Fiona and I were lucky enough to call San Miguel de Allende home for 6 weeks. We hadn’t previously heard of it but after six months on the road we wanted a little break. So we started looking for housesits in Mexico. A gorgeous property popped up cradled in Mexico’s central highlands. I instantly fell in love with the cobbled streets, stunning architecture and vibrant colours. It looked picture perfect!
We were ecstatic when we got accepted for the housesit! The property was an old colonial style mansion with a gorgeous roof terrace. The kitchen and living room alone were bigger than my flat back home. I couldn’t think of a nicer place to unwind!
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First Impressions
We arrived into San Miguel de Allende way ahead of schedule. So we decided to stop for lunch at a restaurant which was located on the main street leading into the historic centre. A rather fancy Italian restaurant and certainly not our usual choice. But we were about to live rent free for 6 weeks and our budget definitely had room for a celebratory lunch 🙂
The restaurant was busy and full of ex pats to our surprise. The prices were certainly steep! Not too far off from what I’d expect to pay at my local Italian restaurant in London. What was going on? Were we still in Mexico? We had a long ride behind us and decided to stay put, but it was certainly very strange.
After lunch we rode to the house which was located in the popular neighbourhood of San Antonio. Our ‘new home’ was only 10 min. walk from the historic centre. To get to it we had to drive down tiny cobbled streets. Each side of the street was lined with the most beautiful, colourful colonial style houses. We instantly fell in love!
Exploring Town
Usually when we get to a place we want to visit, we unload the bike as quickly as possible, find a shower and go off exploring. But not this time! We were in absolutely no rush. The home owners left after giving us a tour of the house and we didn’t want to move.
The property felt more luxurious to us than a 5 star hotel! The ample space, the beautifully restored antique furniture, the Egyptian cotton sheets on our bed. And at long last we’d be able to wash all our motorcycle gear – what a treat! We started setting up home and watched the sunset from the roof terrace which overlooked the neo-gothic 17th century parish church ‘Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel’. It was magical!
A couple of days later we were finally ready to explore further afield than the corner store where we’d gotten some groceries, fresh fruits, tortillas and fresh chillies. It was time to explore the historic centre of San Miguel de Allende.
Main sights
The walk into town itself was simply breathtaking! Every building was beautifully restored, maintained and painted. I never got bored of walking into town because we always discovered some new beautiful details we hadn’t previously spotted. Eventually we made it to Jardin Allende which led us into the main square and right in front of ‘Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel’ – the postcard perfect landmark of this colonial town! It was pretty spectacular and I paused for a moment to remind myself how lucky we were to live here for six weeks.
There was a tourist information centre located right next to the square. We walked in to get a map of all the little cobbled streets around us. To our surprise the town was really small and it would barely take us two hours to visit all the main sights!
MAIN SIGHTS OF SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
– Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel
– El Jardin (Plaza Allende)
– templo de San Francisco
– TEMPLO DE LA INMACULADA CONCEPCIÓN
– museo historico de San Miguel de allende
– Mercado de Artesanias
– Centro Cultural Ignacio ramírez el nigromante
– Biblioteca Publica de San Miguel de allende
– ORATORIO DE SAN FELIPE NERI
– Fabrica la aurora
– EL MIRADOR
The historic centre of San Miguel de Allende is simply beautiful! It boasts immaculately maintained colonial buildings featuring Spanish Baroque architecture. In addition, you’ll find a thriving art scene. We met many artists during our stay and it’s easy to see why they are drawn to a place like San Miguel de Allende. One of the things we fell in love with were the many colourful wood carved doors!
Fiona enjoying our new ukulele 🙂 
We fell in love with all the pretty doors
San Miguel de Allende’s incredible culinary scene
There is no shortage of rooftop bars, top-notch restaurants and coffee shops scattered across town. Prepare to be spoilt for choice! Unlike other places in Mexico, going out for a meal in San Miguel de Allende doesn’t come cheap though. Given the amount of expats with high levels of disposable income prices may still be lower than going out in London but they are rocket high for Mexico!
Fiona and I considered it a treat to have access to a beautiful kitchen and after many months on the road being able to cook our own meals. So we didn’t actually go out to eat at all in our first 4 weeks. Then, towards the end of our stay, we started going out for leaving dinners with friends we’ve made and checking out quite a few rooftop bars. We had saved quite a bit of money staying in one spot and not moving for a month so decided to indulge in a little bit of fine dining. It was certainly a treat!
BEST ROOFTOP RESTAURANTS IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE
– Quince
– ANtonia bistro
– La única
– la azotea
– trazo
– Zumo
– MX Restaurant & Bar
– duke rooftop
– fatima 7
– la posadita
Best Day Trips
The Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco
Dating back to the 17th century, the church features Mexican Baroque mural work and is a designated World Heritage Site. Located only 14 km outside of San Miguel de Allende, the rural community of Atotonilco feels like worlds apart from San Miguel de Allende. The ride on gravel roads to reach it was short and fun.
