The Locale of San Miguel de Allende

Why is San Miguel de Allende (sahn mee-GEHL deh a-YEHN-deh) one of Mexico's top rated destinations year after year? Perhaps it is because San Miguel's weather is nearly perfect year round. Perhaps it is because San Miguel de Allende's picturesque cobblestone streets and colonial architecture have inspired generations of artists.

San Miguel de Allende also offers visitors and residents a vibrant and lively community of artists, musicians and writers and a delightful mix of Mexican folk traditions, fiestas and religious celebrations.

Shopping in San Miguel de Allende is a shop-a-holic's dream - plenty of Mexican handicrafts, boutiques, art galleries and furniture and home decor to choose from. Thousands of people come to San Miguel de Allende every year to learn Spanish, study art, or take Mexican cooking classes.

San Miguel de Allende has been a designated historical landmark since 1930. As such, the town has preserved its colonial heritage by banning new style construction, neon signs and other heralds of "modernization". The colonial buildings remain today in the same style as when they were originally constructed.

Nothing, of course, can replace actually walking down the narrow cobblestone streets of San Miguel de Allende, A colonial village in a stunning setting, San Miguel has become known for its large colony of North Americans who come for its arts and culture. Starting around the 1940's, artists—painters, sculptors, writers, and poets—have come to San Miguel, which celebrated its 450th anniversary in 1992. But what brought them then is what still brings people today, and that is the beautiful scenery.

The physical exquisiteness of San Miguel stems from the hillside setting of its many lovely old buildings and streets, which offer vistas over the plains and distant hills and mountains. The Mexican government even went as far as to declare the entire town a national monument, ensuring that the cobblestone streets and colonial architecture would retain their original colonial charm. Sitting roughly 6000 feet on top of the highlands, or the Bajio of Mexico, San Miguel has a very agreeable climate and superbly clear light, which is one of the many reasons so many artists have come.

For a town its size, San Miguel offers a wide array of activities, for both day and night. As the saying goes about town, people retire to Florida to die, but retirees move to San Miguel to live. Concerts, plays, lectures, readings and art openings fill the weekly schedule, with bigger festivals like the Jazz and Chamber Music Festivals offering world famous entertainment. Plus, San Miguel is known all through Mexico for being the town that likes to have a fiesta for just about any reason. As the other saying goes, they only shot off fireworks in San Miguel on days that end in Y. Perhaps you should not take our word for it, maybe you should come and discover it for yourself.

Located 60 kilometers north of Queretaro, the colonial gem of San Miguel de Allende, population 80,000, is situated on a hillside facing the Laja River and the distant Guanajauto Mountains. Declared a national monument in 1926, San Miguel is a picturesque city of arched colonial mansions, flower-filled patios, and winding, terraced cobblestone streets. It is particularly beautiful in March, when flowering jacaranda trees are in bloom.

It is Mexico's most celebrated artists' community, and has been luring artistically inclined Mexicans and foreigners (about 3,500 Americans and Canadians) for decades. Instituto Allende, founded in 1951, is an intellectual center and arts academy of renown. There are also many other institutes focusing on arts, literature, and language. Despite this Anglo invasion, San Miguel is a very Mexican village.