Like San Miguel, Guanajuato is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a wealth of well-preserved colonial buildings
If you’ve heard of just one city in Mexico’s colonial highlands, it’s probably San Miguel de Allende. And with reason. San Miguel’s mountain location is stunning, its colonial buildings are beautiful and well-preserved, and its ambience is vibrant. It’s no wonder that tourists flock here and thousands of expats call it home.
But San Miguel is not the only beautiful city in this region. In Mexico, the colonial highlands are filled with cities that are rich in history, culture and charm. Whether you’re coming as a tourist or scouting out a place to live, here are four other cities in the colonial highlands to consider putting on your list.
The colonial town of Dolores Hidalgo is just a 45-minute drive from San Miguel—close enough to visit for lunch. If you do, save room for dessert from the ice cream vendors in the town’s main square. They sell a staggering variety of flavors, including such oddities as avocado, shrimp, and pork-rind-flavored ice cream, all home-made.
Dolores Hidalgo is small-town living, but it’s conveniently located between the larger cities of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, the state capital.
Guanajuato: an easy hour’s drive from San Miguel
Guanajuato has narrow, cobbled streets that wind around the city’s many hills. Like San Miguel, Guanajuato is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a wealth of well-preserved colonial buildings. Walking through parts of Guanajuato is like stepping back in time. The city is home to universities, museums, and the International Cervantes Festival, which is one of Latin America’s most important annual arts festivals. Guanajuato fills up during the Cervantino—which this year is being held October 13 to November 7—but is usually tranquil the rest of the year.
Not surprisingly, Guanajuato has attracted a sizeable expat community. Expats are drawn by Guanajuato’s many amenities and its genuinely Mexican feel. It’s also affordable. For instance, recently you could have rented a two-story, three-bedroom, fully-furnished home right in Guanajuato’s historic center for $1,200 a month. On a tighter budget? You can find modern homes and apartments here renting for $600 to $800 a month. In fact, on the outskirts you can find small apartments renting for as little as $400 a month.
If you prefer being away from it all, check out Mineral de Pozos, just 45 minutes from San Miguel. A century ago, Mineral de Pozos was a thriving silver-mining town, with about 75,000 inhabitants. But wars and competition from other mining areas took their toll. Pozos’ last mine closed in 1927. Until just a few years ago, only a few dozen people remained.
Today Pozos is coming back to life. Both Mexicans and expats are moving here, building homes, and setting up businesses. Besides the thrill of reviving a ghost town, they’re drawn to the area’s stark beauty. This countryside is high plains desert—Pozos sits at 7,500 feet—with thorny cactus patches and rolling dunes covered with scrub grass. Pozos itself is a city of ruins; everywhere you see arches, columns, and other remains of once-grand buildings.
Come for a day trip to wander the area around Pozos and look at some real estate. Just $100,000 can get you a cozy one-bedroom adobe home on a 6,000-square-foot lot. Less than $250,000 buys you a spacious Spanish colonial-style home on nearly an acre of land.
Queretaro: A colonial heart
Finally, for those who love big cities, there’s Querétaro. This city of perhaps 800,000 people has modern efficiency and a colonial heart—one of the most beautiful historic centers in Mexico. Querétaro has grown rapidly in recent years as companies in Mexico City have moved here for the higher quality of life Querétaro offers.
Querétaro is an important business center, and most expats, frankly, live here for business reasons. But retirees with an urban bend can find plenty to like in Querétaro. Stroll the historic center—another UNESCO World Heritage site—past the grand 18th century palaces and convents on your way to a small, secret garden or a favorite plaza. Then hit the shopping malls, the Cineplex, or any of the other modern conveniences you’ll find in Querétaro. And it’s hard not to love the mild climate, which is spring-like most of the year.
Despite the influx from Mexico City, prices in Querétaro are still reasonable. You can find three-bedroom homes in some of Querétaro’s most elegant neighborhoods for less than $250,000. And I recently saw a two-bedroom apartment, nearly 3,000 square feet of space and right in the historic center, listed for just $180,000—the perfect digs for an urban couple.
These are just a few of the many cities worth checking out in this region. So on your next trip to Mexico’s colonial highlands, be sure to see San Miguel…but save a little time for the area’s other gems.
Editor’s Note: Learn more about living in Mexico at IL’s upcoming Live and Invest in Mexico Seminar. Join us this November on Mexico’s gorgeous Caribbean Coast, to find out exactly why Mexico is so perfect for anybody looking to own a second home… move full-time… or live the good life on a very modest budget.