Relax in thermal Hot Springs
Unknown to many people San Miguel de Allende was founded on the edge of an extinct volcano. There are many thermal hot springs you can visit with some offering a pretty luxurious spa stay. It’s certainly a very different experience than visiting the popular thermal spas of Grutas Tolantongo.
Fiona and I chose to visit the Mayan Baths. It’s an adult-only spa that requires reservations as entry is limited to only 45 visitors. I don’t like crowded places so we decided to pay a little extra for this upscale spa experience. We loved the underground thermal water pools, tunnels and candle-lit stone caves! The facilities, service and our massage all lived up to our expectations of a luxury spa stay. Unfortunately the food and drinks didn’t. But we enjoyed our stay overall nonetheless!
Wine tasting right outside San Miguel de Allende
Okay, I’ll be honest. It was nowhere near as special as exploring the old vine route in Baja California. But given it’s proximity to San Miguel de Allende we gave it a shot anyway and thought it made for a lovely visit.
We chose to visit Viñedo Dos Búhos. It’s a family run, organic vineyard set at the base of the Los Picachos mountains producing artisanal wines. We happened to be the only ones there when visiting (they seem to be more used to organised tours) and enjoyed this personal experience. I had a little wine tasting in the cute courtyard and it felt very relaxing and quiet if you want to get away from busy San Miguel de Allende.
Take a trip to Guanajuato
Gunajuato is another colonial city and UNESCO World Heritage site surrounded by beautiful mountains. You’ll be greeted by colourful houses, busy plazas, stunning architecture and if you ride in like us, you may just as well get lost in its confusing underground systems. With traffic redirected through the network of underground tunnels, Guanajuato is a great city to walk around and lose yourself in. It’s a lively city, which isn’t as perfectly maintained as San Miguel de Allende and doesn’t attract anywhere near as many ex pats, giving it a much more authentic feel of the true Mexico. We really enjoyed our day trip !
What I didn’t like about San Miguel de Allende
Okay, so you probably figured out by now that we were having a great time! Nonetheless it was impossible to turn a blind eye towards the negative footprint the large ex pat community has left on the city. With house prices sky rocketing they have become unaffordable to the locals. So have the many restaurants and rooftop bars, although you can still find local eateries where owners are struggling to keep up with the ever increasing rent.
Many of the high-end boutique hotels and restaurants may employ Mexican staff but the owners are often ex pats. There are many language schools, art classes and yoga studios dotted around town. All used by ex pats contributing directly into the pocket of other ex pats. See what I’m saying? All the benefits that come with increased tourism and popularity of San Miguel de Allende don’t appear to serve the locals, rather the ex pats. And many locals are having to move further out of town and commute into their city as rents start being unaffordable.
During our stay we met quite a few ex pats but we also made a lot of local friends that we had met via couchsurfing. So we really got to see both sides! One of our ex pat friends who had come to San Miguel de Allende to submerse herself into the art scene and paint was offered a job at a local art gallery. She turned down the job as the salary was extremely low given the cost of living in San Miguel de Allende. Still, her offer was three times higher than the salary of our friend Jonam who is a local and had worked at the same gallery for a few years already.
Learning Spanish in San Miguel de Allende
We also took Spanish lessons from a local teacher throughout our entire stay. Luckily the homeowner who we housesat for had a great contact for us! Our teacher asked us to pay her the same she gets paid by the language school to teach us for an hour every day: 5 USD each. Yet, if we had wanted to book Spanish lessons at her school we would have been paying 20 USD per hour each and 50 USD for a private class. That’s on par with what I used to pay in London. And it also shows that once again, locals salaries haven’t increased while prices continue to rise!
San Miguel de Allende was the perfect spot for our intensive Spanish course! It really gave us the head start and basis we needed to communicate with locals and keep improving our Spanish throughout our travels in central and South America.
Who is most likely to enjoy San Miguel de Allende
As an independent traveller looking for an authentic Mexico there is definitely a risk that you are going to be put off by the amount of ex pats living here. And you will probably be put off by the prices too. But if you stay a little out of town you can still find an AirBnB around 20 USD and if you stick to local taco stands San Miguel de Allende is still do-able on smaller budgets.
I think San Miguel de Allende is great if money is not an obstacle and you are looking for a base to take that art class, learn Spanish or join a yoga studio. Do you like a bit of fine dining and rooftop bars at night but you are willing to accept that no matter how beautiful San Miguel de Allende is, it has lost some of its authenticity? Or perhaps you love the feel of smaller cities like me and San Miguel de Allende might just offer you that perfect balance.
If you are nearby or considering a detour to visit, I recommend it 100%. We loved our stay here! But it was only after discovering places like Oaxaca City, San Chrístobal de las Casas or even Guanajuato that we had to admit that San Miguel de Allende is nowhere near as authentic. So it’s a bit of a trade off. Do you want picture perfect or somewhere a little rougher but more authentic?
Are you heading to San Miguel de Allende? Do you have any questions we can help with? Or have you been already and want to share your thoughts? We’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment below 🙂
