San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Mar 2026

After a month on Maui we headed for Mexico to San Miguel de Allende (SMdA) to spend two weeks. We met up with Susan’s sister there and did some tours, including historical walking tours of the UNESCO designated Centro neighborhood, a walking tour of the El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Gardens, and a half day winery visit about 30 minutes outside of town. We had heard a lot about this famously beautiful city and it did not disappoint. The old world charm was abundant and the colorful artistic touch is everywhere. There were daily parades and nightly outdoor concerts. English is somewhat more spoken than we have thus far encountered in Latin America and they appreciated our limited Spanish.

San Miguel de Allende (SMdA) has a population of about 175,000 and sits in the central highlands of Mexico at an elevation of about 6,200 feet (1,900 meters). The high elevation keeps the temperatures moderate year round. The central district of town is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site for its exceptional 16th-century colonial architecture, cultural integrity, and vital role in the Mexican War of Independence.
As we were flying into Queretaro (QRO) from the north, the airplane my sister was on was inbound from the south at the same time – so it was kind of a race. She won – LOL. We encountered significant delays on both legs of our flight, plus no food or beverages on the plane on the first 7-hour leg from Maui to Dallas, and switching aircraft in Dallas for maintenance issues. But we ultimately arrived safely in one piece with all of our luggage.
We met up with Susan’s sister, Ann, and here we are just outside the entrance of the condo complex we were staying in called “Capilla de Piedra”, which means “Stone Chapel”. We think the area may have been an old monastery. It was about a 15 minute walk into Centro.
The hills are very steep in the east part of Centro where our AirBnB was. It made for very scenic views and challenging walking conditions.
The jacaranda trees all over town were in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous
“La Fabrica de Aurora” is a renovated textile mill housing cafes, shops & galleries with works by local artists in many mediums. SMdA is known for its world class art scene and many of the galleries in this location were fabulous. It also contains many of the preserved machinery pieces from it’s days as a textile factory, along with a hallway of displays describing its history.
The heart of San Miguel de Allende is the plaza named “El Jardin” (which means “The Garden”), which sits across the street from its grand neo-gothic church “Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel”. And yes, the church is actually pink.
The interior of the “Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel” (the big pink church) has the same old world elegance as it’s exterior and the city that surrounds it.
The streets of SMA ooze charm everywhere you look. The cobblestone streets, however, are brutal to walk on or ride in a car on.
On a guided historic walking tour we saw this statue of General de Allende. This is the northeast side of his family home across from the central town plaza and is today a historical museum. In the year 1810, a priest by the name of Father Hidalgo and General de Allende started the war of independence from Spain that lasted until 1821. Five years later in 1826, the town of San Miguel was elevated to the status of a city and the name “de Allende” was attached to its name to become what is now known as “San Miguel de Allende”. We just happened to be visiting during the 200 year anniversary from that date and their were large celebrations and events going on associated with it.
We took a guided walking tour of the El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Gardens on the northeast side of town. The grounds were beautiful and enormous, we barely covered one third of it in two hours.
One of many beautiful cactus plants in El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Gardens
SMdA has almost daily parades and celebrations, we saw several of these. The array of costumes and the level of participation throughout the town is amazing.
Found a rooftop bar named “Tunki”, with a great view of the pink church in the background.
Susan has a no-more-than-3-per-day photo limit on old world doors, which felt incredibly restrictive in SMdA. There were sooo many beautiful old world doors!
The atmosphere at night in SMdA is warm and magical. On this evening we took in a free concert at the central plaza, with the pink church lit up behind it.
I once heard this city described as “having lots of layers”. While walking down random streets you might glance into an open doorway and see a charming courtyard and wonder “what is back there?”
We did a half day winery tour about 30 minutes north of SMdA at a winery called “Tres Raices”, which means “three roots”. It was a gorgeous facility and the wines were delicious. All of their grapes are locally grown.
Snoozing dogs are a common sight and add to the relaxed feel of the town.
A random gorgeous fountain we passed while wandering down some streets.
Our next post will be for Merida, Mexico.

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12 Comments

  3. Oh my goodness, how amazing! We’ve been thinking about a Mexico interior trip and your photos give an amazing endorsement 💕 We miss you guys and are so glad to see you still enjoying the travels.

    • Great to hear from you Jen – we think of you guys often. Congratulations on defending your PHD dissertation Dr Garman!

  4. Thank you so much for your blog. Doug and I visited that town in February to see my mom‘s two cousins. You did a great job capturing the essence of that town. Keep up the good work. We love watching your travels.

  5. You both have an eye for taking elegant photos! It was fun catching up you, in this beautiful, amazing city.
    It’s kinda funny that we had our own commercial jet race flying into Queretaro airport. You had the roughest journey for sure, with the Maui storms cutting off food for meals on the long flight from Maui to Dallas, not to mention going days without power, and barely getting out of parking lot due to deep mud at your condo, so you could get to the airport on time!

    • It was indeed a little rough getting from Maui to SMdA but we were thrilled we made it in only a couple hours late on the day we were expected – and our jet race with yours gave me a good chuckle too. I was very happy to experience SMdA with you and sorry I had to be sick for part of it. Where will you meet up with us next?

  6. Thank you for sharing your fabulous adventures. So nice you got together with Ann. I really enjoy your history lessons

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