Oaxaca

If you only visit one inland city, make it Oaxaca. The historic center is a grid of colored colonial houses around the green-stone church of Santo Domingo, the markets sell chapulines and chocolate by the kilo, and every second doorway is a mezcalería. The Zapotec ruins of Monte Albán sit on a flattened mountaintop twenty minutes away with a view of three valleys.

Day of the Dead here is the most intense in the country. The coast, five hours south, is another world: Puerto Escondido's surf and Huatulco's nine bays. Our tip: rent a car for the villages, where the best food and textiles are.