Day Trips From San Miguel de Allende: Guanajuato and Dolores Hidalgo, Planned From Our Door

Have your complimentary breakfast with us and leave around 9. The drive is about an hour, so you'll reach Guanajuato before the middle of the morning, which is when the steep center is easiest to walk. Wear shoes with grip. The city sits at about 2,045 meters and almost nothing in it is flat.

Start at the Jardín de la Unión, the small garden square that most of the center radiates from. Teatro Juárez faces it, and it's the building you'll see on every postcard of the city. We'd spend half an hour here getting your bearings, because the next three stops all start within a short walk of this square. You can see the funicular from the Jardín, which is your next move.

Take the funicular up the hillside to the El Pípila monument. It's the easiest way to the best viewpoint over the city, and it saves you a steep climb on foot. From the top you understand Guanajuato in one look: a bowl of hills packed with houses in every color. Ride down, or walk down if your knees are willing. Go in the morning, before the afternoon light flattens the view.

From Teatro Juárez, follow Avenida Juárez for about 450 meters to the Plazuela de los Ángeles, and the alley is just off it. The Callejón del Beso is a narrow lane where two balconies face each other only centimeters apart, and it carries the city's best-known legend of forbidden lovers. Honestly, it takes a minute to see. The story is the reason to go, so let someone local tell it to you.

Mercado Hidalgo is the city's big covered market, and its entrance is one of Guanajuato's landmarks in its own right. We'd make it a casual lunch stop and an hour of wandering the stalls, rather than a sit-down affair. Save the long dinner for San Miguel, where our concierge keeps a handpicked list of restaurants for you.

The Alhóndiga de Granaditas is a massive colonial granary that became one of the key sites of the independence war, and it's a good bridge to tomorrow's visit to Dolores Hidalgo. Its esplanade is also one of the stages of the Festival Internacional Cervantino, the arts festival Guanajuato hosts each year. Give it 45 minutes if history is your thing; skip it if the morning's hills have done you in.

Leave through Guanajuato's underground roads. The city runs much of its traffic through tunnels below the center, something Wikivoyage calls unique in the world, and driving them is part of the visit. From there it's about an hour home. You're always welcome in the courtyard: the pools and jacuzzi are a fair reward for a day of slopes.

Begin on the main square, where a statue of Miguel Hidalgo overlooks the parish church. This is where it started: on the morning of September 16, 1810, Hidalgo rang one of the parish bells and called the town to rise against New Spain, the moment known as the Grito de Dolores. The tourist office is on the square at Plaza Principal 11, second floor, open Monday to Friday 10:00-17:00, and hands out free sightseeing maps. The town is small enough that everything after this is a walk.

This was Hidalgo's home, now a museum. If you only see one thing in Dolores beyond the plaza, make it this one, since it gives the square outside its meaning. An hour is plenty.

José Alfredo Jiménez, one of Mexico's most loved ranchera singer-songwriters, was born in Dolores, and his house museum is a tribute to his life and music. You don't need to know his songs to enjoy it, though you'll probably leave humming one. It's the lighter, more personal counterpoint to the morning's history.

Dolores is famous for its artisanal ice cream, nieves, sold around the main square in dozens of flavors, some of which you won't find anywhere else. This is the stop people remember. Be adventurous with at least one scoop. Then head home and be back with us in time for a slow afternoon.