How to Get to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead 2026: Bus or Flight

Published October 10, 2026 · By the Maka Hostel team · 9 min read

Short answer, checked October 2026: be in Oaxaca by Thursday 29 or Friday 30 October, come by bus unless you find a flight that is genuinely cheap, and buy your seat out of Oaxaca at the same time as the seat in. From Mexico City the bus leaves from the TAPO terminal and takes roughly six to seven hours, and operators run it through the day and overnight. The part most people get wrong is the way back: Monday 2 and Tuesday 3 November are when the whole city leaves at once.

This post is only about getting here and getting out again. Where to sleep is a separate and harder problem, and if you have not solved it yet, solve it first in where to stay in Oaxaca for Day of the Dead 2026. Everything below was checked in October 2026. Bus fares move with the date you book, so treat the numbers as the shape of the price, not a quote, and check your own date on ado.com.mx, which sells ADO, ADO GL, Platino and OCC seats online.

The 2026 dates that decide your travel

Day of the Dead here is not one night. It runs about a week, and the two nights that fill the city are 31 October and 1 November.

If you only have a short window, aim to land on the 30th and leave on the 3rd. That buys you both cemetery nights and one recovery morning. The backpacker’s guide to Day of the Dead 2026 has the night-by-night version.

Check beds at Maka This week’s activities

From Mexico City by bus: the default answer

This is how most of the Maka dorm arrives. Mexico City to Oaxaca is a straight toll-road run of about six to seven hours, depending on how long it takes to clear the capital.

Which terminal, and how to reach it

Almost everything to Oaxaca goes from TAPO, the eastern terminal, which sits on Metro Line 1 at San Lázaro. From anywhere near the centre of Mexico City the metro is quicker than a car and costs a few pesos. Give yourself an hour more than you think: Line 1 at rush hour is a sport.

There is occasional service from Central del Norte and from Taxqueña in the south, and some seasons show a departure out of the airport terminals. None of that is reliable enough to plan around: check your date on the ADO site and assume TAPO otherwise.

Which class is worth paying for

Three or four tiers run the same road. Standard ADO and OCC are ordinary coaches with a toilet and air conditioning; ADO GL has fewer, wider seats; Platino has full recliners and a plug you can reach. For the overnight, GL is the sensible middle: you will sleep, and the gap to Platino buys several days of food here.

At the time of writing the published fares for the route sat somewhere between roughly 450 and 1,100 pesos one way, depending on class and on when you book. Three weeks out for the last days of October puts you at the top of that band rather than the bottom.

Overnight or daytime

Night departures from TAPO land you here between about five and seven in the morning: a free night of accommodation at an awkward hour. Send us your arrival time and we will sort out your bag and your check-in around it. The daytime bus is the nicer ride, because the last two hours through the mountains into the Valles Centrales are worth seeing once.

From Mexico City by air

The flight is about an hour, and Oaxaca airport (code OAX) is 20 to 30 minutes south of the centre. Over the Day of the Dead week the fare behaves like the hotel market rather than the bus market: it is priced for people who have already decided to come, so if you are reading this in mid-October, the bus is probably cheaper and definitely more predictable.

Getting from the airport into town, checked October 2026:

• Shared van (the airport colectivo), bought at the counter in arrivals: around 135 pesos per person to Zone 1, which covers the Centro Histórico and Jalatlaco. Zone 2, further out, around 210.
• Private taxi from the same counter: roughly 490 to 715 pesos for the car, so it only makes sense split between three or four people.
• DiDi and Uber: drivers are not supposed to pick up at the airport and requests regularly go unanswered. Do not land at midnight counting on one.

Flying into Mexico City and busing down the same day works, but allow four hours between landing and departure: you still have to cross the capital to TAPO.

If the Mexico City buses are full: go via Puebla

This is the workaround nobody tells you. Puebla to Oaxaca is its own route, roughly four and a half to six hours, with fares in the region of 280 to 450 pesos, and it runs several times a day. Mexico City to Puebla is a two-hour hop with departures every few minutes from TAPO and from other terminals.

So when the direct TAPO seats for 30 October look gone or absurd, price the two legs separately. You will often find space, and Puebla is a decent place to lose an afternoon. Check which Puebla terminal your ticket uses: CAPU is the main one, but some departures leave from Paseo Destino on the south side.

Coming up from the coast

If you are coming up from the beach half of the trip, this is now an easy day. The toll highway over the sierra turned Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca from a seven to eight hour mountain crawl into a run of about three to three and a half hours. ADO and OCC price it in the region of 285 to 400 pesos and run it many times a day.

Two things worth knowing. The old mountain road, Highway 175, is still how you get to San José del Pacífico, so if you want the cloud forest stop you want the vans, not the toll road. And for the Day of the Dead week, the northbound seats on 30 and 31 October go the same way as everything else: book them.

