Ancient Route to the Coast

Slow Travel Through Oaxaca’s Living Landscapes

Ruta: Del Cafe y la Playa

Today, most travelers reach Oaxaca’s coast by the new highway. This journey offers another way — following the ancient mountain route and experiencing the gradual transformation of landscapes, climates, and traditions that connect the Central Valleys with the Pacific.

Day 1: Craft Traditions & Mountain Air
Leaving Oaxaca, we travel through the Central Valleys and visit artisan communities where ancestral techniques remain alive from black pottery to the colorful carved figures of San Martín Tilcajete. In the afternoon, we climb into the Sierra Sur and spend the night at Terrazas de la Tierra, a beautiful permaculture project in San José del Pacífico with stunning mountain views and a very special vegan kitchen.

Day 2 : Through the Coffee Country
After breakfast, we continue our descent through changing ecosystems into the lush coffee region of Pluma Hidalgo. As the air becomes warmer and vegetation changes, we visit families dedicated to preserving Oaxaca’s organic coffee traditions and spend the night immersed in the landscape of a working coffee finca.

Day 3: Arrival at the Pacific
Our journey continues toward the coast, where mountains gradually open toward the ocean and tropical vegetation begins to appear. From there, continue to one of Oaxaca’s beautiful beach destinations or extend your experience with our coast journey.

This route is an invitation to travel slow, to take time, to experience the changing vegetation, enjoy meaningful encounters along the way, and explore the extraordinary ecological and cultural diversity of Oaxaca.

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