It’s always cheaper to fly round trip into Mexico City and then figure out how to get to Oaxaca from there, albeit the bus ride is six hours long and rather boring unless you have your computer or are into a good book. And, it’s much cheaper to book three months in advance and go during off-season, which would be between January and March. Of course, if you live in the cold northern hemisphere, this is exactly the time you want to be in Oaxaca.
Erica, Jim and I just booked our tickets on Continental Airlines for the documentary film making workshop we are teaching in Teotitlan del Valle from Feb. 19-26, 2010. We could not find a round-trip ticket to Oaxaca for less than $900 each (including taxes and fees) anywhere on the Internet. I told Erica and Jim that I was finding $340 RT fares to Mexico City (our flights originate from RDU). The trick was how to get to Oaxaca without spending hours on the bus. Erica had a brilliant idea. She checked out in-country flights on Mexicana from MEX to OAX and discovered that we could make easy connecting flights for $200USD round trip, including taxes and fees. We did all this online.
That brought our fare in under $600 each, which saved us over $300 on each ticket. A deal in anybody’s book!
Note: Beware of the prices quoted on many internet sites. Often, the low fare that is published is for one-way only (I found a lot of those). When I went to book is when I discovered the price doubled, and on top of that the taxes and fees were added on. Hotwire.com is one of the few sites that do not add on taxes and fees; what is published is the total REAL price, and I appreciated that. Another reliable site is Travelocity.com. Some people tout cheapoair.com but I find that their fees are higher than other sites.
