From smog-choked Mexico City to the cartel-infested jungles of Tulum, Mexico could be rather a lot.
But tucked away from the tourist traps, from Baja to the Yucatán, are a wealthy collection of cultural gems.
In these pint-sized places, where the automobile horns and screeching camote sellers disappear right into a concert of mariachi music and the faint hauls of marauding coyotes — even soothing silencio. Below is a have a look at Mexico’s best, most peaceful and safest small towns.
Mission possible
When the rampant development along Baja’s southern tip gets too annoying, Todos Santos, an hour’s drive from the San Jose del Cabo International Airport, beckons.
Founded as a mission 300 years ago, this once sleepy community, beloved by interloping artists and surfers, has definitely been discovered, but not bombarded — yet. Especially in high season, and particularly on the favored Los Cerritos beach, there aren’t any shortage of tourists.
Luckily, there are many places to cover away. Try certainly one of the reimagined haciendas within the historic center, or check into Villa Santa Cruz (from $700), a boutique hotel on the attractive Playa Tortugas shoreline with ocean suites, bungalows and rooftop villas.
For ultimate leisure, hit Paradero Todos Santos (from $600). It’s where guests go soak up sweeping Baja desert views in hammocks and soaking tubs.
Mariachi mecca
Tlaquepaque is a town tucked into the booming city of Guadalajara that has in some way managed to retain a tranquil vibe. Hotels just like the neocolonial La Villa del Ensueño (from $113) let guests disappear into what was once a stately home.
Enterprise out into the rows and rows of colourful streets, like pedestrian-only Calle Independencia, and soak up the textiles, tequila and ceramics.
Tlaquepaque is understood for its pottery, much of which is crafted within the neighboring suburb of Tonalá,
and a union of 150 local artisans have arrange shop next to Plaza Parian. Tlaquepaque can be an excellent place
to listen to mariachi — which was born in Jalisco — and to eat excellent authentic cuisine.
Head to restaurants like El Patio, where an all-female mariachi band plays three afternoons each week.
Secret societies
Home to greater than 800,000 residents and a thriving metal goods and machinery industry, northcentral
Mexico’s Querétaro is in no way a small town. But its colonial center, where Mexicans first declared their independence from Spain, feels that way with a grid of small, pedestrian-only streets. Here you’ll find Hacienda Jurica (from $150), a Sixteenth-century marvel that was converted right into a hotel in 1969.
There’s a stellar row of restaurants with outdoor patios fronting the Plaza de los Fundadores, which is a
short walk from the unique Museum of Calendars, the world’s first collection of ancient calendars.
An hour away lies a good smaller secret, Guanajuato, whose patchwork of pastel homes and boutique hotels stretch up the steep hills of the Mesa Central. The streets are tightly pinched together and best explored on foot. Once the world’s leading silver extraction center, this UNESCO World Heritage city is loaded with beautiful Baroque and neoclassical buildings, plazas and tunnel roads.
Holy molé
Puebla is one other big city asking a small town. The country’s fourth-largest metropolis with 3.3 million residents, its core can be a Unesco World Heritage site with strollable streets radiating from the Zócalo, the town’s essential square.
Like Querétaro, Puebla has revolutionary roots: In 1910, three brothers plotted the overthrow of the Porfirio DÃaz regime and their house was surrounded by federal troops.
That very same home is now on a pleasing street to buy sweets. This can be certainly one of the few places in Mexico where Cinco de Mayo means something, because it was in here that troops fought back the forces of Napoleon III within the Battle of Puebla.
The Nineteenth-century Banyan Tree Puebla (from $239) combines three separate Renaissance- and neoclassical-style private homes. Guests of that hotel can walk safely to the historic center and check out molé — in certainly one of the places that first created the thick, brown sauce. En route is the oldest public library within the Americas, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana.
A cherry cobbler
Chiapas is Mexico’s poorest state in economic resources, but certainly one of its richest in natural beauty. The highland valley’s pine forests offer a lush contrast to the country’s often arid climes.
Head to San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Its narrow, cobbled streets are colonial gems, where donkeys still deliver produce to buildings with wrought-iron balconies and red tile roofs. The hotel Sombra del Agua (from $111) has been welcoming guests since 1907, and its restaurant, Tarumba, serves a few of the most effective food on the town.
The Santo Domingo Church is home to town’s large open-air crafts market and exquisite textiles made by indigenous people — who make up 1 / 4 of Chiapas’ residents — and the Casa Na Bolom Museum.
