How to visit Monte Albán, Oaxaca, without a tour
I’ve visited a number of ruins in Mexico and Central America, and since I’m no ancient archaeology passionista, I was very close to dismissing a visit to Monte Albán and skipping it altogether.
I owe it to Julia, a girl from my hostel, who pulled me out and got me excited about these seemingly important ‘rocks’. And what a great day it was! A visit to Monte Albán must be on your list of things to do in Oaxaca!
Visit Monte Albán for a wonderful day trip from Oaxaca City
There are plenty of tours that go to Monte Albán, Oaxaca, every day. But a visit to Monte Albán without a tour is still relatively straightforward. There’s no need to pay lots of extra money to get there when you can do it yourself very cheaply and easily!
In this post, I’ll share with you how to get to Monte Albán without a tour, and how to make the most of your visit to Monte Albán, Oaxaca.
How to get to Monte Albán
Public bus
The cheapest buses to Monte Albán leave from Calle de Tinoco y Palacios, near the Zócalo. This won’t set you back more than 8 pesos each way (at the time of this writing). The journey lasts around 30 minutes, and the buses leave very frequently. The only downside is it won’t take you directly to the gates. You’ll either have to walk for a bit, jump in a mototaxi, or hop on one of the tourist shuttles passing by.
Lescas Co Tours has buses departing every hour from 8.30 am, and the last bus leaving Monte Albán is at 5 pm. The bus terminal is in Hotel Riviera del Angel, Calle Mina 519. The bus also returns here, but you can get off anywhere on the way back, including the Zócalo.
Autobuses Turísticos is another bus company with buses to Monte Albán departing from Hotel Riviera del Angel. With this company, you’ll need to book a return ticket for a set time. Give yourself around 3 hours to see all that Monte Albán has to offer.
Expect to pay about 70 pesos round trip for both Autobuses Turísticos, and Lescas Co Tours.
All the buses return to Oaxaca from the Monte Albán car park.
Hiking
Curious about how to get to Monte Albán the cheapest way? It’s on foot.
The Monte Albán Ruins are about 10 kilometres from downtown Oaxaca. But if that isn’t enough to put you off, the walk to Monte Albán from Oaxaca is pretty much all uphill, up a windy tarmac road.
If you’re really trying to travel on a shoestring, hiking is an option, but the public buses are so cheap, it almost doesn’t seem worth it just to save a few pesos.
Once you get to the big Monte Albán sign, there’s another 20 minutes of uphill walking before you reach the ticket booths.
Taxi
By far the easiest way to get to Monte Albán is to hop in a taxi. It requires no prior planning, and you can literally just walk out of your accommodation and hail one off the street. It’s definitely on the pricier side of things, but still much cheaper than a Monte Albán tour.
Expect to pay between 150-180 MXN. Make sure to use your haggling skills to beat the price down. A taxi driver might try and take advantage of you if they see you’re a tourist.
If you meet other travellers who also want to visit Monte Albán without a tour, get a taxi and split the fare.
If you’ve been wondering how to get to Monte Albán the quickest way, getting a taxi is definitely it. Note that there isn’t Uber in Oaxaca, so if you want a private ride to Monte Albán, a taxi is the best option.
Top things to see at Monte Albán
There’s something quite unique about the ruins of Monte Albán, Oaxaca. Set in a valley with 360° views of the surrounding mountains, you can see why the ancient Zapotecs first fell in love with the region.
The Zapotec people were the first to inhabit the area. They conquered and colonised a lot of the surrounding villages, but their era of victory diminished after about 1000 years. After its abandonment, the Mixtecs came. They furthered construction here and used it as a burial site.
Not only was it one of the earliest Mesoamerican cities, Monte Albán, Oaxaca, was also a political and economic centre. As you might expect from somewhere as important as that, there’s a lot to see on your visit to Monte Albán! But if you’re strapped for time, or just getting tired, these are the 7 top things to see at Monte Albán that you can’t miss!
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Monte Albán’s stunning scenery
Grand plaza
As the first thing you’ll see as you venture into Monte Albán, Oaxaca, you’ll quickly see its two defining features. Delimiting each end, are the North Platform and the South Platform, both of which can be explored.
All the ruins, monumental stairs, tombs, and complexes seem to be concentrated around this Central Plaza.
The Grand Plaza
Stella 18
Ancient Zapotecs and Mixtecs needed to tell the time too, and this long rock slab stuck in the ground was their way of doing it.
By observing the shadow the stella cast on the ground throughout the day, the people of Monte Albán were able to predict when it was midday. As the sun moved in the sky, the stella’s shadow changed position.
Stella 18
Los Daznates
Literally translating as ‘the dancers’, Los Daznates are a series of carved rock monuments near the South Platform.
