Private travel · Mexico
Two Mexicos, and we know bothOaxaca and Mexico City — their kitchens, their palenques and their markets, privately, on your dates.
- Oaxaca & CDMXninety minutes apart
- 1–12guests, your group only
- 1 day – 3 weeks
- 100%privately hosted
Private travel in Mexico
Two places, known completely
Most operators sell you Mexico, and we sell you Oaxaca and Mexico City — two places we know from the inside.
We know the cook whose open-air kitchen you stand in, the weaver who dyes his own wool with cochineal, the family who roast their agave in the ground, and the person who decides which mezcals you taste and in which order. Those people have been saying yes to us because of how our guests behave once they are through the door.
Mexico City is the country's appetite in one place: pre-Hispanic markets, the taquerías people queue for, murals you walk past on the way to lunch, and a dining scene that now sets the pace for the region. Oaxaca is the other half of the story — the corn, the chillies, the mezcal, and the clay much of what the capital cooks is served on. Take one, take the other, or put the two together. Every journey is built around what you want from it, at the length and pace you choose.
Explore Mexico through relationships, not bookings.
Where we travel in Mexico
Four places, each entered through the people inside it
Two of them are in Oaxaca and two of them are in Mexico City. Take all four, or one — we build the journey around whichever you choose.
Oaxaca de Juárez
The kitchens, the markets and the tables
A small colonial city that eats better than places ten times its size. You cook over wood in an open-air kitchen outside town with a traditional cook, learn what a comal actually does, and grind chillies on stone before you eat what you made. You go through the markets with someone who buys there, and you eat one night at a restaurant that has put Oaxacan home cooking in front of the world without changing it. Chocolate, mole, tejate, mezcal poured into a clay cup.
Oaxaca de Juárez · the markets · the family kitchens
The Central Valleys
Where the makers and the mezcal are
Half an hour out and the valleys are all workshops. You go into a weaver's own studio in Teotitlán del Valle, where the wool is dyed with cochineal and indigo and the loom is his grandfather's; into the black-clay potteries of San Bartolo Coyotepec and the red clay of Atzompa, where you can put your own hands on the wheel. And out into the agave — cutting a piña with a jimador, watching the hearts roast in a stone-lined pit and the tahona turn, then tasting the result at the palenque with the person who distilled it.
Teotitlán del Valle · San Bartolo Coyotepec · Atzompa · the palenques
Mexico City: the centre
Markets, murals and the tables that made the city's name
The Centro Histórico is stacked five civilisations deep and you walk it with someone who can read it — Aztec foundations, a cathedral sinking into the old lake bed, Rivera's murals in the stairwells of buildings people still work in. Then the eating: the mercados at their best hours, the al pastor counters worth the queue, an old cantina, a private mezcal tasting led by a specialist who works only with small producers, and a table at one of the restaurants that made this a city people fly to for dinner.
Centro Histórico · the mercados · the taquerías · the mezcalerías
Mexico City: the south and the water
Chinampas, Coyoacán and the kitchens of the city
South of the city the Aztec farms are still working — floating gardens at Xochimilco where you eat breakfast cooked on a comal on the chinampa that grew it, before the boats and the noise arrive. Then Coyoacán's cobbled squares, the tree-lined streets of Roma and Condesa, and an afternoon in a kitchen putting a Mexican menu together yourself, glass in hand, with Mexican wine and tequila tasted alongside it.
Xochimilco · Coyoacán · Roma and Condesa
Prefer to join a small group? Our seven-day Oaxaca journey runs each November and February — see the dates.
Where we have people
We only go where we know the people
That keeps the list short, and it keeps the access real.
- Oaxaca de Juárez
- Teotitlán del Valle
- San Bartolo Coyotepec
- Mexico City
- Xochimilco
Access, introductions and relationships
You travel with someone already inside the country
You are accompanied throughout by a specialist host who already works inside the place you are visiting — a cook, a chef, a mezcal specialist — moving with you through kitchens, markets and palenques, and connecting what you experience as it happens.
At certain moments others join — a mezcalero, a weaver, a potter, a chef — adding depth from within their own work. That might take place inside production, through hands-on craft, or in the wider context of the place itself.
One person holds the thread throughout, so each part connects without interruption. Nobody is working from a script, and there is no group to keep pace with — it is the difference between being shown a place and being taken into it.
What that makes possible
Four things you couldn't arrange yourself
Palenques
Mezcal where it is actually made
Small palenques in the valleys do not run tastings. You go because of who asks — into the roasting pit, the tahona and the still, and you taste from the jar with the family who made it.
Makers
Time with the person who made it
The weaver in his own workshop, not a co-operative showroom. The potter's wheel with your hands on it. The dyer explaining why that red costs what it costs.
Tables
Meals arranged, not booked
A wood-fire kitchen outside Oaxaca, breakfast on a chinampa before the boats, a table in Mexico City that is otherwise booked out for months. Menu and drinks chosen for your group.
Shape
A day, or three weeks
A single day in the markets with your host, or three weeks across both cities with private transport throughout and no fixed schedule once you are there.
How it feels
Depth rather than volume
- Fewer visits, with more time in each place
- Conversations that unfold naturally
- Experiences shaped by presence rather than schedules
- A pace that allows for spontaneity and discovery
Mexico rewards patience, trust and connection. This is a more personal, less transactional way of travelling — and it suits people who value depth and detail over a full itinerary.
What to expect on investment
$750 – $1,250 per person, per dayGuide price for the Amble experience · accommodation costed separately
Every private journey is priced according to your group size, the length of the trip and the experiences we design together. As a guide, plan for a minimum average of $750 to $1,250 per person per day — covering your Local Legend host, private transport, tastings, workshops and a hosted meal.
Accommodation is costed separately and tailored to your preferences, from a courtyard house a few streets from the zócalo in Oaxaca to a converted mansion in Roma Norte. You will have a full, transparent proposal before you commit to anything.
Amble Journeys Ltd is a member of Protected Trust Services, member no. 5978. Every payment you make is held in a trust account and financially protected until your trip is complete.
How it comes together
From first conversation to arrival
01
Start with a conversation
Tell us how you want to travel — the pace, the places, and the moments that matter most. Share a few details and we will set up a call.
02
We design your journey
An outline itinerary built around access, flow and the people who will bring it to life. A $500 planning fee, applied in full to your trip cost, begins detailed planning.
03
We refine the details
We adjust, add and shape until it feels exactly right. Once you are happy, a 50% deposit secures your booking.
04
You arrive
Your final balance is due 90 days before departure. From there we handle everything, so you can simply arrive and experience it.
Start here
Begin your Mexican journey
We work with a limited number of clients each season, designing journeys shaped around individual interests, timing and access. Tell us a little about how you would like to travel using the form below, and we will come back to you to arrange a call.
Or write to us directly: customerservice@amblejourneys.com
Begin
Tell us how you would like to travel
A few details are enough to start. We read every enquiry ourselves, and we will come back to you to arrange a call.
Thank you — your enquiry is with us.
We read every one ourselves and will come back to you within two working days to arrange a call.