A thriving modern art, cafe, and modern-Mexican food scene, and perhaps Mexico’s cleanest and best-preserved historical center… this place is almost aggressively charming. It seems as if every corner you turn reveals a vista that should have been on a postcard… and curiously enough, most postcards for sale in the city are rather less impressive!

I particularly liked eating ice cream in the Jardin Socrates next to the basilica, and hanging out drinking Mescal in the Zocalo. Crowded with tourists? Sure, but at least as crowded with locals, which is a sign of a great public space. It was particularly nice when the Oaxacan State Marimba Orchestra fired up and a bunch of local old people ballroom danced into the night.