I think I have been told that Oaxaca is THE place to buy silver jewellery in Mexico. Am I right?<BR>It is our Silver Wedding Anniversary next month and on the basis that my husband will probably ask me about a week before what I want I thought I might surprise him by taking him right to the shops!<BR>There is a super fare available at present but it would be a long weekend only with flights in and out of Mexico City.<BR>I've only started looking at this tonight and am quite taken by what is written on here about the city.<BR>Does anyone have any advice(apart from pointing out that we'll be tired- I know that!<BR>With thanks

Frances, I have good news and bad news for you. First, the bad news. It's not Oaxaca, it's Taxco. <BR><BR>Second, the good news. Taxco is a lot closer to Mexico City and very do-able for a long weekend. You can fly into Mexico City and get a bus to Taxco, a few hours away. (You would have to take another flight to get to Oaxaca.)<BR><BR>Taxco is a very charming town perched on the side of a mountain. You will not want your own car there. You can walk everywhere, especially to the 300-plus silver shops. <BR><BR>My suggestion is, depending on what you want to buy, check out the markets as well as the shops, especially the market where the silver jewelry is sold strictly by weight -- many of the shops buy &quot;blanks&quot; there to work, but I liked the simple unadorned blanks sometimes better than the more elaborate pieces.<BR><BR>You will have a ball!

Actually, Oaxaca has excellent prices on silver too.

I would highly recommend Oaxaca, but not for silver. As above- Taxco is the place. In Oaxaca if you look hard, professional buyers are getting more and more of the good stuff, you can find great deals on hand woven carpets, woodcarvings and a variety of handicrafts. There is a little silver, but nothing like Taxco. Given the choice I would prefer to go to Oaxaca anyway.

Oaxaca is actually my favorite place in all of Mexico, but if you want an endless array of silver, Taxco is the place to go. It is my understanding that most of the silver jewelry these days is actually made in Mexico City, however, Taxco is still the place to buy it because of its history and the huge number of silver shops.

Another thing- is your flight all the way to Oaxaca, changing planes in mexico City? If so that would be faster than trying to bus to Taxco- 4 hours at best. If it is just for a couple of days why not stay at the Camino Real in Oaxaca and just enjoy the city and all the shopping in the area you would be in. You could do all the shops in the tourist corridor, go to the market eat in some of the good places like El Asador Vasco, see the museums and have a great time. I like Taco too- I just think this would be easier. A 45 minute additional flight as opposed to messing around getting to Tasquena bus terminal and on to Taxco.

Just come in from work and I'm delighted to see all your responses.Many thanks for pointing me in the direction of Taxco.<BR>Perhaps I can ask for a bit more advice.Our time is likely to be limited- I envisage we'd arrive in Mexico City at 8p.m. on Thursday after 15 hours in the air.We'd probably leave at about 2p.m. on Sunday (for another 15 hours!)<BR>Reading what you've said about the merits of Oaxaca V. Taxco is there enough time to go to either-although I must admit it is the silver which is the draw?<BR>Also, do the silver markets only open certain hours or would we be able to shop on Saturday ?<BR>Thanks again-from a cold dark Wales!

You can shop in either city on Saturday, no problem. But with such limited time, maybe you just want to stay in Mexico City? You could certainly buy silver there, and there is more to see and do than you can manage in 2-1/2 days. I just hate to see you spend so much time in transit for so little time on the ground!

I've wanted to go to Mexico City for some time but ironically many of the exhibits from the museum which I wanted to see are currently on display in London and I made a visit down there a fortnight ago to see them.I take your point about time being limited and I wouldn't think about doing this normally or indeed if our children were with us . Having thought about it though it sounds as if it could be very memorable.I might not get a present otherwise!<BR>Thanks again, I'm still considering.

Frances, even without the Archeological Museum there is fantastic stuff to see in Mexico City. Diego Rivera murals at the Ministry of Education, Frieda Kahlo's house in the charming suburb of Coyoacan, the Templo Mayor and museum attached to it etc etc etc. Not to mention the markets and that gleaming silver that is beckoning to you.<BR><BR>By the way, one of my favorite pair of earrings is sterling, hand-crafted (the 2 are not exactly identical), and cost me under $2 in the Taxco market.

