Starting in Oaxaca de Juárez
Fly into Oaxaca International (OAX), a small airport about 20 minutes by taxi from the centre; most itineraries connect through Mexico City, where the Benito Juárez terminals handle the bulk of domestic connections and fares are usually cheapest booked as one ticket. Base yourselves in the UNESCO-listed centro histórico, ideally within a few blocks of the Zócalo and the Templo de Santo Domingo. The Andador Turístico between them is flat and walkable at night, which matters after a long travel day.
Give the city three nights minimum. Mornings are for the Macedonio Alcalá walk, the Santo Domingo church and the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca; afternoons for the Benito Juárez and 20 de Noviembre markets, where tlayudas and quesillo are cheap and filling. Skip the guided mezcal bar crawls on your first night — you will be tired, and the good palenques are better visited in the valleys anyway. Book a room with a courtyard, not a street-facing one; traffic on Reforma starts early.
Valleys, ruins and village markets
Monte Albán sits about 9 km west of the city, roughly 25 minutes by road; go at opening to beat both heat and tour buses, and bring cash for the site and the small on-site café. The village circuit east of the city — Tule for its enormous ahuehuete tree, then Teotitlán del Valle for wool rugs, then Tlacolula for Sunday's market — is a comfortable single day by hired car with driver, typically arranged through your hotel. Sunday is non-negotiable if you want Tlacolula at full volume.
For something quieter, head south to San Bartolo Coyotepec for black pottery and Ocotlán for Friday's smaller market, then stop at a roadside palenque near Santiago Matatlán for a tasting — espadín and tobalá, served with orange and sal de gusano. Skip the packaged 'seven villages' tours; they compress too much. I would book two nights in the city per valley day rather than moving hotels, and use a local driver rather than self-driving, since the road to Hierve el Agua is rough in the final stretch.
A quiet base on the Oaxaca coast
The Pacific coast is a six- to seven-hour drive from Oaxaca city via the 175 through San José del Pacífico, or a 35-minute flight to Bahías de Huatulco or Puerto Escondido. For a honeymoon pace, choose the smaller bays rather than the town centres: Playa Maguey and Playa Estacahuite near Puerto Ángel, or the Carrizalillo and Bacocho area of Puerto Escondido, where sunsets are unobstructed and swimming is calmer. December to March is dry and breezy; September and October are the wettest.
Expect simple cabañas and small boutique hotels rather than large resorts, and bring cash — ATMs thin out south of Puerto Escondido. A week split as four nights city-and-valleys and three nights coast works well; two weeks lets you add Mazunte and the turtle beaches around San Agustinillo. Skip Huatulco's all-inclusive complexes if you want quiet — they cluster at Tangolunda — and instead take a room above the bay at Carrizalillo, where a short stair descent gets you to the sand before the day-trippers arrive.
Practical planning and booking
Book accommodation early for the Guelaguetza period in late July, when city rooms fill and rates climb; otherwise reserve two to three weeks ahead for the city and a month ahead for the coast in high season. Internal flights from Mexico City to Oaxaca and on to the coast are frequent but luggage allowances are tight, so pack accordingly. A reputable driver for the valley days costs a set day rate arranged by your hotel — ask before arrival rather than on the morning.
For the honeymoon itself, I would book a courtyard room in the centro for the first four nights, then a bay-view room at Carrizalillo or Estacahuite for the last three. Use the hotel's own transfer contacts; they know which drivers handle early flights. Keep one full day unplanned — Oaxaca rewards slowness, and the best afternoons tend to be the ones spent over a long lunch rather than on a schedule.