This has been a great year for San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. After topping several magazine readers' polls in 2020 as the "best city in the world" or "best small city in the world," they proved it wasn't a fluke by doing it again in 2021. Travel + Leisure readers named it the best city in the world, while Conde Nast Traveler's readers named it the best small city on the globe. Naturally, we have reviews of all the best hotels in the city on our site and there are a lot of really good ones to choose from. 

 

There's far more to see and do in the state of Guanajuato though than just stroll around the historic streets of San Miguel de Allende. It seems that people are starting to notice, with more media coverage of the region, more frequent awards for the wineries, and the announcement that Mexico's adventure travel conference--ATMEX--will be in Guanajuato next year in October. 

 

Since we are based in the capital city of Guanajuato, we did a bit more exploring in our backyard this year and put out some more articles about what you can find in the area. Add some extra time onto a planned visit to San Miguel and see more of what the area has to offer. Nothing is more than a few hours away, so you can even do day trips and return to either UNESCO World Heritage city at night. 

 

You'll find plenty of ways to "drink local" in Guanajuato state, with multiple craft breweries, dozens of wineries, mezcal distillers, and tequila makers: 

 

If you're a wine lover, you could spend days visiting various wineries without going very far after a visit to the wine museum in Dolores Hidalgo to map out your route. There's a bit about that in the article above, then this one on visiting ones near San Miguel de Allende, including spending the night at Tres Raices: 

 

We visited Mineral de Pozos for the first time this year and were enchanted with this atmospheric magic town filled with the ruins of abandoned mining areas. (That's it in the photo at the bottom.) See where to stay in the first link below, then check out this narrative story on another site about what it's like to spend time exploring it. 

 

What else? Well, Leon is the shoe capital of Mexico, so there's plenty of footwear and leather shopping there. But there are handicraft centers, well-known pottery artists, and Mexico's second-largest production area for tiles and ceramics. Get our recommendations here for Guanajuato City, Leon, Dolores Hidalgo, and San Miguel de Allende: 

 

If you are headed to San Miguel, there are plenty of things to do that don't involve eating or shopping. See these articles from the archives for ideas: 

 

This is not a difficult region to get to. The Leon/Guanajuato airport is served by American, Delta, United, and most of the Mexican airlines, or you can fly to Queretaro in a neighboring state, which is about the same distance from San Miguel. Mexico City is roughly four hours south. 

 

That's it for now, happy holidays! 

Timothy Scott, Editor

Luxury Latin America