3 glorious days in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
It’s easy to understand why San Miguel de Allende has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Every corner you turn as you walk along the cobblestone streets presents breathtaking scenery of the brightly coloured houses, stunning Spanish colonial architecture, and distant mountains.
But I’ll let you in on a little secret – we never meant to visit San Miguel! Our aim was to visit Guanjuato – a larger city approximately 1.5 hours from San Miguel. However whilst on the bus from Mexico City to Guanjuato we accidently booked an Air BnB in San Miguel rather than Guanjuato. Not realising our mistake until we were checking how to get to the Air BnB from the Guanjuato bus station, we decided to give San Miguel a go and hop on the next bus to the city. It was the best mistake we could have made!
We absolutely loved our time in San Miguel, and consider it to be one of the highlights of our time in Mexico. Below is an overview of our itinerary for the three days we were there.
Day 1: Wandering around the city
One of the best things to do in San Miguel is to simply wander around the city. San Miguel is very pedestrian friendly and we spent our first day strolling around and exploring the beautiful streets. We stumbled across many charming surprises, stopping to look further at things that caught our eye (and of course to sample the delicious food!).
Like most cities in Mexico, San Miguel is centred around its main square. El Jardin is a bustling meeting place, and you can often catch mariachi bands, snack stands, and various vendors strolling around. The square is lined with trees and beautiful buildings, making it a great place to hang out.
One of the buildings surrounding the main square is the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, a beautiful church with a towering pink spire. Its neo-Gothic facade is absolutely breathtaking, and if you venture into the chapel you will rewarded with beautiful paintings – including one depicting the founding of the town.
We grabbed a late lunch at the Ignacio Ramirez, a bustling market with some tasty food vendors and stalls selling local handicrafts. We pulled a chair up at a busy food stand and were rewarded with the best torta I have eaten as yet. Street food really is the best (and cheapest)!
The remainder of our afternoon was spent at the La Esquina Toy Museum, a fascinating collection of more than 1,000 handcrafted toys from across Mexico collected over the course of fifty years by Angelica Tijerina. The museum consists of multiple rooms that each have a theme, including transport, dolls made from cloth and other materials, toy Ferris wheels and musical instruments. The detail and creativity of the toys is mesmerizing, and provides great enjoyment for both the young and old! The cherry on top of this museum is its rooftop which rewards you with a beautiful view of the city.
The toy museum is located in the city centre, and is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10am – 6pm, and Sundays 11am – 4pm (closed Mondays). Entry is $MX30 for adults, and $MX20 for children, students, and teachers.
Day 2: Hot springs
San Miguel is surrounded by hot springs, and there are numerous locations that you can choose from to spend a relaxing day by the pool. We decided to check out the La Gruta hot springs, which is approximately 15 minutes from San Miguel city centre by car. La Gruta has several warm outdoor pools, beautiful gardens, and a restaurant and poolside bar. Another cool and unique feature at La Grauta is a long tunnel that leads to an underground steam room. The tunnel is fairly narrow and increases in temperature as you get closer to the steam cave – it really is quite pretty.
We loved our day at La Gruta, and spent most of the day lounging around and dipping in and out of the numerous pools. The restaurant serves delicious meals and the cocktails are great (and strong!). Massage services are also available in case you feel like becoming even more relaxed!
La Gruta is located approximately 15 minutes from the city centre, and is open Wednesday – Saturday from 7am – 5pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). Entry to La Gruta is $MX200 per person. We took an uber to La Gruta which cost approximately $MX100. Uber does not pick-up from La Gruta (it’s outside of their radius), but the staff called a taxi for us which cost $MX200. There is also apparently a public bus, however we could not find any information about where it left from or how much it was.
Day 3: El Charco del Ingenio botanical garden & rooftop cocktails
I love spending some time in nature when I’m travelling. It’s a great way to restore your batteries, especially if you’ve been hanging out in big cities for a while. We decided to spend our final day in San Miguel exploring the El Charco del Ingenio, a beautiful 88-hectare botanical garden and nature reserve showcasing a huge variety of native Mexican plants (including of course the beloved cacti).
We spent about 3 hours hiking the pathways through the gardens. Along the way we saw numerous native plants, local wildlife, a deep canyon (El Charco del Ingenio), and a beautiful conservatory which is home to a wide variety of cacti and succulents. At the highest point of the hike we were rewarded with an amazing view of San Miguel.
The gardens are open 7 days a week from 9am – 5pm, and entry price is $MX40 per person. They are located only a few minutes by car from the city centre, and cost approximately $MX60 – 80 for a taxi or uber. We opted to walk up to the gardens, and while it was an uphill climb it was a great way to see some of the neighbourhoods along the way.
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner on our final night in San Miguel at el Rinconcito. The food was super tasty and the service was great, and the prices were quite reasonable. We then popped up to the Luna Rooftop Tapas Bar at the Rosewood hotel for a couple of drinks. The view was incredible, and we were lucky enough to be seated at a table that had a great view of the lit up Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel.
We had an awesome few days in San Miguel, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys exploring small cities that are full of energy. I felt like three days was a good amount of time here – you could spend less, but you would be a fair bit busier, especially if you want to do both the nature reserve and hot springs. San Miguel was definitely a highlight of our time in Mexico.