Departure: Upon request
San Miguel de Allende has a reputation as a haven for artists. Since the 1950s, when Diego Rivera worked there, San Miguel de Allende has attracted painters, sculptors and printmakers. On the streets, it is not unusual to see someone sketching people on the street. Stroll beautiful streetscapes with narrow cobblestone lanes that rise and fall over the hilly terrain. Meet local and expatriate artists at work in their studios. Learn about San Miguel’s reputation that has brought people from abroad here to live. Learn why people have chosen this artistic town to live their dream. Discover Colorful San Miguel De Allende is your chance to dream, too!
ITINERARY
Day 1: Travel day to San Miguel, Welcome Dinner
You will be met at the airport after clearing customs by our representative and driven to your lovely accommodations.
6:00 pm: Local Travelian guides, Colleen Besman and Rodrigo Lopez, will meet travelers and take them out for a welcome dinner (included in tour price) and introduction to San Miguel. One or both of the guides will be with the travelers for all tours and excursions described; they will also be available to provide information that may be needed about services available in San Miguel. Rodrigo, originally from Mexico City, and Colleen, formerly of Seattle, both live in San Miguel with their spouses, and have worked together for five years organizing and leading tours throughout Mexico.
Accommodations in San Miguel de Allende will be at: Hotel Casa de Sierra Nevada (9 nights)
Day 2: Orientation, Historical Walking Tour, Explore Town
After breakfast, you will be given an orientation about San Miguel, an arts and cultural center in Central Mexico, founded by the Spanish in the 16th century, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. Guides will provide travelers with detailed itineraries, booklets with maps and suggested independent walking tours around town, detailed city maps and a list of highly recommended restaurants within walking distance of your accommodations.
Embark on a Historical Walking Tour of San Miguel with private guide from Patronato Pro Ninos, a local non-profit founded in 1970 to help provide health care for low-income children in San Miguel. The tour winds its way through the Historical Center of San Miguel, introducing you to many of its most important buildings and churches, while providing insight into the more than 450 years of San Miguel history.
Your afternoon and evening are free to explore as you wish and get to know the town “your way”.
Day 3: Mask Museum and Aurora Design Center
Discover the La Otra Cara de Mexico Mask Museum. This is a stunning, private collection of hundreds of authentic, traditional Mexican dance masks, which will be presented to the travelers by the collector, Bill Lavasseur. It is the largest collections of masks that have been used in indigenous dances throughout Mexico, and is the result of decades of collecting by Bill from dancers, mask-makers and keepers of local traditions.
Visit the Aurora Art and Design Center for Artists Open Studios and have lunch. The Fabrica Aurora Art and Design Center was originally a turn-of-the-century cotton textiles factory. In 2001 the owners converted the factory, which had been unused for 10 years, into a complex of spaces for artists’ workshops, galleries, antique and handcrafts stores, design shops, and an outdoor café.
Return to hotel and rest of the day is free.
Day 4: Guanajuato Excursion
You begin a full day of exploring the historical city of Guanajuato for a guided walking tour of the capital city of the state. Guanajuato, named for the frog-like hilltops which encircle the city, was established in the mid-1500s in the narrow valley the Spanish found below hillsides with veins of silver and gold. A photographer’s dream of a city is filled with colonial-era buildings, colorful hillside homes, museums dedicated to Diego Rivera and Don Quixote, among others, silversmiths, open air plazas, the Teatro Juarez and the Mercado Hidalgo, shaped like a train station with a clock face designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel.
Visit the studio/shop of famed Gorky Gonzales, a prize winning artist and ceramicist with art studies in Mexico and Japan. Enjoy lunch in one of the city’s finest regional-cuisine restaurants. Then, begin the return trip to San Miguel through the mountains with a stop at the Capelo ceramics workshop and home high in the hills above the City of Guanajuato in the region of the La Valenciana silver mine, one of the richest deposits in all of Mexico.
Capelo is famous throughout Mexico for his highly-prized ceramics featuring soft, almost translucent glazes. A second stop on the return will also feature ceramics, those produced by local artists in the village of Santa Rosa, situated 10,000 feet up in the mountains of Guanajuato. (Travelers will have the opportunity to purchase pieces either from Gorky Gonzales, Capelo, or from the artists in Santa Rosa.)
Your evening is free to dine and stroll the scenic town as you wish.
Day 5: Artists Tour Day
Today you meet artists at work in their studios.
Artists Tour in San Miguel area, visiting homes/studios of three different artists, with lunch to be taken between the second and third visits. The artists to be visited are among the best-known in San Miguel, with international reputations as well. The specific artists to be visited on the three days of Artists Tours will be arranged based upon the schedules of the particular artists, and with the goal of traveling to see a set of artists with close-by homes/studios in locations outside of the city. Lunch will be taken in an idyllically set restaurant and retreat near Atotonilco, north of San Miguel.
After lunch you will also visit the 18th century Jesuit Sanctuary of Atotonilco, one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture and art in Mexico, and often referred to as the Sistine Chapel of Mexico for its elaborately painted ceiling.
Day 6: Free Morning & Afternoon Mayan Baths
The first part of your day is free to explore as you wish.
Later in the afternoon you will be met at your hotel and taken to the Mayan Baths, a private thermal hot springs site north of town, to enjoy a late afternoon/sunset swim in daily-filled fresh thermally heated pools in a stunning granite and crystal grotto. Enjoy dinner and drinks to be offered at the site. (Bathing suit and towel needed for swimming.)
Day 7: Artists Tour Day #2
Enjoy a second day of Artists Tours with Hope Palmer. Lunch will be at a location convenient to the homes/studios to be visited. Meet Ex pats who are living their dream of creating art in San Miguel. Evening at leisure for you to dine, relax, wander, go to a spa, shop or do photography in town.
Day 8: Artists Tour Day #3
Meet more artists living their dream! Enjoy other parts of the surrounding region.
Day 9: Explore Town, Hacienda Farewell Luncheon
After a leisurely morning, you are met at your hotel and are driven east to Hacienda Purisima, a completely refurbished grand hacienda that maintains its glorious heritage in its present incarnation as an inn. It features extensive organic gardens, horses, native succulents and vistas of the nearby lake. Travelers will enjoy a tour of the hacienda grounds, followed by a farewell luncheon with guides Hope, Bruce, Colleen and Rodrigo.
Return late in the afternoon to relax or finish packing.
Day 10: Depart San Miguel De Allende
You are driven to the airport for your flight homebound.
Cost from $3595.00 per person, based on twin share
Single supplement applies: from $1500.00
NOTE: Cost based on 6 persons — for less persons a surcharge applies
CALL NOW to BOOK 415-331-3791
Includes:
– Shuttles from-to airports
-Accommodations for 9 nights
-All breakfasts
-One Welcome Dinner at The Restaurant
-One Lunch at Nirvana
-One evening at The Mayan Baths (a private thermal pools establishment in the countryside) with dinner
-All private tours
-One Farewell Lunch at La Purisima Hacienda
-All transportation during the stay
-Fees for guides
-All gratuities
-All entrance fees
Does not include:
-International airfare
-Travel insurance
-Any other personal item not listed as included
-Drinks
