How to Get to the Xoxo Cemetery for Day of the Dead Oaxaca

Hire a Taxi by the Hour

For Día de Muertos night, hire a taxi by the hour. Plan on about 400 pesos per hour. That price is for the whole car. You do not pay per person. The driver picks you up at your hotel or Airbnb, takes you to the Xoxo cemeteries, waits while you visit, and can stop at a comparsa on the same trip. When you are done, the same driver takes you home.

• How long to book: two or three hours is the useful minimum. The ride there, the visit, and the ride home take up a lot of time.
• What you get: pickup at your door, waiting at each stop, driving between cemeteries or a comparsa, and the ride back.
• What you buy yourself: meals, mezcal, and flowers for the graves.

A realistic night on October 31 is pickup at 6:00 or 7:00 p.m., 90 minutes to two hours at Xoxo, and maybe one city comparsa on the way home. Three to four hours total is common. That comes to about 1,200 to 1,600 pesos for the whole car. Split among four people, it is still cheaper than most tour vans, and you leave when you want to leave.

How to hire it: ask your hotel or host for a sitio or radio taxi number in the afternoon, not at 6:45 p.m. on October 31. Say you want an hourly rate, the Xoxo cemeteries, waiting time, and a return to this address. Confirm 400 pesos an hour before the car moves. If a driver asks for 500 or 600, that is a holiday increase. Decide then. Write your address and a phone number on paper. “Centro” is not enough at midnight. Agree when you will pay: all at the end, or the first hour now and the rest when you return.

Keep the driver on WhatsApp. When you are ready to leave, message him or walk back to the same corner where the car is parked. Do not make him guess which gate you will use.

Where You Are Going

“Xoxo” means Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, a few kilometers south of Oaxaca’s Centro. It sits near the airport road, but it is not the airport. There are two cemeteries a short walk apart:

• Panteón Viejo: the old cemetery. Smaller, with an old chapel. Very crowded on October 31.
• Panteón Nuevo (San Isidro or Del Panteón): the newer cemetery. Larger, with more families. This is the one most people mean by “the Xoxo cemetery.”

Tell the driver “panteones de Xoxo” or “panteón de Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán.” If you want both, say so. Walking from one gate to the other does not add a new fare. You are paying for time, not for each stop.

Adding a Comparsa

After Xoxo, many people add one neighborhood comparsa in the city. Others watch a street parade first and go to Xoxo second. Drivers usually know Jalatlaco, the Centro routes, and the south road.

Do not try to see San Agustín Etla, Xoxo, and three city comparsas in two hours. That takes up too much time. Etla is its own night. A clear plan is Xoxo plus one stop in the city. If Etla is what you want, hire the same kind of hourly taxi for that trip.

TaxSí: Cheaper, Less Reliable Than a Waiting Taxi

TaxSí is Oaxaca’s official taxi app, launched in 2026 by the Secretaría de Movilidad. It is not Uber or DiDi. Those apps do not run the local taxi system here. TaxSí sends a licensed yellow taxi to your pin, shows a price before you confirm, and uses a digital taximeter. Download it free on the App Store or Google Play as TaxSí. The site is taxsi.mx.

Use it as a cheaper alternative to paying a driver to wait. You book one ride to Xoxo and a second ride home. Each trip should land near the old street price of about 100 to 120 pesos for the whole car from the Centro, sometimes a little more if traffic is slow. Two separate TaxSí rides can cost a few hundred pesos. That is still less than three or four hours at 400 pesos an hour.

It is less desirable for this night. The car does not wait at the gate. You need phone signal at the cemetery. On October 31 many other people will open the same app at the same time. A car may take a long time to arrive, or none may accept the trip from a crowded side street. Walk out to the main road before you request the return ride. Have a sitio taxi number saved in case the app fails.

Open the app, turn on location, set the cemetery as the destination, read the fare, and book. Pay in the app or in cash, depending on what the trip screen offers. This works best for a short visit in the early evening, not for a long late vigil.

One-Way Taxi

If you flag a taxi on the street instead of using TaxSí, a ride from the Zócalo, Santo Domingo, or Jalatlaco to the Xoxo gates is about 100 to 120 pesos for the whole car when traffic is normal. On October 31 after dark, 130 to 150 pesos is reasonable if the road is packed.

This works for a short visit if you then walk out to the main street or the town plaza for another taxi home. Taxis wait there more than they wait inside the cemetery. 100 to 120 pesos is fair for the ride back too. After midnight some drivers ask for more. Say the price before you get in.

Bus and Colectivo

City buses heading south toward Xoxo, Santa Cruz, Aeropuerto, or Zimatlán leave from the Abastos / Periférico area and from streets such as Boulevard Eduardo Mata. Choferes del Sur and Tucdosa run that route. A city bus costs about 8 or 10 pesos per person, depending on whether you take the government’s BinniBus, which is the cheaper price. Colectivos on the same south road cost about 15 to 30 pesos per person.

These are fine for going out in daylight or just before sunset. Do not count on them after a long cemetery visit. The last useful buses stop running. The drop is often the main highway, not the cemetery gate.

Tour Vans and Driving Yourself

Hotel night tours usually cost more per person than sharing an hourly taxi. The van leaves when the van is ready, not when you are ready. A rental car on this night is hard to park. Streets near the cemeteries fill up or close. Leave the car in the Centro.

Timing

• October 31: the main night at Xoxo. Pickup at 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. for dusk, or 7:00 p.m. for full dark.
• November 1: still active, often less crowded.
• Time at the graves: 90 minutes is a quick visit. Two hours is a proper visit.

Tips

• Book the hourly taxi in the afternoon.
• Download TaxSí before you leave the hotel, and test it on a short daytime ride if you plan to use it at night.
• Four people in one hourly car is easier than four people opening the app at midnight.
• Carry 50-peso and 100-peso bills. A 500-peso note at 1:00 a.m. slows everything down.
• Save a map pin for both cemeteries and for your hotel door.
• Eat before you go, or buy food at the stalls outside the wall.
• One person in the group should hold the cash and the driver’s phone number.

Dos and Don’ts

Do

• Hire by the hour if you will stay more than about 20 minutes.
• Agree on the hourly price, the stops, and the return address before you leave.
• Get out at the cemeteries, not at the airport. The airport uses the same Xoxocotlán name.
• Ask before you photograph people’s faces. Keep the flash off.
• Let a waiting driver stay on the street, not in a path between graves.
• If you use TaxSí, walk to the main road before you request the ride home.

Don’t

• Don’t pay the hourly rate for a one-way ride with no waiting.
• Don’t stay extra hours without telling the driver, then argue about the price at the end.
• Don’t treat TaxSí like a driver who will wait beside the graves all night.
• Don’t count on a late bus as your only way home.
• Don’t leave one person inside the cemetery while everyone else looks for the car.

For a simple safety overview of the city and the south side, see the Oaxaca tourist safety map.