Cozumel, Tulum, Puerto Escondido– these are the kind of sun-soaked destinations I think of when imagining the typical Mexico vacation. So as I flipped through Travel & Leisure’s annual “Best of” edition the other day, I was more than a little surprised to find that Oaxaca City– this colonial capital tucked in a valley near the Guatemalan border– was voted the #1 city in Mexico for 2018. Surprised, but not confused.
Oaxaca City established itself as a capital of the region’s culinary traditions, architecture, and culture well before Travel & Leisure announced its popularity and remote workers started scooping up its Airbnb’s. Case in point: UNESCO named Oaxaca City’s historic center a Cultural Heritage Site back in 1987, and tourism has been the