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Biking in Oaxaca, Mexico: Is Oaxaca Bike Friendly?
Today we’re going to be talking about biking in Oaxaca, Mexico. Are you guys ready for an adventure? Let’s begin.
The main idea of why we decided to go biking in Oaxaca in the first place was to go and check out El Tule, the widest tree in the world, which is about 10 km outside of Oaxaca Central. It’s a little town. I have an entire podcast about El Tule and the little village, go and check it out.
Is Oaxaca Bike Friendly?
What was super interesting and almost a surprise was how bike-friendly Oaxaca is. There are bike lanes everywhere. I recommend getting bikes just to bike around Oaxaca.
There are bike lanes going outside of Oaxaca. So you could enjoy a little bit of the outskirts of Oaxaca, super safe, like actual bike lanes. Then in the city, a lot of cities have quote-unquote bike lanes, but in Oaxaca, they are actually separated. Like a car can never actually go into the bike lane. Like a lot of other cities, the bike lanes, it’s really easy for a car to merge into it, but not in Oaxaca, not at all.
The bike lanes are all over the city, throughout the entire center, and all around going through the outskirts and there are bike stands everywhere.
Related Read: Food in Oaxaca: Markets, Food Stands and Traditional Cuisine
Bike Shops in Oaxaca
We ended up finding a bike shop, there are very few bike shops where you could rent bikes. We did not want to do a tour, although you can do a bike tour. So we ended up renting bikes. The bike shops are directly in the heart of Oaxaca center.
Some places we’ve been to where we always pretty much rent a bike, they don’t care about you, they will just run you over. I don’t know what their problem is, but in this case, Oaxaca is not like that.
Equipment
When you rent a bike, they give you a lock. They give you a lock, they give you helmets, they give you the full equipment. If you need a pump, they give you a tube just in case you have a flat tire. So they actually really set you up as well. But the fact that you do get a lock, you are able to take it pretty much anywhere and then leave it as you go to have lunch or if you want to go and check out some stores or whatnot.
Cautions
But I have to admit, getting around on a bike in Oaxaca is definitely going to be a couple of streets right in the very heart of the city, simply that don’t have those lanes. The buses can get a little bit frightening, but you just get off, it’s maybe like one or two blocks. The rest of the streets all have these marked-off bike lanes. So it’s easy, it’s fun. And interestingly enough, it’s really well respected. Bikes are actually a respected culture.
Conclusion
It’s a great thing to do to try out, especially if your kids are a little bit older. Where we went and we went to one of the most expensive bike rentals in Oaxaca, where the bikes were relatively new, they did not have any kid’s seats. So it’s probably better if your kid is like nine and older.
One of our friend’s daughters was nine and they had a bike her size she had absolutely no problem riding around in Oaxaca and going all the way to El Tule and back because it’s all flat.
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