Mexico was the first foreign country I ever traveled to. As a junior in high school, my botany class had a one-week bus trip from Denver to Puerto Peñasco, situated on the northern part of the Gulf of California. I remember little about it except that a couple of wise-guy friends and I started speaking with a southern-U.S. accent in the back of the bus and after a while we couldn’t lose it.
About a decade and half later, I visited Mexico City where my childhood friend Arnold worked for the U.S. State Department. There I entered the most populated city I had ever been to and marveled at the pre-Aztec pyramids in nearby Teotihuacan, which remarkably I knew virtually nothing about.
Last time I was in Mexico was in 2003, when our family (my wife Khadija, daughters Ayan and Halimo) and our friend Phil (whom this website is dedicated to) made a quick dash from L.A. to Ensenada for an overnight stay.
See my Guanajuato City and San Miguel de Allende photo gallery of images from around the country.
Though Ensenada is a city with hotels and a continuum of restaurants from takeout to upscale. Most of our time was spent driving over dusty roads through an arid landscape with more than its fair share of ramshackle structures and people working hard in the fields and in small stores.
It’s safe to say my knowledge of world geography has increased exponentially since these trips. Still, I had no idea how astounding Guanajuato was with its silver mining origin, colorful colonial architecture, hilly landscape, large university and unique network of narrow, winding streets, alleys, and tunnels.
I vaguely knew that nearby San Miguel de Allende was a tourist city but didn’t know why. Once there, it was obvious its fame is due to, like Guanajuato, brightly painted historic buildings, cobblestone streets and a vibrant art scene, but with more of a small-town ambiance.
Recently I researched the history, geography and multiple cultures of Mexico in order to supplement my meager knowledge of an important neighbor of the U.S. Better late than never, I now appreciate how large and diverse Mexico is and I could spend months there. After visiting these two captivating cities, I wholeheartedly recommend visiting both of these locales.
Why Did We Go to Mexico?
In March 2026, Khadija and I attended the wedding of our friends Nick and Monica. Monica grew up in nearby Leon and studied in Guanajuato for her undergraduate degree.
The wedding was in the Hotel Castillo Santa Cecilia, where we also stayed.
The sprawling, medieval-style complex was built in the 1950s on the grounds of a historic 17th-century hacienda and mining operation. This castle has everything you would expect including arched hallways with faux torch lighting, crenelated parapets and replicas of medieval armor, swords, and shields.
How Long to Spend in Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende?
I recommend at least a week for both cities together or longer if you want to soak up the local atmosphere and amble around at a leisurely pace. For my taste, I would spend more time in Guanajuato which has more to do and see.
Where is Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende?
Guanajuato is a city in the state of the same name and about a 40-minute drive from the Guanajuato International Airport in the Leon metro area. The airport uses the code BJX because it is commonly called Aeropuerto Internacional del Bajío, which is a cultural and geographical region in this part of Central Mexico.
The drive between Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende is around an hour and a half.
From Mexico City, Guanajuato is about a five-hour drive and San Miguel de Allende takes about four hours.
When is the Best Time to Visit Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende?
Any time is good to visit these terrific cities.
As they are high altitudes (Guanajuato City is 2,050 m / 6,700 ft and San Miguel de Allende is 1,900 m / 6,250 ft), they are cooler than many other parts of Mexico. In the summer, there are frequent rains, mostly in the afternoon, making the landscape more verdant than the rest of the year.
How to Get Around Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende?
Both are walking cities in the central area and have inexpensive street taxis and car services.
Are Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende Safe?
These are cities where streets usually have pedestrians, traffic and open stores almost everywhere, especially during the day. They are quite safe and no one seems to be looking over their shoulder. Of course, everyone should use common sense and take reasonable precautions.
Most people avoid driving on low-traffic roads outside of the city late in the evening to sunrise, as there’s a risk of robbery.
We were there for about two weeks following the government killing of El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. As a result, there were retaliatory acts in at least twenty states including Guanajuato, mostly property damage, though there were a few deaths, mostly security personnel and suspected gang members. While this was disruptive, especially in the state of Jalisco, west of Guanajuato, it was momentary and I have not read about any tourist being seriously harmed. In any event, this type of widespread violence isn’t common and the risk of being a victim of a cartel is quite small in the places where tourists frequent.
Are Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende Expensive?
Guanajuato is reasonably priced and scaled to the poshness of the venue, especially for restaurants. Specialty cafes have coffee prices that approach Starbucks in the U.S., but what can you do if you need your caffeine fix? We got a kick out of Cafe Conquistador, which was blanketed with currency notes hanging from the ceiling and stuck to the walls.
San Miguel de Allende has a number of upscale restaurants with relatively high prices, but noticeably less than New York City. In a rooftop restaurant called Quince, to justify the prices on the menu, there was a tightrope walker entertaining the diners.
However, budget travelers can easily find inexpensive accommodations and frequent cocina económica for tasty and filling local food for not a whole lot of pesos.
Where to Stay in Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende?
