A Women’s Cultural Adventure in Oaxaca

NextTribe has a love affair with Mexico. Jeannie Ralston called it home for four transformative years of her life. It’s so close that it’s often taken for granted by North Americans who haven’t explored much beyond its famous beaches and tourist hot spots. But Mexico has an incredibly rich tapestry of culture, from a huge variety of  soul-stirring cuisine to astonishing classical and modern art, architecture, and deep history.

Please note: NextTribe members receive $100 discount on this trip. Click here to become a member. 

The crown jewel of Mexico (other than San Miguel de Allende, of course) is Oaxaca, nestled in the country’s mountainous South. Here, ancient Zapotecs and Mixtecs built great cities and temples, while Spanish colonizers later created one of Mexico’s most enchanting and vibrant colonial towns—a UNESCO World Heritage site, Oaxaca City.

We have easy, interest-free payment options. 

This 8-day journey combines the comfort of boutique accommodations with authentic cultural experiences, mountain cabin stays, and meaningful connections with local communities. From the bustling markets of Oaxaca City to the cloud forests of Sierra Norte, this is a trip to photograph, to journal,  to remember.

Please note that this is a sample itinerary. Accommodations and activities may change but we will always replace them with something of equal or better value.

For this trip, we require all of our travelers to purchase travel insurance.

Travel insurance can be a helpful and valuable resource to pack! It can protect the investment of your trip and you while traveling.

We partner with Wanderwell, a Certified B Corporation travel insurance provider that makes it as simple as possible by not overwhelming you with options. They offer just a few modern, benefit-packed trip protection plans that can cover the most common travel perils related to trip cancellation, trip interruption, trip delay, travel Medical Expenses, baggage & personal effects, Emergency Medical Evacuation, and more.

Click here to create quotes and purchase a plan through Wanderwell from our partner page. To set up a phone call, email support@gowanderwell.com 

The deposit for this trip is non-refundable. After May 16th, 2026 Next Tribe will be unable to refund your payments for this trip. We strongly urge you to consider this when purchasing your travel insurance.

YOUR DEPOSIT:
Your initial deposit in non-refundable and reserves your spot on a trip. Deposits are transferrable to other Next Tribe trips, if booked within one year of cancellation.

YOUR BALANCE:
Full payment for your trip is due 3 months prior to the start of the trip. (May 16, 2026).  At 3 months prior to your trip, there are no refunds for any reason. If you must cancel within this 3 month period, you will need to contact your travel insurance company for reimbursement.

CHANGES TO TRAVEL:
We will make every effort to operate all trips as advertised, however all itineraries are subject to change. We reserve the right to alter or make reasonable substitutions as deemed necessary.

1. History in Every Stone Wander through centuries-old colonial buildings where every detail tells a story—hand-carved wooden doors in jewel tones, intricate ironwork that casts deep afternoon shadows, and delicate murals that have endured for centuries..

2. Indigenous Culture That Lives and Breathes Oaxaca’s 16 indigenous groups and their way of life isn’t presented as a museum diorama, frozen in time. These native people live in vibrant communities and their traditions infuse everything from  hand-turned pottery to complex moles simmering in local kitchens, from mezcal aging in clay vessels to textiles woven on looms passed down through generations.

3. Artisan Markets That Awaken Your Senses Every market stall and gallery bursts with color and creativity—hand-painted pottery, intricately carved wooden animals, textiles in patterns that tell ancestral stories, and artisanal treasures like stone-ground chocolate and small-batch mezcal that you can only find in Oaxaca. It’s not against the law, but you won’t find much beige, or boredom in this part of the world!

4. A Culinary Adventure Like No Other Thanks to incredibly fresh ingredients, ancient indigenous techniques, and recipes guarded by generations of grandmothers, Oaxacan cuisine is complex, surprising, and deeply satisfying. From seven different types of mole to grasshopper tacos, every meal is a revelation.

5. The Remarkable Women We’ll Meet On this trip we’ll get to know women who are the backbone of their communities—master weavers preserving 500-year-old techniques, mezcal distillers breaking gender barriers, healers maintaining ancient medicine traditions, and artists and artisans creating beauty from humble materials. Plus, you’ll share this adventure with like-minded women travelers, some could become lifelong friends.

Jeannie has been advising and building startup companies since 2011. A former CNN reporter and CBS News producer, Jeannie has lived and worked in Europe, Asia and Latin America. After her first experience as a solo traveler at age 6 (her parents put her on a plane to visit her grandparents) she has always felt most comfortable on an airplane with her passport in hand. She’s the author of “Start Me Up: Tips, Tales and Truths about Starting Up and Starting Over.”