An Amateur Artist Retreat
Five days making art in the loudest, brightest city in the hemisphere. No instruction, no skill required, no one grading you. Just show up and make something.
$1,449 per person, $99 to book.
$99 books your spot. Cancel for a full cash refund any time before we confirm the trip on October 1, or for 30 days after you book, whichever is longer. The remaining $1,350 is paid in two installments of $675, and you can split either one further at checkout, interest-free with some payment providers. See the deets
What this actually is
A small group spends five days sketching in Coyoacán, painting on rooftops in Roma Norte, and chasing color through the Centro, with group dinners, walking tours, and a couple of nights out. Nobody's teaching. You just make stuff. The point is the doing, not the masterpiece.
We put it in early November for one reason: it's the week right after the city finishes turning itself into an art project. The marigolds are still up, the crowds have flown home, and a hotel room costs half what it did seven days earlier. Same city, same colour, more room to work.
Seven ways to make art
No skill needed for any of them. Just show up and try. Here's everything you'll get your hands on:
What's in the trip
Handpicked hotel, shared room, walkable to the parks, the galleries, and the good tacos.
Canvas, easels, paint, brushes, aprons. We buy it, you keep what you make.
Your own painted boat through the canals at golden hour, with mariachi drifting past and food on board.
Every morning after you arrive (day one, you're flying in, so the welcome dinner is your first meal with us). Lunches are on your own.
A welcome dinner, a farewell dinner, and the picnic on the trajinera. The other nights are yours to explore.
Centro Histórico murals and Coyoacán, with guides.
An oil figure-painting class in Chapultepec (folklórico dancer, castle behind her) and an acrylic paint & sip on a Roma rooftop. All materials included.
Two low-key group activities. No winners, just fun.
A group morning at the Palacio de Bellas Artes: Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, under an Art Deco dome.
Performance art, Mexico City style, masks included. Plus a night out after.
A folklórico dancer poses in full skirt with the castle behind her while you paint in oil. Materials and easels provided.
The five days
Fly in on your own schedule, check in, take the altitude easy with a loose evening walk around the neighborhood. Then a welcome dinner in Roma Norte to meet everyone.
A walking tour of the Centro Histórico built around the murals: Bellas Artes, the SEP courtyards, the Palacio Nacional stairwell. Free afternoon. Then ringside at Arena México for lucha libre, which is performance art the way this city does it best, mask included.
Your morning is yours after breakfast: sleep in, wander Condesa, or go see Frida's house on your own. In the afternoon, an oil figure-painting session in Chapultepec: a folklórico dancer poses in full skirt with the castle behind her while you paint. The rest of the afternoon is yours in the park: keep painting, walk up to the castle, or sit with a coffee and sketch whoever wanders past.
A group morning at the Palacio de Bellas Artes: Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros on the upper floors, Tiffany glass curtain downstairs. Then south to Coyoacán, where we break into teams, each chasing a different color through the markets and side streets with cameras (no winners, just a fun way to really see the place), and a walking tour of the old village at dusk. Back in Roma after dark for a paint & sip on a rooftop: acrylic, mezcal in hand, the skyline in front of you.
Down to the canals for a private trajinera: food, drinks, a mariachi boat that pulls alongside, and sketchbooks out for a slow afternoon of urban sketching from the water. Then the throwdown: everyone lays their sketchbooks out on the table and we share the lot. A farewell dinner back in the city to close it out.
Optional sketch-and-coffee in Parque México for the early risers, then out on your own flights.
Be first in line
$1,449 per person, all in except flights. $99 books it. The balance comes in two payments of $675, the first 14 days after you book and the second by October 16. You can put either one on a card outright, or split it into installments through Klarna, Affirm, or Afterpay at checkout.
Open to travelers 25 to 39 who are based in the United States. Book inside 35 days of departure and the full balance is due at booking.