As mentioned above, we stayed in the Hotel Castillo Santa Cecilia in Guanajuato and it was cheap at only $45 / night. However, it was not in the historic zone and was a short taxi ride away, costing $3 to $5, with mobile apps providing the best prices.
In San Miguel de Allende, we stayed at the Maison Mexique Hotel Boutique San Miguel de Allende across from the fabulous Toy Museum for $110 / night in a clean and spacious room with constant hot water.
Guanajuato City
It didn’t take me long after entering Guanajuato to include it as one of my favorite cities, along with Constantine, Algeria; Asmara, Eritrea and Luang Prabang, Laos.
Guanajuato is a city of 200,000 residents, the capital of the state with the same name and deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage site, as should be evident after reading this post. Even though it’s not named Lion in Spanish like nearby Leon, it has many statues and other representations of the king of the jungle.
In contrast to the leonine appellation, Guanajuato means a place of frogs in the native Purépecha language.
Guanajuato has a steady flow of foreign tourists, especially Americans, but the overwhelming share are Mexicans checking out a gem in their country.
Mining History and Tunnels
There are many commemorations of Guanajuato’s mining history, which began in the mid-16th century following the Spanish discovery of rich silver and gold veins, notably the Veta Madre (Mother Lode).
It became the world’s leading silver producer in the 18th century, creating massive wealth and transforming into a bustling colonial city.
The city is situated in a valley, although many homes and other buildings have expanded up the slopes. For centuries, the city was ravaged by flooding of the Guanajuato River after heavy rains.
In the popular imagination, shafts and tunnels are commonly associated with mining in “them thar hills”. In Guanajuato, the story of tunnels continued after large-scale silver mining ended.
Beginning in the early 1800s, city planners decided to build tunnels to divert flooding water. It’s not surprising they came up with this approach. The tunnels were excavated with the same techniques used for centuries and incorporated a few tunnels used by mining companies to move through the mountainous city more easily. The labor force was mainly composed of local miners.
In the first half of the 20th century, additional dams (e.g. Solis Dam on the Lerma River) in the region were built upstream which lowered the water level in Guanajuato and eventually the tunnels no longer were needed for flood control. So, city planners again conceived of a new usage for tunnels, changing them into vehicular roads which would alleviate traffic congestion in the historic city center, with the first car passing through in 1961.
Today, the underground tunnel network extends 9 km / 5.6 mi, operates on multiple levels and has underground intersections. Pedestrians can walk through them but with the detriment of breathing the exhaust.
However, Mother Nature is a fickle mistress and in May 2025 Guanajuato experienced record-setting rainfall, resulting in severe flooding in the tunnels.
Centro Histórico
The center is stunning with historic buildings and it’s fun to walk up and down the steep, narrow and winding cobblestone streets.
It’s full of beautiful churches, attractive public squares and striking buildings, such as the Teatro Juárez (Juarez Theater): after about three decades of construction, it was finished in 1903.
A favorite spot for visitors is the El Callejon del Beso, or the Alley of the Kiss, located behind the Plaza de Los Angeles.
This is an extreme, but quite romantic, example of how narrow the streets are.
Skyline and Funicular
One of the easiest ways to get a good vantage point of this hilly city is by taking the almost two-minute ride on the funicular up San Miguel Hill.
At the top, people are constantly taking photos of themselves in front of the spectacular views.
Behind the goggling tourists is a 20 m / 66 ft, pink sandstone statue of a man with a torch leaning on a shield. He is Juan José de los Reyes Martínez (“El Pípila”), a local independence hero who burned down a granary door while using a stone shield to protect himself from musket fire during the 1810 revolt against Spanish rule.
Callejoneada
One night, we were part of a callejoneada, a traditional, musical walking procession through the narrow streets (callejones). This is popular in Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende for weddings and other festive occasions.
The mariachis musicians were wonderful to watch as a group (see lead photo for this post) and individually, such as this gentleman playing a 12-stringed instrument.
After two hours, we ended up next to the “ladder of success” at the University of Guanajuato where a crowd was listening to comedians/musicians.
The university was founded in 1732 and is one of the best in Latin America. It offers degrees in arts and sciences and has 34,000 students who bring energy and creativity to the city.
Museum of the Mummies
There is a cemetery with above-ground graves where families had to pay a burial tax from the 1870s until 1958. The official name is Panteón Santa Paula.
The cemetery exhumed the bodies of those who didn’t have a descendant to pay the fee. The bodies were naturally mummified from the dry climate, although a few might have been partially embalmed. The cemetery workers kept the best-preserved bodies in a nearby building.
Starting in the 1900s, tourists showed an interest in the mummies and cemetery workers charged the curious a few pesos to see them. This place was subsequently turned into the Museum of the Mummies in 1969 and exhibits a part of the collection of 111 formerly living people.
I wondered if it was morally acceptable to visit and gawk at these individuals who were never allowed to have eternal peace but it didn’t stop us from entering. The mummies were clearly a shrunken version of their living selves, often wearing the clothes they were buried in.
