San Miguel de Allende – A Nice Place to Visit but…

When we were deciding where to base ourselves during our time in Mexico’s colonial highlands, the two towns under consideration were Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende (San Miguel). We chose Guanajuato primarily because of the great apartment we found but also we were a bit concerned about how touristy and full of expats we had heard that San Miguel had become. During our two-week stay in Guanajuato, we decided it would be silly not to visit San Miguel as a day trip since it was only an hour and a half away by bus.

Getting to San Miguel de Allende

A number of bus companies have service between San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato. We chose Primera Plus because of our previous positive experiences with this company between Mexico City and Queretaro and between Queretaro and Guanajuato . Our round trip fare was 260 pesos* each. We chose to leave Guanajuato on the 8 am bus and return on the 6:40 pm bus. Buses arrive in San Miguel at a bus station outside of town, so once we reached San Miguel, it was a 60 peso taxi ride into town or a 7 peso bus ride on any bus marked Centro. We chose the latter with the added local color. With a seeming lack of springs and no padding on the seats, the ride gave our tailbones a workout. Along the way, we went through some typical Mexican neighborhoods.

San Miguel Centro

The bus will drop you off behind Plaza de la Soledad and in front of Templo de Nuestra Senora de la Salud, definitely worth a free visit.

You can also grab a bench in Plaza de la Soledad, which seems to be more popular with Mexicans than with gringos, and watch the activity.

From there, it’s a block and a half walk to Principal San Francisco,

a pedestrian street that will take you to Jardin Allende and the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel. Ground zero for the tourist scene in San Miguel.

A good place to watch the world go by, and as in most towns, the prices in the cafés around the Jardin are going to cost you a little more than a few blocks away.

We ate brunch at Mama Mia  a block away (yes, sounds Italian but it isn’t) and can highly recommend it for the excellent food and coffee at reasonable prices. Our total for two entrees and three coffees was 288 pesos.

Wandering Around San Miguel de Allende

After brunch, we set out and just wandered around going up one street and down the next.

While some of the streets do have inclines, they are much gentler than in Guanajuato. Most buildings in the historic centro have been restored, and it seems that every other building is a boutique hotel, art gallery, or restaurant. In some ways, the town reminded us of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The historic centro is amazingly small; it’s possible to wander a little further afield but after about 4 blocks in any direction, it’s pretty much similar residential areas.

At one corner of the Jardin, we saw a bulletin board listing the events for the month. There appeared to be something going on every evening. Between the constant activities and the wide variety of restaurants, it’s possible to keep yourself very busy. That we believe is part of the appeal of San Miguel. We met a Canadian couple walking around Guanajuato who confirmed as much. Next winter they are staying in San Miguel for three months, because there is “just so much to do”, lots of retirees, its terrain is relatively flat, and with a very temperate climate. We did actually see more non-tourist gringos here than in any other place we’ve visited in Latin America in the last five months.

San Miguel Wrap-up

By about 2 pm we were finished wandering. We grabbed a bench and spent the next few hours watching the world go by and reading on our Kindles, then went to grab a drink and have an early dinner. At 6 pm we tried to hail a taxi for the ride back to the bus station and everyone we tried was already full or reserved, seems like a lot of people are heading out of town at that time. We finally had success by moving over a couple of blocks and grabbing one headed into town.

So what was our impression of San Miguel? In the end while we are glad we visited, we are glad that we chose to stay in Guanajuato.

San Miguel has way too much traffic and way too many tourists, and we were there on a weekday. We were told that on the weekend, it gets flooded with Mexican tourists.

Disclaimer: We haven’t lied about the crowds, Ian goes out of his way to take photos without people in them.

*The exchange rate at time of writing was 18.5 Mexican pesos to the US dollar.

Next Up: Guanajuato, capital city of Guanajuato state

Ian & Ann