You’ll easily be able to see portrayals of men in distorted positions posing with weird facial expressions. Each one your eyes fix on seems to be quirkier and more disturbing than the last.
The figures supposedly represent men from nearby towns and villages who were sacrificed and castrated, hence the genital mutilation that’s seen in the engraved rocks.
Los Daznates
The South Platform
For views worth feasting on, climb up the humungous stairs on the South Platform and stare all around. Up here, you’ll see Monte Albán in its entirety, as well as the sacred Oaxacan mountains in the distance.
No visit to Monte Albán is complete without seeing the magnificent views from up here!
Is this view insane or what?!
The Observatory
In the centre of the Grand Plaza sits an imposing ruin that seems to ditch the rules of Zapotec architecture seen in the rest of Monte Albán’s structures.
It’s characterized by blocks of stone pieced together to form an arrow-like structure. The Zapotecs were masters of astronomy, and it’s this quirky structure they based themselves around to study it.
The Observatory is seen in the centre of the Grand Plaza
The Palace
As you continue making your way around the Grand Plaza, you’ll soon come across a very wide series of steps leading to a central door. While you can’t actually venture beyond the barrier here, you can still have a peek from the outside.
The Palace, as the name suggests, was where Monte Albán’s upper-class lived temporarily.
There’s also a secret tunnel that’s yet to be explored here.
The North Platform
The North Platform is composed of a series of lots of complex structures, and is nearly as big as the Central Plaza.
Within the North Platform, you’ll see the Patio Hundido, aka, the sunken patio. The sunken patio isn’t visible from the Central Plaza, and it’s thought that it was here that social and religious parties for Monte Albán’s elite took place.
There are also a lot of artifacts that have been found in the North Platform believed to originate from Teotihuacan, indicating the potential of a relationship between the two sites’ elite.
The North Platform
Useful information
Price
Entry to Monte Albán is pretty cheap, at only 70 MXN per person. But you also get charged extra if you’re bringing in visibly large filming or photography equipment. Hide it or pay up.
Facilities
There’s a large toilet block at the entrance, and you can also top up your energy levels at the onsite cafe. On the way back down to the car park there’s a large area full of souvenir stalls. You’ll be able to buy the squealing monkey toy you’ll have heard a million times in Monte Albán here.
Monte Albán during COVID-19
While Monte Albán is still open, its capacity has reduced significantly. The site is only allowing entry to around 400 people a day (at the time of this writing), but this is constantly changing. Get there early to make sure you get a spot in the queue and check with locals about opening times.
Tips for visting Monte Albán, Oaxaca, without a tour
⛰ Give yourself 2-3 hours to visit Monte Albán. If you’re booking a return bus time, give yourself extra time rather than less.
⛰ Visiting Monte Albán is free for Mexican residents on Sundays. If you want to avoid a few crowds, avoid this day.
⛰ Wear something easy to walk in. Supportive sandals, trainers, or hiking boots will do the job.
⛰ Visit Monte Albán during the early morning to avoid the hottest weather of the day. There’s hardly any shade, so bring suncream and a hat too.
⛰ Make sure to visit tomb 7. It’s not in the compound itself, but actually near the car park! You can see how it’s easy to miss. It’s here that the teal Mixtec mask was found. If you want to see it, go to the Museo de Las Culturas in Oaxaca City.
⛰ Visit Monte Albán’s museum at the site entrance. You can take refuge from the heat here as it’s air-conditioned, and also learn a bit more about Monte Albán as well as see preserved artifacts and stelae.
⛰ Hide any filming or professional photo equipment before paying to avoid an extra entry fee.
⛰ Take a photo of the large map at the entrance to avoid having to pay for a paper copy.
As well as visiting the surfing town of Puerto Escondido and hiking in the sacred mountains around San José del Pacífico, visiting Monte Albán is one of the most popular things to do Oaxaca.
The Monte Albán Ruins in Oaxaca are the second most important archaeological structures in Mexico after Teotihuacan. There are a multitude of different ruins in the state of Oaxaca, but these are by far the most important. It’s such a historically and culturally significant site that it’s even featured on the 20 MXN note!
Make sure you visit Monte Albán if you’re in Oaxaca!
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Hey!
Thanks for this article.
As a sidenote: The bus driving from Calle Tinoco y Palacias will not bring you to Monte Albany. Just somewhere near. There you can take a mototaxi (100$mx) or wait for the other tourist bus (90$mx/person) to take you the rest of the way.
Also make sure you go back before 4p.m. because there will be only one chance to leave the place( beside hiking back). And this will be the tourist bus.
But thanks for the big amount of information in your article =)
Thanks for taking the time to read it! And thanks for that piece of info, I’ll add it in to the post 🙂