ounded in 1542, San Miguel is a city of approximately 80,000 people, located about 180 miles northwest of Mexico City, in the Central Highlands. It is a colorful, interesting, festival-loving place of great beauty. And, at 6400 feet above sea level, San Miguel also has a superb year-round climate of cool nights and bright, warm days.

The Mexican government designed San Miguel a protected heritage city in the 1920s. Today it is impossible to walk its cobblestone streets, explore its centuries-old cathedrals and pass its Colonial mansions without being aware that here a unique heritage has been protected. In San Miguel, there are no billboards, neon signs, or strip malls – not even traffic lights. To a remarkable degree, the city is modern in its amenities and Renaissance in its appearance.

San Miguel is an easy place to visit – and to stay. The pace is leisurely, the people friendly, the air warm and inviting, the flowers bright, the buildings endlessly colorful and the light magical.

It is that rarity – a city that welcomes visitors while, at the same time, retaining its own distinct Mexican character and culture. San Miguel has for decades had a robust minority population of people from the United States and Canada, which helps to explain the fact that the San Miguel has the second-largest bilingual library in Mexico. The visitor from the north will experience a new and interestingly-different culture, while finding enough familiar elements to feel comfortable in its midst.

There is a great deal for the visitor to do in San Miguel. The city is a walker’s (and photographer’s) paradise. The artisans market, Tuesday open-air market and fruit and vegetable markets are definitely worth visiting. And on from there – hiking, biking, golf, exploring canyon lands by horseback, bathing in the hot springs (of which there are several nearby), all sorts of language, arts & crafts, dance and cooking classes, movies, night clubs, musical concerts, fiestas– according to the guidebooks, San Miguel has more fiestas each year than any other town in Mexico, world-class restaurants, fine galleries and shops and – some would say best of all – people watching in El Jardin, the central square.

San Miguel de Allende is included in the best-selling book "1000 Places to See Before You Die."  In 2005, the readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine voted San Miguel their second favorite city to visit in the Americas.  In Spring 2005, the Fine Living cable channel had an hour-long documentary on San Miguel.  Also in 2005, the “New York Times” Sunday Travel Section devoted a full page to the delights that await the visitor to this wonderful city.

San Miguel Photo Galleries