 rainy days
Sep	25°	16d	77%	10.0h	ok	25C max, 16 rainy days
Oct	25°	10d	73%	10.4h	okbusy	busier than usual
Nov	26°	1d	62%	10.8h	goodbusy	busier than usual
Dec	25°	0d	58%	10.7h	goodbusy	busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at the Zócalo, the historic centre, 7 km from the airport (OAX): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.* Rainy days in June are as the weather station at Oaxaca (3 km away) counts them, where it and the model disagree on a wet month (WMO 76775, 2017–2026).

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in February, October, November and December; quietest in April, May, July, August and September.

Then and now

Oaxaca's May days now average 30.4°C, 2.5°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 11 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	24.4°	25.7°	27.5°	28.9°	27.9°	24.8°	23.7°	24.4°	23.8°	23.8°	24.9°	24.6°
2017–26	25.7°	27.9°	29.7°	30.7°	30.4°	26.0°	25.9°	25.6°	25.0°	24.8°	25.9°	25.4°
Change	+1.3°	+2.2°	+2.2°	+1.9°	+2.5°	+1.2°	+2.2°	+1.2°	+1.2°	+1.0°	+1.0°	+0.8°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Oaxaca is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 127 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Peso. UK Foreign Office: avoid all but essential travel to parts. Everything for Mexico: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — Cards are widely accepted in cities, in chains and bigger restaurants; carry pesos for markets, street food, small family-run shops and anywhere rural.
UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
Tipping — 10-15% in restaurants, usually left in cash on the table; taxi drivers do not expect a tip.

Getting around Oaxaca

Apps — Rides: DiDi, inDrive, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. Ride apps are not authorised to pick up at Mexican airports; at Mexico City airport, take a fixed-fare authorised taxi from the stands inside.

Help

Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (21)

Oaxaca in pictures

Xochimilco Aqueduct Oaxaca City — i

Apkendall, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Around Oaxaca

Also in Mexico

Nearby

Kind of place

Oaxaca is in Mexico, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and fare data before any link is built.