Well thanks to you all I am now holding an option on flights to Mexico City until 6p.m. tomorrow!I think this is probably the most impetuous thing I have done since I was a student(and that was a long time ago!)<BR>Part of the reason I say that is because I'm not telling my husband where we are going!<BR>A couple of things have now arisen and I'd be so grateful if someone could help me out -again.I'm also going to post some of this under a separate heading as I know that if I look at a post once or twice and there is nothing to interest me then I don't go back again even if it hangs around for ages.<BR>Where to stay in Mexico City ,Taxco and possibly Cuernavaca?.As things are turning out I lost my 1st 2 choices of flight and we now arrive in Mexico City at about 7p.m on the 27th March. We fly out at 8P.M. on the 30th.I saw on this board that Las Mananitas in Cuernavaca was recommended by many and so thought we could spend Friday morning in Mexico City then head to Cuernavaca on Friday night for dinner and overnight. It happens to be our anniversary on the Friday and that looked ideal. Unfortunately the site I've been on tells me the hotel is full!Oh well.<BR>I'd like hotels with local colour and character but good food is a must-although not necessarily in the hotel.<BR>In respect of transport,could we just turn up in the bus station in Mexico City and get a bus soon without booking?Does the bus to Taxco go through Cuernavaca?If I need to book buses in advance can I do it from home on the net?<BR>So many thanks to you all. It's really excitng and I wouldn't have been able to think of this without your help.

O.K. we're all booked up!Apart from some child care hitches which are now arising I'm looking forward to this hugely. <BR>My hubbie is baffled by what I've told him. Most particularly because when he asked me if it was nice I hesitated before saying that it was.When he asked why I hesitated , I told him that I hadn't chosen it because it was nice but I found out afterwards that it was.He is now wondering why I've chosen a destination if it's not because it's nice!<BR>I'm having some useful ideas for hotels on the other thread I posted but I'd be really glad to know about booking for the buses as mentioned above .Many thanks again

Whew, Frances, I can't believe you're doing this, but I hope you have a wonderful time! Be sure to pull this thread back up afterwards and tell us how the trip went. And I wanna know exactly what silver you bought!

Re: buses. You want to take a sitio taxi from your hotel in Mexico city to Tasquena, the southern bus terminal. Sometimes you have to book premier class in advance, but you can definateley get on a first class bus which will be fine. I think the main first class line to Cuernavaca is ADO which is nice. You will probably need to change buses in Cuernavaca for Taxco. Anyway the Mexican bus system is amazingly effiecent. You can get where you want when you want. One caution if leaving Taxco on a late bus buy your return ticket in advance to guarentee a seat.

We're off tomorrow !I'm very very excited! I'll be back with my details on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday!

This is not quite the message which I'd thought I'd be posting.We never got to Mexico. We arrived at the airport last Thursday morning to find that our outward flight to Amsterdam was delayed by fog and we were going to miss our connection on to Mexico.K.L.M. said they'd put us on the next day's flight but we pointed out that we were only going for 4 days and it really wasn't going to be practical to cut a day off that.<BR>We spent the next half hour going from one airline to another (spread over 3 terminals) trying anyway to get to Mexico.The only thing on offer was a business class flight which was a bit beyond our budget.<BR>At the end of the day we rebooked in the airport travel agent and went off to Budapest instead.It wasn't quite our anniversary dinner by the pool in Posada de la Mision in Tasco which I'd imagined- not least because we'd only packed summer clothes and so I was wearing the trousers and sweatshirt I'd travelled in together with a pair of trainers I'd hurriedly bought in the airport!My silk dress remained in the case.We didn't give each other presents because I'd told my husband he could buy me a present when we got there and I was going to do the same.<BR>I din't mention that my husband actually guessed where we were going about 3 weeks before we left.<BR>Anyway on to the silver lining.<BR>We decided to try and raise money for an orphange in India where my daughter spent time during her gap year last year.We did this by asking people we work with to try and guess where we were going and to make a contribution for a guess.It was great fun and we raised �190 for the orphanage.No one guessed the destination and the interest was only surpassed when I saw all these people on Tuesday and they wanted to know where we'd been!So many said they had thought it might have been Mexico! and so it might.......<BR>Thank you all again for your help.

Sorry things did not work out as planned. The up side is- maybe you can take a longer trip to Mexico in the future and do both Taxco and Oaxaca.

Oh Frances, I can't believe it!! I was really looking forward to hearing about your Mexican adventure. I hope you enjoyed Budapest -- I haven't been there for many years but liked it a lot.<BR><BR>Dude is absolutely right. Now you must plan a longer trip to Mexico. You have been given the message quite clearly that 4 days is simply not enough time.<BR><BR>Kudos to you for thinking of others and raising money for a good cause. I'm sure you and your husband had a great anniversary just being together.

wow - it was a silver anniversary - and you managed to find a silver lining!<BR>