Can non-guests use the rooftop pool at Otro Oaxaca?

Yes. Otro Oaxaca sells a rooftop day pass, quoted at 1,000 MXN, about 55 USD, for the 12:00 to 17:00 window when I filmed in August 2026. Numbers and availability change, so confirm with the hotel before you turn up, and note the roof has almost no shade.

Is the cenote at Otro Oaxaca a real cenote?

No. The underground pool at Otro Oaxaca is a built circular plunge pool under a brick dome, lit by a single opening in the roof, designed to feel like the cenotes of Yucatán. Oaxaca has no natural cenotes. It sits in the hotel spa and is heated, and it is about 20 feet across.

Does Otro Oaxaca have a Michelin star or a Michelin Key?

Otro Oaxaca appears in the Michelin Guide hotel selection, which is the guide's curated list of stays. That is a listing, not a Key and not a restaurant star. The Oaxaca hotel with a Michelin Key in Grupo Habita's portfolio is Terrestre, on the coast.

Can I eat at the Otro Oaxaca restaurant without staying there?

Yes, the patio restaurant takes outside diners and is the easiest way to see the property without paying for a room. Breakfast starts at 7:15 daily and dinner is served in the evening. Book ahead in high season, because the patio is small.

What is the food like at Otro Oaxaca?

The kitchen is led by Saúl Carranza and runs a short, seasonal menu that is more contemporary than traditional Oaxacan. Breakfast highlights include carbonara eggs with truffle, jamón serrano and creamy potatoes, and a lighter squash blossom omelette, with juices and coffee. When I visited in August 2026 I would recommend Otro Oaxaca more for the setting than for the cooking.

Where is Otro Oaxaca?

Calle Macedonio Alcalá 505, Centro, Oaxaca de Juárez 68000. It is directly across from the Santo Domingo de Guzmán church on the main pedestrian street of the historic centre, so everything in the centre is walkable and you do not need a car.

How many rooms does Otro Oaxaca have?

Sixteen. Otro Oaxaca is a small hotel by design, built by Grupo Habita with Portuguese architect João Boto Caeiro, mixing Oaxacan materials and references to Zapotec archaeological sites with modernist geometry. The hotel does not offer room service.

Is the rooftop good for sunset?

The rooftop is a limestone terrace with a pool facing the Santo Domingo skyline, so it works for late afternoon light. The day pass window ends at 17:00, so if you want sunset from the roof you need to be a guest or booked into the restaurant rather than on a day pass.

Otro Oaxaca: cenote spa, rooftop day pass and rooms

Grupo Habita's 16-room design hotel across from Santo Domingo, with an underground spa pool and rooftop infinity pool. Rooftop day pass 1,000 MXN (~$55 USD), 12-5pm. Breakfast daily from 7:15am.

Grupo Habita's hotel on Macedonio Alcalá, across from Santo Domingo, with an underground brick-domed plunge pool, a rooftop infinity pool sold as a day pass, and a patio restaurant open to non-guests. Here is what it costs, how to book and how to get there.

What Otro Oaxaca is

Otro Oaxaca is a 16-room design hotel at Macedonio Alcalá 505, in the historic centre of Oaxaca de Juárez, directly across the street from the Santo Domingo de Guzmán church. It belongs to Grupo Habita, the Mexican boutique hotel group, and is a member of Design Hotels. It appears in the Michelin Guide hotel selection, the guide’s curated list of places to stay, which is a listing rather than a Key.

Three parts of the property matter to a visitor who is not sleeping there. The subterranean spa holds a circular heated plunge pool, roughly 20 feet across, under a brick dome pierced by one opening that drops a single column of daylight onto the water. It is built to feel like a cenote, although Oaxaca has none of its own. On the roof there is a limestone terrace with a pool looking across the rooftops to Santo Domingo, sold to outside visitors as a day pass. At ground level, a planted patio with yellow concrete tables, small bouquets and large cactuses serves breakfast and dinner to guests and non-guests alike.

