An Amateur Artist Retreat
Five days making art in the loudest, brightest city in the hemisphere, timed to Día de Muertos. No instruction, no skill required, no one grading you. Just show up and make something.
Small group. Día de Muertos week sells out a year ahead. Get on the list first.
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 on Día de Muertos week for one reason: it's the week the entire city turns itself into an art project. Marigolds on every corner, ofrendas in every doorway, strangers painting each other's faces in the street. You could not ask for better material.
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.
Catrina face paint by a real makeup artist, the parade down Reforma, and the ofrendas in Coyoacán after dark.
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. Then a makeup artist turns the group into catrinas and we head to Reforma for the Día de Muertos parade.
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), a walking tour of the old village, and the ofrendas 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
Trips run small and Día de Muertos week fills faster than anything else we run. Join the list and we'll email you the moment this one opens.
When it opens, you claim your spot in the app. Co-Signed runs on a vetted network, so the people you travel with aren't complete strangers off the internet. Here's how it works:
EF Traveler Offer
EF showed you group travel is worth it. Co-Signed is the upgrade, built around traveling with people from a vetted network, not a random sign-up list.
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.
Co-Signed runs on a vetted network. You join the app, connect through a local event, and that unlocks travel, so the people you travel with aren't complete strangers off the internet. Join the early-access list above and we'll tell you the moment this trip opens.
Because that's the reason to be in Mexico City in the fall. Oct 31 through Nov 2 is when the ofrendas go up, the marigolds take over, and the city gets loud and beautiful in a way you can't schedule around.
One honest note: the city sets the parade date each year and it lands on the weekend of the holiday. If it shifts, our Saturday shifts with it and everything else stays put.
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: don't buy flights until you've been matched into a group for the trip. We run separate groups on the same dates, so we'll confirm your group before you book travel.
You've got 30 days from when you pay to change your mind: a full refund, deposit included, no questions asked (this worry-free window applies up until the trip's final booking cutoff). After those 30 days, your trip cost is non-refundable as cash, but it doesn't just disappear: the full amount you've paid, minus a flat $300 cancellation fee, becomes Co-Signed trip credit good for 24 months toward another trip.
One important note if you choose the payment plan: it's financed through Klarna, so if you cancel after the 30-day window you'll continue your Klarna payments as scheduled, and every dollar of it still rolls into that trip credit (minus the $300), so you're never paying for nothing. Full terms are in the app before you ever pay.
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.
A small group drawn from the Co-Signed network: a mix of people you've connected with and people they've connected with, a few degrees of separation out (think the six-degrees idea). We group people by fit, so you land with a crowd that suits this particular trip.