Three to four hours, the ruins and nowhere else, and back in the city before lunch. These give you more time on the plaza than the full-day trips do, because nothing else is competing for the clock.
The most-booked morning of the thirteen. Three hours on the plaza, a guide for all of it, and a meeting point facing the Cathedral. The ticket is paid at the gate.
From $32 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Ninety guided minutes plus forty of your own, which is the shape to take if you want to photograph the plaza unhurried. Drop-off at your hotel or Airbnb afterwards.
From $31 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Collected from a hotel lobby at half past eight and back at your own door, with two and a half guided hours and half an hour free. A bilingual guide throughout.
From $32 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The private version of the same morning: your own vehicle, tickets already bought, and three hours on site. Priced for a group of four rather than per person.
From $236 per group, up to 4
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Every one of these runs in the morning, which on an unshaded ridge is not a scheduling accident.
Check availabilityThree to four hours, door to door, going to the ruins and nowhere else. You are collected or you meet in the centre, driven twenty to thirty minutes up the Dr Ignacio Bernal road, given between ninety minutes and three hours on the plaza with a guide, and returned. Most are back in the city before one o'clock.
That is the whole product, and its simplicity is the point. Nothing about a half day is a compromise on the ruins — it is the full-day trips that shorten the time on site, because their afternoons belong to the craft villages of the valley.
The longest of these gives three hours at the site, which is more than any full-day option here. Three hours walks the whole 300-metre plaza, climbs both platforms and still leaves twenty minutes for the site museum.
There is no shade anywhere on the plaza and the valley below averages above 33 °C by day through March, April and May. Every one of these runs in the morning, which is not a scheduling accident.
Oaxaca is a city people come for in its own right, and a half day hands you back the part of it that is best spent in the centre. A full day does not.
Per person these sit at the bottom of the range, and the shorter day means less driving and no lunch stop to pay for. The full cost comparison is in what a tour really costs.
| Half day | Full day | |
|---|---|---|
| Total length | 3–4 hours | 7–9 hours |
| Time on the plaza | 90 minutes to 3 hours | 1 to 2½ hours |
| Other stops | None | Two to four craft villages |
| Lunch | Not part of the day | A stop, paid by you |
| Back in the city | Before lunch | Late afternoon |
| From | From $31 per person | From $28 per person |
Compare the half days above See all Monte Alban Tours
You get transport both ways, a guide on the plaza and, on most of these, air conditioning and on-board insurance. Two collect you from your accommodation and the others meet at a named address in the historic centre, which the card for each states.
What you mostly do not get is the site ticket. Only the private half day covers it; the rest ask for MX$210 in cash at the gate, and there is no bank on the road up. Nor do you get food, which is not an omission on a trip that ends before lunch.
Take the earliest departure offered. The gate opens at eight, the plaza is emptiest in the first hour and the light is the only light all day that makes the carvings read. The seasonal case is in the best time to visit.
Draw pesos the evening before if your fare excludes the ticket, take a hat and take more water than eight kilometres suggests. Wear shoes with a grip: the stairways are steep, uneven and have no handrail.
If you want the craft villages — the black clay, the alebrijes, the weaving — a half day does not include them and never will. Take a full day instead, and accept less time on the plaza in exchange.
If you are travelling as a family of four, price a private morning per head before you book four shared seats; the per-group fares change the answer. And if you have read up already and would rather move at your own pace, the independent route is in guided tour or going alone. Every option is compared on Monte Alban tickets.
Three to four hours, the ruins and nothing else, and back in the centre with the afternoon still ahead of you.
Check availability