The architecture runs on a cross-shaped walkway at the centre of the building, with brick walls and deliberately heavy materials. Grupo Habita worked with Portuguese architect João Boto Caeiro, who mixed Oaxacan textures with references to Zapotec archaeological sites and modernist geometry. The result is closer to an excavated building than to a colonial courtyard hotel, which is unusual for a property on this street, where most of the neighbours are restored eighteenth-century houses.

Who is behind it

Grupo Habita is the group behind Hotel Habita and Condesa DF in Mexico City, Hotel Terrestre on the Oaxaca coast and a run of design-led properties across Mexico and the United States. The kitchen at Otro Oaxaca is led by chef Saúl Carranza, who has worked with the group for more than a decade and builds a short seasonal menu around local ingredients.

Awards and press

Listed in the Michelin Guide hotel selection, the guide’s curated selection of stays. This is a listing, not a Michelin Key.
Member of Design Hotels.
Covered in hotel and design press through 2025 and 2026 for the underground pool and the João Boto Caeiro architecture.

The restaurant sits on the ground-floor patio and has two atmospheres, an interior room and the planted outdoor section. The menu is short and changes with the season, and it is more contemporary than regional, which is worth knowing if you came to Oaxaca for mole.

Breakfast runs daily from 7:15 and is the meal most outside visitors book.
Dinner is served in the evening from the same kitchen.
Room service is not offered by the hotel.

What I ate in August

Carbonara eggs with truffle, jamón serrano and creamy potatoes, the heaviest thing on the breakfast menu.
A squash blossom omelette as the lighter option.
Fresh juices and coffee.

The honest note from my visit: I would come here for the atmosphere first and the food second.

What it costs

Item	Price
Rooftop pool day pass, 12:00 to 17:00	1,000 MXN per person, about 55 USD
Breakfast	à la carte, charged separately
Spa treatments	quoted on request
Rooms	rates vary by season, booked directly or through the hotel’s partners

The day pass figure is what the hotel quoted in August 2026 and it is the number to check first, because pool passes at small hotels change with occupancy. Nothing on the property is cheap by Oaxaca standards, and a pool afternoon plus lunch will run well past the pass price. Room rates move sharply with the season, peaking around Día de Muertos and the Guelaguetza in July, so the same room can cost very different amounts two months apart.

How to book

Hotel and restaurant: otrooaxaca.com, or phone +52 951 689 0700.
Instagram: @otrooaxaca for current hours and closures.
Day pass: confirm by phone or Instagram message on the day, since availability depends on how full the hotel is.
Restaurant: book ahead for breakfast in high season, roughly November to March and the Día de Muertos weeks, because the patio is small.

Getting there

Address: Calle Macedonio Alcalá 505, Centro, Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca 68000, Mexico.
On foot: on the pedestrian stretch of Alcalá, opposite Santo Domingo, about 10 minutes from the zócalo.
From Oaxaca airport (OAX): 20 to 30 minutes by taxi.
Parking: none of its own. Use a paid lot in the centre.

Before you go

There is no shade on the roof. The terrace is open limestone, and the pass window is the hottest part of the day. Bring a hat and sunscreen.
The underground pool is the reason to come. It is the most photographed thing on the property and it is quiet in the morning.
Book breakfast even as a non-guest. It is the cheapest way in, and the patio is at its best early, before the street fills up.
Do not expect traditional Oaxacan cooking. The menu is contemporary and short.
Pair it with a real Oaxacan meal. For mole and the regional kitchen, see my Levadura de Olla review or Alfonsina, and Pan con Madre for bread a few streets away.
Check the hours before you go. The hours on this page come from the venue’s public listings, which drift, so confirm on Google Maps or the venue’s own channels before a special trip.

Watch the visit

The reel above shows the underground pool, the rooftop terrace and the patio at breakfast. For the rest of the city, open my Oaxaca map or browse the Oaxaca recommendations.