Coming from San Cristóbal and Chiapas

The overnight from San Cristóbal de las Casas is roughly ten to twelve hours with ADO and OCC, leaving in the evening and arriving here in the morning. It is a long, cold, winding night; bring a layer, because the air conditioning on that route is a running joke. Fares vary more than on any other route here, so check your own date rather than a number from a blog, this one included.

Arriving: which terminal you land at

Oaxaca has two bus terminals and they are nowhere near each other.

The first-class terminal (ADO, ADO GL, Platino, OCC) is on Calzada Niños Héroes de Chapultepec, on the northeast side, about 1.5 km from the Zócalo. With a pack on, that is a 20 to 25 minute walk into the Centro, and it is a pleasant one in daylight. At 5 a.m. take a street taxi; agree the fare before you get in, and it should be a small number, not a tourist number.

The second-class terminal sits beside the Central de Abastos market, southwest of the centre. Buses from the coast and from the villages often use it. It is ten long blocks from the Zócalo through the busiest market in the state: interesting at noon, not something to do with your luggage after dark. Take a taxi.

What actually sells out, and the order to book

In the order it disappears:

1. Somewhere to sleep for 31 October and 1 November. This goes first, by weeks. If it is not booked, book it before you read the rest of this list.
2. The return seat on 2 and 3 November. Everyone leaves on the same two days. Buy the outbound and the return in the same transaction.
3. Flights. Rarely sold out, just expensive.
4. The arriving bus on 30 and 31 October. Classes sell out one by one, so the fare climbs before the route is actually full. Earlier is cheaper, not just safer.
5. Organised cemetery tours. These do sell out, and you also do not need one. Our Xoxocotlán guide explains how to get there on your own for the price of a colectivo.

One more piece of timing: if you plan to come back out of the Centro late on the cemetery nights, read the transport section of the comparsas post before you commit to a village. Getting there is never the problem. Getting back at 2 a.m. is.

Doing it from Maka

We are in the Centro, a few blocks from Mercado 20 de Noviembre, the Zócalo and Santo Domingo, which means from the first-class terminal you can walk to us and from everywhere you want to be that week you can walk home. That matters more during Day of the Dead than at any other time of year, because the taxi queues after the comparsas are long and the walk is ten minutes.

Practically: 46 beds across six dorms including a female dorm, each with a locker, a plug and a reading light, plus private rooms. Breakfast is free and homemade. There is a rooftop pool, which after a night in a cemetery is a better idea than it sounds, and a bar with the cheapest beer we know of in this city. Reviews sit around 4.7 on Google.

We also run the trips you would otherwise be arranging alone: Hierve el Agua, Monte Albán, Tlacolula market on Sundays, lucha libre, the cooking class, the food tour. Current schedule and prices on activities and day trips, open to non-guests too. What we do not run is a bus to the Etla muerteada. What we do have is a common room full of people going to the same places on the same nights: ask around the terrace in the afternoon and you will not go to Xoxocotlán alone or pay for a taxi on your own.

If you are arriving on a night bus, message us on WhatsApp at +52 1 951 615 1180 with your arrival time so we know to expect you. Live availability and the direct price are on book; the code DIRECT10 takes 10 per cent off what the booking sites charge. If the dates you want are gone, tell us anyway, because people do change plans.

The rest of the week, the free things included, is on our Day of the Dead page and in free things to do on Day of the Dead.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the bus from Mexico City to Oaxaca?

About six to seven hours on the toll road, from the TAPO terminal in eastern Mexico City. Night departures arrive in Oaxaca between roughly 5 and 7 in the morning. Add time to cross Mexico City to TAPO, which is on Metro Line 1 at San Lázaro.

How far in advance should I book my bus to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead 2026?

As soon as your dates are fixed, and buy the return in the same transaction. Arriving buses on 30 and 31 October climb in price as the cheaper classes sell, and the return seats on 2 and 3 November are the tightest tickets of the week because everyone leaves at once.

Is it cheaper to fly or take the bus to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead?

In the holiday week the bus is almost always cheaper and more predictable. Flights from Mexico City take about an hour but are priced for people who have already decided to come. If you fly, budget for the airport transfer too: the shared van was around 135 pesos per person to the Centro in October 2026.

What do I do if the buses from Mexico City to Oaxaca are sold out?

Go via Puebla. Mexico City to Puebla is a two-hour hop with constant departures, and Puebla to Oaxaca is its own route of about four and a half to six hours for roughly 280 to 450 pesos. Price the two legs separately and you will usually find space.

Which bus terminal in Oaxaca will I arrive at?

ADO, ADO GL, Platino and OCC use the first-class terminal on Calzada Niños Héroes de Chapultepec, about 1.5 km northeast of the Zócalo and a 20 to 25 minute walk into the Centro. Buses from the coast and the villages often use the second-class terminal by the Central de Abastos market, southwest of the centre, where a taxi is the better idea.

How long does it take to get to Oaxaca from Puerto Escondido now?

About three to three and a half hours on the toll highway over the sierra, with ADO and OCC fares in the region of 285 to 400 pesos and several departures a day. The old mountain road, Highway 175, takes much longer but is the route for San José del Pacífico.