As in the photo, the mouths of many of the mummies were wide open. Of note, the museum is known to have the smallest mummy in the world, a fetus from a pregnant woman who fell victim to cholera.
Friends who have been here have invariably mentioned the mummies. It must be part of the morbid curiosity of humans.
Diego Rivera's House Museum
The famous muralist was born in Guanajuato and his first home is a museum. The permanent exhibit shows he was indeed a talented artist and had mastered many schools of painting before concentrating on murals including landscapes, classicism, cubism and surrealism. He particularly liked making images in the style of Mexican indigenous people, such as this Creation of the Universe.
He was married (twice) to Frida Kahlo, an iconic artist personality if there ever was one. There were rooms dedicated to her life which were part of a temporary exhibit that had passed its closing date.
Quinceañeras
While celebrated everywhere in Mexican culture, we frequently saw snippets of quinceañeras while in Guanajuato.
This is a traditional and sometimes lavish celebration for a girl’s 15th birthday, marking her transition from childhood to womanhood.
Other Places of Interest
Here are three other attractions which we didn’t see:
The Casa de las Leyendas (House of Legends) uses animatronics and miniature displays to retell folktales and ghost stories from Guanajuato. Displays and audios are only in Spanish.
Tours of abandoned mines and ex-haciendas.
The Regional Museum of Guanajuato which presents the archeology and ethnology of the region.
San Miguel de Allende
Khadija and I went with Nick and Monica to San Miguel de Allende which is also in the state of Guanajuato. It’s a walkable city with colonial architecture, a high concentration of churches and shops with creative entrances.
It’s slower paced and quieter than Guanajuato, with a slightly smaller population of around 175,000. It’s also easier to navigate, as the streets are laid out in a grid. Many Americans in their golden years spend several months or even retire here.
Many of the streets in San Miguel de Allende, particularly in El Centro (the historic center) are paved with volcanic cobblestones, contributing to the old-world charm and being a major factor in its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The bumpy streets also make ATV’s a desirable mode of transportation.
As Mexico is a very Catholic country, the Virgin Mary and other consecrated women are represented on street murals and placed in markets to protect merchants, shoppers and premises. Their appearance is sometimes presented in indigenous trappings.
El Centro
Most of the town’s iconic structures are within the historic center which has a grid following the natural hilly topography. It’s fashionable to sit in a rooftop bar on a hill and enjoy drinks while watching the sunset.
Churches dominate the area including the exquisite neo-Gothic Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel.
We found that the churches we wanted to enter were closed except during daily masses.
We periodically rested in the well-maintained parks and took in the local vibes.
Scattered around are locals performing for donations…
as well as local gentlemen in cowboy hats and NY caps.
Museo La Esquina
My highlight of our visit to San Miguel de Allende was the Museo La Esquina (Toy Museum). It has three floors of displays and over 3,500 toys in its collections. However, it’s not the number of items it has but the incredible creativity and amazing workmanship of the toys.
There was something heart-warming and adorable about this cardboard doll, known as “lupita”, with a niche in her chest that holds a miniature image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and sitting on a woven wooden chair.
Here’s a ring with Mexican wrestlers with masks. Their sport is known as lucha libre and is wildly popular. The masks symbolize identity, tradition and mystery.
Fabrica La Aurora
San Miguel de Allende is known for having a considerable number of art galleries including those in the Fabrica La Aurora. Khadija and I are standing in front of a tile mural there in the following photo.
There are over 40 galleries / creative spaces located throughout the former textile mill.
Mojigangas
Mojigangas are giant, papier-mâché puppets of traditional Mexican folk art with oversized heads. We saw them everywhere, stationary ones welcoming visitors at hotels and stores and animated ones walking in the street.
Other Places of Interest
Here are four other attractions in and nearby to San Miguel de Allende which we didn’t see:
The Museo Histórico Casa de Allende has exhibits of the Mexico Independence movement.
Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is a church complex with Mexican murals and known as the “Sistine Chapel of Mexico”.
Jardín Botánico El Charco del Ingenio is a nature reserve with an extensive collection of cacti and other succulent plants from Mexico.
Cañada de la Virgen is an Otomi archaeological site with pyramids, founded 540 AD and abandoned 1040 AD.
In retrospect, we should have allocated an extra day and visited these attractions.
Final Thoughts
Mexico officially recognizes 68 distinct indigenous groups which is comprised of over seven million people who speak their own language at home.
We were lucky that Nick and Monica are superior wedding planners as, before the ceremony, we were entertained by Otomi dancers. They were from the central Mexican highlands, with roots dating back to 8,000 BC.
The women wore beautifully embroidered dresses and performed difficult acts of balance with ease.
The men had expressive masks and tap danced in wooded sandals.
At the sake of being redundant, I’m dumbfounded by how little I knew about Mexican culture, not to mention its history and geography. It’s really something I’m eager to rectify and I’m looking forward to returning to Mexico and learning about the other 67 indigenous groups!
