San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende sits on the high central plateau, many hours' drive from the Pacific or the Gulf, so there is no beach life at all. Swimming means a hotel pool or the warm spring-fed pools in the countryside nearby, which are a place to soak rather than swim. Anyone who wants sea and sand should plan a separate leg of the trip.

For a town of its size San Miguel eats remarkably well. Around the Jardín and the streets that run off it there are rooftop terraces looking over the Parroquia, courtyard restaurants in colonial houses and chefs reworking Bajío ingredients such as nopal, mesquite and local cheeses. At the cheaper end there are gorditas and tamales from street stalls, the evening taco carts, the Mercado Ignacio Ramírez and the Sunday tianguis, where weekenders and local families eat side by side.

Mezcal and tequila bars are everywhere, and the wineries of Guanajuato's high desert supply a fair share of the wine lists. The cooking is good rather than deep, though. A large part of the scene caters to foreign residents and weekend visitors, and after a week the menus start to look alike.

The town itself is the attraction. Its UNESCO-listed centre is a hillside grid of cobbled streets, ochre and terracotta façades, carved doorways and quiet courtyards, and it is dominated by the pink neo-Gothic spires of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel on the main square. Within a few blocks are the baroque Oratorio de San Felipe Neri, the church of San Francisco, the Templo de la Concepción with its tall dome, and the Casa de Allende museum in the birthplace of the independence hero.

The former convent that houses the Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramírez, known as Bellas Artes, has an unfinished Siqueiros mural, and art schools and galleries are part of the town's identity. Major museums are missing, though, and a visitor can cover the main sights in two unhurried days.

Evenings here start with a drink on a rooftop as the Parroquia lights up, then move to mezcal bars and cantinas in the streets around the Jardín. On Friday and Saturday nights, when visitors arrive from Mexico City and Querétaro, the centre stays busy until late and a few dance bars keep going into the early hours. During the week, and for the many older residents, the night tends to end soon after dinner. It is a sociable, pleasant place for drinks, but anyone looking for a real club scene will find very little.

The town looks out over the semi-arid highlands of the Bajío, a landscape of scrub, cactus and mesquite under a big dry-season sky. On the edge of town El Charco del Ingenio is a botanical garden and nature reserve built around a canyon, with walking trails among cacti and views over the Allende reservoir. Horse riding on the ranches, mountain biking on dirt roads and dawn hot-air balloon flights over the valley are the main outdoor activities.

The summer rains turn the hills briefly green, and the clear, mild winters are the best time for walking. There are no real mountains, forests or water sports, so outdoor time works best as a morning out between days in town.

Day trips are one of the best reasons to stay here. Guanajuato, a silver-mining city of painted houses packed into a ravine and threaded by underground roads, is a little over an hour away. The colonial centre of Querétaro, with its aqueduct and baroque convents, is about an hour away. Closer still is the Sanctuary of Atotonilco, a church whose interior is covered in folk-baroque murals and which shares the town's UNESCO listing.

Dolores Hidalgo, where the independence war began and where talavera pottery is made, is under an hour north. You can also visit the half-ruined mining town of Mineral de Pozos, the pyramid site of Cañada de la Virgen, Bernal at the foot of its great monolith, and the vineyards of the Guanajuato and Querétaro wine country. Buses link the cities, but the smaller places need a car or a driver.

San Miguel is an adult town of galleries, restaurants and rooftop bars, with almost nothing designed for children. The steep cobbled streets and narrow, uneven pavements make pushchairs hard work. On the other hand, the centre is small and relaxed, the Jardín is full of balloon sellers and families in the evening, and Mexican culture welcomes children everywhere. Older children will enjoy the warm spring pools, a horse ride or the fireworks and parades of the town's many fiestas, but younger ones may soon run out of things to do.

The historic centre is small enough that everything a visitor wants is within a walk of the Jardín. The walking itself takes effort, though. The streets are steep and paved with uneven stones, the pavements are narrow and the altitude of about 1,900m makes the climbs feel harder, so flat, sturdy shoes matter. Local buses exist but visitors rarely use them, and taxis are cheap for trips up the hill or to the hot springs. There is no airport in town, so arrival means a shuttle from Querétaro or León, and most day trips beyond the bus routes to Guanajuato and Querétaro need a driver, a tour or a hire car.

Shopping here means crafts, art and things for the house, not fashion. The Mercado de Artesanías runs down a stepped lane full of punched tin lanterns, blown glass, papier-mâché, embroidered textiles and silver jewellery. Around the centre, design shops sell carved furniture, talavera tiles, rugs and folk art from across Mexico, often of high quality. A former textile mill on the north edge of town is filled with artists' studios, galleries and antique dealers. There are no big brands or department stores, and the best of the décor shops are aimed at buyers furnishing a second home.

San Miguel is one of the more expensive places to visit in Mexico. Much of its accommodation is in boutique hotels in colonial houses, and restaurants around the Jardín charge prices aimed at foreign residents and weekend visitors from the capital. Rooms are dearest at weekends and during the big festivals. Costs drop quickly away from the centre, though. Street food, market lunches, local cantinas and taxis are still cheap, and most of the sights are churches and streets that cost nothing to enjoy.

For its size, the town has a lot of music. The Teatro Ángela Peralta, a nineteenth-century theatre, hosts concerts, dance and visiting productions, and long-established chamber music and jazz festivals fill the calendar in their seasons. Every evening mariachi bands play for hire on the Jardín, and many bars and restaurants have live guitar, son or rock. The big fiestas, especially the Alborada for the patron saint and the processions of Holy Week, bring street music and traditional dance. Outside the festivals, the formal programme is thin and mostly amateur or touring.

Much of San Miguel's appeal is its pace. Mornings are spent with coffee in a courtyard and afternoons on a quiet rooftop, and the dry, mild climate suits doing very little. The main draw for wellness is the warm mineral springs in the valley towards Atotonilco, about fifteen minutes away. There, open-air pools and domed grottoes fed by naturally hot water make a relaxing half day, best on a weekday morning. In town, day spas, massage studios, temazcal sweat lodges and yoga classes cater to the large resident community. Weekend crowds and church bells are the only real disturbance.