Oaxaca Free Walking Tour — Local services in Oaxaca

We have two reviews, one for the free walking tour, a second for our food tour.

FOOD TOUR w/ RAUL Our time with Raul on our "Classic Oaxaca" food our was by far the highlight of our time in the city. Raul is knowledgeable, personable, funny, and took time to learn about what we were interested in in order to shape our 4 hours together - and what a four hours! We ate our way through multiple markets, food stalls, and local specialty shops (ice cream, oh my!) all while learning about the people behind the food and what made each item significant to Oaxaca. The food was excellent and expanded our culinary understanding of the region. While not guaranteed to be private, we happened to be the only two on our tour that afternoon, and after sharing our interest in art, Raul introduced us to several print shops and left us with some great recommendations to follow up on. We truly felt that we received a unique experience from an expert who loves his work and his city. You cannot go wrong with ANY tour led by Raul, but the food tour with Free Walk Oaxaca was exceptional experience. Show up with good walking shoes, water, and an empty stomach. You will not be disappointed!

WALKING TOUR w/ LAURA Our walking tour with Laura was fabulous. She is knowledgeable, patient and funny, and answered all our questions. Her historical knowledge gave us context and perspective about Oaxaca that added depth to our visit and we saw/learned more of the city than we likely would have on our own (i.e. - local nicknames for different landmarks and the story behind them). Bonus: At the end of the tour, she took extra time to walk a few of us to a great restaurant (for tacos!) we would have never found on our own. Due to timing, we did this tour at the end of our visit, but it would have been highly useful to do it on the first day. There were so many recommendations for additional places to visit and things to do after the tour....

We had mixed feelings about this tour so I will start with the positives.

Raul was a very approachable and friendly guide who is clearly very passionate about Oaxaca. He gave us some great recommendations for food and tacos that we went to twice during our stay in oaxaca. The tour also went to the Xochimilco barrio which is really colourful and a little outside of the main city centre of Oaxaca.

However, we were left disappointed by the limited focus of the tour on Oaxaca itself. The tour starts in the Zocalo but has only a few stops and then stops at many places where you can buy things.

In our tour we went to a photography museum, where we were given 15 minutes to look at the art installations. Then we went to an organic market where we were given an opportunity to buy things and spend a further 15 minutes. After that we went to a chocolate shop where we spent another 15 minutes tasting chocolate and were given the opportunity to buy things. The other tour also stopped at some sort of textile factory.

We were disappointed that the tour seemed to focus more on the opportunity to buy local produce than on the history and Zocalo of Oaxaca, and a number of other people on the tour said that the same to us.

We spent the rest of our time in Oaxaca visiting the many incredible sights of the city centre and learning about the history of the city, while wondering why none of this was covered in the...

We did not like this tour. We didn't get enough of the history of Oaxaca. I don't know why we gathered at the theater and said nothing about it. Then we went to the cathedral and said nothing about it. No mention of the markets. The separation of church and state was interesting. But then we walked all the way to Santo Domingo with nothing said on the way. And we didn't take the pedestrian street, so it seemed to take a long time. At the church we were told about Oaxacan weddings and the cost to book a wedding. This church has REAL history and stories that are interesting. We went in the church and this was too much down time. Everything we stopped at, our guide started with "do you know of...?" or "have you heard of...?" then she paused, "no? No one? Then I will tell you...". I wanted to say, we know nothing, that is why we are on this walk, just tell us the story! The worst was that she got into side conversations with single participants and we all had to wait until that finished before she told us the next thing. One time we all stood there and stared at her talking to 1 person for minutes! It was odd and a little rude with our time. In the end, we got 20 min of info in 2 hrs, very little of it allowed me to make a connection with Oaxaca. It was disappointing. Maybe other guides are better. We still tipped for her time. But we should have spent time in a...