I vividly remember our first visit to this wonderful town.  A few years ago, our first RV road trip into Mexico had started out as expected: we crossed the border at Laredo, Texas and were heading south via the ‘safe’ route south through Monterrey/Saltillo and Matehuala. 

Upon arriving in San Luis Potosi, we searched for a place to camp.  One of our guidebooks listed no less than three camping options.  However, after driving around the city for two hours, we found that none of the three campgrounds was still open for business!

While we continued heading south towards Mexico City, I was reading the Lonely Planet guidebook about the area, and came across a section describing “a stunning city with cobblestone streets and colonial architecture.”  We left the highway and headed there: the town of San Miguel de Allende (or “SMA”), our first colonial town in Mexico. 

Since our first visit, we have returned several times and it is one of our favorite destinations in Mexico.

Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel on the city's main square
(Click pictures to increase size)
 

San Miguel de Allende sits at 5,900 feet (1.800 meters).  Thanks to the altitude, the days are warm but the nights are chilly, which is great for a good night’s rest.  What’s not great for a good night’s rest is Mexicans’ love of fireworks. I’m not talking about the pretty version of fireworks that explode into a waterfall of colors in the sky.  I’m talking about loud bangs, as if a canon gets fired every few minutes. While visiting the town, you’ll likely be hearing regular loud bangs; usually right before church mass starts.  Fireworks is especially a nuisance during religious events (which seem to happen on a weekly basis in Mexico), when fireworks are lit at every possible hour of the night!

Life in San Miguel is wonderful: waking up to chilly temperatures; having breakfast while waiting for the warm sun to appear; getting to know other travellers and discussing travel routes and vehicles; heading into town to see the beautiful colonial buildings and cobblestone streets; watching the many parades or festivals in town; eating great street food like vegetarian tamales (vegetable and cheese paste wrapped inside leaves of plantains) followed by chocolate churro’s for dessert; and closing the day with a glass of wine or a cold Mexican beer.

All within walking distance along cobblestone streets are many plazas, churches, museums, popular language schools, cafes and parks.  To make the town even more picturesque, there are no traffic lights nor are there any billboards!  SMA even boasts the oldest bullring in Central America, which is – unfortunately – still in use today. 

We walked around the town at all hours of the day, from early morning to late evenings. We never felt unsafe even for one second.

SMA is a good place to brush up on your Spanish skills: they have many language schools right in the historical center.  The schools offer a crash course in Spanish for tourists. We had no Spanish skills to start with so we didn’t make the effort to go to a school, instead choosing to study the language by using learning apps on our mobile devices.  Our Spanish wasn’t anything close to correct but at the very least, we could travel without too many difficulties.  It’s surprising how far you can get by learning some key words and sentences!

SMA has plenty of international restaurants but we prefer to stick to the local restaurants.  As a wise traveler once said: “if a restaurant has a menu in English: run!”

Most Mexican street food includes pork (puerco), beef (res) or chicken (pollo).  The local pollo al carbon (grilled chicken) smells awesome.  Mexico also grows its own cocoa beans and produces its own chocolate.  Apparently, cocoa is grown in the nearby state of Tabasco.  Being from Belgium, I grew up on cheese and chocolate so I was pleasantly surprised by the tasty Mexican chocolates.   A specialty chocolate store is located a few blocks next to SMA’s park: Parque Juarez.

Plaza San Antonio, near the Tennis Courts RV park
 

A few blocks north of the main plaza (the Jardín) is SMA’s municipal market.  If you crave some authentic culture and food, head to the nearest municipal market.  It doesn’t get more authentic than this: meats and fish; covered in flies; are displayed out in the open, including large pieces of raw pork skin and butchers who make ground beef by grinding … well, beef.  Who knew that beef was supposed to be the only ingredient as opposed to buckets of animal fat and other unidentified ingredients?  Vendors sell huge bags of colorful spices and most importantly, a tasty, full meal including a drink can be had for about 2 USD per person!

Enjoying churro's and fresh juice
 

All of the above can only mean one thing: SMA is an expensive town for Mexican standards.  There are so many gringos (foreigners) living here that real estate prices have risen to unaffordable levels for many Mexicans, especially when you consider that the middle class only makes an average of 1,000 USD per month.  Definitely not a good thing, but on the other hand, all the foreign money did help in turning SMA into the beautifully renovated colonial town that it is today.  5% Of the approximately 140,000 residents are foreigners.

Not surprisingly (well, maybe a little) SMA was voted “Best small city in the world” in 2013, 2017 and 2018 by the readers of travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler.  The International Office of Cultural Capitals (IBOCC) designated SMA as the “American Capital of Culture” for 2019, a price for which the city receives the equivalent of two million dollars in paid advertising in 45 countries.  It’s also a designated Pueblo Mágico, a designation given by Mexico's Secretariat of Tourism (SECTUR) to promote certain towns that offer visitors a “magical” experience due to natural beauty, cultural riches or historical relevance.  And to think that barely 100 years ago this town was at risk of becoming a ghost town because of the influenza pandemic. 

The future is bright for SMA …

Another interesting attraction is located just a few miles north of SMA: the town of Atotonilco.  In 2008, UNESCO designated SMA and Atotonilco as a World Heritage Site.  The local church in the small village of Atotonilco is referred to as the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas” as its ceilings are covered in elaborate, beautiful drawings.  Check it out on Sundays when the market is in town with great (and cheap) street food!

Atotonilco, a few miles north SMA and near Hotel San Ramon RV park

Be advised: as SMA is a colonial town with narrow streets, avoid driving into the historical center town with anything bigger than a car.  Instead, take the ring road (periférico).  One campground is located in town; the other is located just outside of town.  Both provide full hookups, WiFi and warm showers.  Note that if your RV is anything bigger than 24 feet or if you have a travel trailer longer than 16 feet, your only choice is the campground outside of town.

The campground in town; the “Tennis Courts RV”; is one of our favorites in Mexico and Central America: a central location in a beautiful colonial town, a safe neighborhood, friendly management, fast Wi-Fi internet, hot showers and most importantly, plenty of other overlanders who are most likely driving the Pan-American route from Alaska to Argentina.

The campground outside of town; hotel San Ramon; is the one to go to if you have a big RV or if you prefer quietness.  The Tennis Courts RV park gets quite noisy as it is located in town and you hear up-close all the daily fireworks bangs.  Hotel San Ramon is located a few miles/kilometers north of SMA and is the campground of choice it seems for Norteamericanos or gringos that stay for the entire winter in their big rigs.

One of the many parades that can be seen in San Miguel de Allende
 

Panoramic view of San Miguel de Allende

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