Real life market in Oaxaca - It was a pleasure to tour with Jael. He led us to a market where we would never go as tourists. We could see how the population of Oaxaca does their shopping, eat, and what they eat. We made our own tortilla. We made our own taco. Besides the other dishes we could taste.

For the more adventurous - Great tour for those who want to see the non touristy part of Oaxaca. This is market is massive and nearly impossible to manage without a guide. It’s very unlike anything I’ve seen, even the two more well known markets in the city.

Great market tour experience!! - It was a fantastic tour through the market. Our guide made it all make sense and hold us the stories behind the different stalls and what they sold. We even shopped around the stalls to put together ingredients to cook on a grill there and made our own tacos. That was certainly a highlight!

Great food tour - Brian (I hope I have remembered the name correctly) took us to the huge Abastos market which is very much for locals rather than the more central markets that do cater to tourists. It is a huge labyrinth and he took us round various stalls collecting and explaining various ingredients which we then made into tacos. We also tried quesadillas, pulque, tamales, chocolate and grasshoppers! He was full of knowledge but also funny and lighthearted. I was also lucky that it was a very nice group of seven so it was a very enjoyable experience. The market is an extraordinary place and the food was delicious and no dodgy tummy afterwards!

This tour was amazing. It... - This tour was amazing. It was really educational and immersive. I felt like I got to truly experience and understand the market in a way I couldn’t have by going on my own. It was really just a plus that the food was also delicious! Brian was an amazing tour guide and we were lucky to have just us on the tour, so he answered tons of questions and taught us about the various options at the booths and helped us with purchasing a few things to share with friends and family when we get home. Our Spanish is super limited and Brian was great at giving us English comparisons for some of the traditional ingredients along with doing the whole tour in English (and putting up with me trying to come up with the Spanish words for things haha). I could not recommend this tour more, it was better than I expected!

Wonderful with some improvements - It was a good tour of an unusually local market. We enjoyed seeing so many different stalls and delicious fresh food. However, It was a lot of walking so food quantity could be increased a bit since we burned off a lot of energy. More drinks too please, as it was hot.

Not enough food for the price - Our guide was very friendly and informative, and talked us through a lot of the food and the market itself. Despite this, I don't think the tour was worth the money. In total, we only ate one taco, one quesadilla, some fruit, a few crickets, a bit of bread, and a small drink at the end. We were by no means full by the end. Also, we visited the markets on New Years Day, and sadly this meant most stalls were closed. I had my suspicions this may be the case but since they offered the tour on the day, I figured I must be wrong. Turns out I wasn't, I would recommend the tour either warns us or simply doesn't offer dates where the market is not going to be busy. Final note, we meet at a location that is a 15 minute walk from the market itself. This seemed like an unnecessary trek out of the centre just to then walk back in. Could we not meet outside the first market?

Wouldn’t recommend - Went on the food tour today. Was great to see the market with a guide. The tour started with buying tortillas and all the ingredients where we cooked them and used no cutlery to rip up the veg and meat and all make our own. I probably would not recommend to do. The tour guide was very unenthusiastic too. Not worth 50€

Good way to experience the local Oaxaca cuisines. Be prepared and bring water. - Brian was a great tour guide. Very knowledgeable, considerate and spoke English fluently. We did not expect that the entire tour would take place in the market. Appreciate this was a tour of traditional Oaxaca cuisine but we did not feel like the food was safe to consume - we ate meat that was not refrigerated and lettuce that was probably washed by tap water (another food tour guide in Mexico City warned us not to eat lettuce from street food vendors). Unfortunately we got sick. No water included and we were standing for most of the time. I wouldn’t recommend this for the faint hearted. Overall it was good to see how locals eat food here but more information should be provided ahead of time so people can prepare accordingly.

Tour Description and Reality do NOT Match Up, but it gets WORSE.... - We are not inexperienced travellers, we live in Mexico 6 months of the year and have our permanent residency. We eat local street food and shop at local markets. We are well aware that things don't always go as planned when traveling, so we will chalk this tour up as an experience and nobody got sick. We have a good story to tell, but we would NEVER recommend this tour to our friends or family. Well maybe some family? The most memorable part of the tour was when it was over. 1) Tour guide Brian was 10 minutes late and our max 10 group is actually 12 people. Good start! 2) We had to walk in single file for over 20 minutes through the streets on the very narrow sidewalks to get to the start of our tour and the only person that could hear anything that Brian said was the one young lady next to him. 3) We walk past the more modern Oaxaca Market on the way. Brian calls it the "Gringo" market. 4) When we get to the Central de Abastos Market for the tour, the smells are less than desirable. And yes, the whole tour takes place in this market. It is massive, so don't fall behind and get lost. 5) Brian gives out a squirt of hand sanitizer to everyone and we proceed in single file again to start gathering ingredients for tacos. Tortillas, salsa, cheese, onions, peppers and then proceed to a meat vendor to buy the meat and put it all on the grill. By the way, no refrigeration or cover for the meat. 6) Brian is about to proceed with handing out the taco ingredients to build your own taco when a local vendor offers us all a place to sit. Thank you! Hopefully Brian tipped him. 7) We all proceed to tear pieces of meat, onion, cheese and peppers off to build our own taco. By this time everyone is hungry, but a few in the group skip on the taco. 8) We proceeded to try a fried quesadilla with cheese and later flautas with red mole (both delicious) 9) Besides that, we tasted foods by pinching off pieces with our fingers: a garlic & chilli mole paste, a sweet corn tamale and a Oaxacan chocolate powder. For drinks we tried pulque, tepache, and tejate. (which we were asked to share with another person even if not a couple) 10) The WORST PART is when sitting on long benches eating our flautas one of the ladies in our group had a neckless ripped off of her neck, leaving her scratched, bleeding and very rattled. To be honest our guide did not seem to surprised. Later, people from our group that spoke spanish saw signs warning of thefts in the market. Neither the tour company or our guild Brian ever warned about the ongoing thefts in the market. Please be aware!