Book your spot for $99 →Booking runs in three steps. Here's how it works:
EF Traveler Offer
EF proved group travel is worth it. Co-Signed changes one thing: you spend the week making things instead of photographing them.
How to claim: Join Co-Signed and email us a photo of your EF trip confirmation or boarding pass. We'll apply $250 off your first Co-Signed trip, no questions asked.
Good questions
No, and that's the whole point. There's no instruction and nobody's judging. If you can hold a brush you're qualified. The trip is built for people who want to make things for fun, not improve a craft.
Travelers aged 25 to 39 who are based in the United States. It's a small group and the age range is what keeps it feeling like one, so we do check. Everything else is open: no art experience, no existing connection to anyone else going.
Put down $99 above and the seat is yours. The balance is $675 fourteen days later and $675 by October 16, both invoiced to you by email. Places are strictly limited, so seats go in the order they're paid for.
We looked hard at it. The holiday falls Nov 1 and 2, and that week the city is extraordinary and completely full: hotel rates roughly double, and in 2026 the F1 Grand Prix lands on top of it.
Going a few days later gets you the same city with the decorations still up, far smaller crowds at the museums and in Coyoacán, and a price that leaves room for everything we actually came to do. If you want the parade itself, fly in early on your own and stay on for the trip.
So you can use your own miles, fly from wherever, and arrive early or stay late. We'll give you target arrival and departure times. One ask: wait until we confirm the trip is running, which we'll email you by October 1, before you book. If you want to lock in a fare sooner, book a refundable one. Your money with us is protected either way, but a non-refundable flight isn't.
Flights and airport transfers. Travel insurance, which we strongly recommend and don't sell. Visas or entry requirements. Any meal not listed in the itinerary. Personal expenses and tips. Optional add-ons on your free afternoons. Local hotel or tourist taxes if the property charges them at check-in.
Everything else is in the price: your room, your art supplies, the models, the guided sessions, the listed meals, and ground transport during the trip.
You've got 30 days from the day you book to change your mind, or until October 16, whichever comes first: a full cash refund of everything you've paid, deposit included, no questions asked. And whatever those 30 days say, you can always get a full refund up until we confirm the trip on October 1. This trip runs when enough people book it, so your deposit is a refundable vote rather than a bet, and waiting doesn't buy you any protection you don't already have.
After that window and up to October 16, back out for any reason and everything you've paid becomes Co-Signed trip credit that never expires. Inside the last 20 days you forfeit 75% and the remaining 25% becomes that same credit. Miss a payment and you lose the spot, with what you've paid converting to credit. If we cancel the trip, you get 100% of your money back.
If you split a payment through Klarna or another provider, that plan is with them rather than with us, so their terms govern those installments. The full policy is on our terms page.
You'll need a valid passport. US, Canadian, UK, EU, and most other passport holders don't need a tourist visa for a stay this short, and the old paper FMM has gone digital at most airports, so entry is usually just the passport and a stamp. Check the official requirements before you book flights; we'll remind you by email too.
Mexico City sits at about 7,350 feet. Most people feel it as mild breathlessness on stairs for a day or two, nothing more. We keep day one deliberately loose for that reason: drink a lot of water, go easy on the mezcal the first night, and you'll be fine by Friday. Weather in early November is close to perfect, dry, low 70s in the day and low 50s at night, so bring a jacket for the evenings.
The neighborhoods this trip lives in, Roma Norte, Condesa, Coyoacán, the Centro, San Ángel, are busy, walkable, and full of visitors and locals at all hours. We use Uber or arranged transport instead of street taxis, we stay together at night, and we brief the group on the normal city stuff on day one. Use the sense you'd use in any big city and it's a straightforward place to be.
Four to twenty people who wanted five days of making things and did not need a better reason than that. Everyone is 25 to 39 and based in the United States. Rooms are shared, twin beds, and we room people with the same gender. The survey is how we pair you with someone whose sleep schedule and habits line up with yours.