One Great Road Trip from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende
Photographer Steve Boyle shares where to go for coffee, mezcal, and Monarch butterflies
Welcome back to One Great Trip, where a cool and curious traveler shares a recent stand-out adventure — including some of the best things they ate, drank, and did — to help inspire your own travels.
Philadelphia-based Steve Boyle has been a photographer for more than 20 years, often covering athletes and sports for editorial and commercial clients. But he’s also behind some of my favorite portraits and punchy, exhilarating lifestyle shots. (Just look at this one of a sky filled with BASE jumpers in West Virginia’s New River Gorge National Park!)
More recently, Steve has been showing off his beautiful travel photography, some of which he captured on a trip to Mexico this past winter. He and his girlfriend took a road trip from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, with a stop midway to for an epic hike to see Monarch Butterflies. Take a look below, and stay for Steve’s insights on coffee and street tacos, a worthwhile mezcal tasting, rental cars, and speed bumps.
Where: Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
February in Philadelphia is my least favorite month, thankfully it’s only 28 days. Well, 29 this year. My girlfriend’s birthday is January 31st and we make it a habit to exit the city within a day or 2 after that. Last year we landed on a 3-week trip to Mexico. You’re getting a peek into one of those weeks — the one that caused me to think every shadow in the road was a speed bump. BRAKE NOW!
Mexico City
We stayed in Roma Norte and hit our favorite coffee shop, Bou, daily. It was down the street from our Airbnb, which was — not by accident — next to Mi Compa Chava. Go for lunch, order something raw, DM me about it later.
Mexico City is one of my favorite cities in the world. Go to Lardo and sit at the bar, check out Entremar, have some tacos at El Parnita or El Vilsito and swing by Joe Gelato. Casa Gilardi is breathtaking if you like architecture. Sadly the library, Bibliotheca Vasconcelos, was closed when we went, otherwise I’m sure I’d be suggesting it alongside Luis Barragan’s beautiful indoor pool that plays effortlessly with the sun throughout the day.
Our adventure starts when we begin our journey to San Miguel de Allende by renting a car. Could we have flown or taken a bus, yes, but we wanted to see millions of monarch butterflies and aren’t fans of tours. Have you ever rented a car in Mexico City? No? Me either, but we survived and Google Maps is a large reason why. It took some minor arguing in my broken Spanish plus some pre-printed documents from Amex to convince them that I wasn’t buying extra insurance. Mex Rent-a-Car was the easiest outfit to do this with.
Sierra Chincua Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary
Once you navigate the chaos of Mexico City driving, Sierra Chincua is a three to four hour drive, depending on how many turns you miss. The roads are largely fine for 95% of it, but omfg, the speed bumps are gargantuan. If you blink and hit one at speed, your head will hit the roof and you’ll immediately question declining additional car insurance.
From the parking lot, it’s a hike to the middle of the forest. I’d call it easy to moderate, about 60-90 mins one away and extremely dusty. We were alone and pretty clueless but once we saw a few monarchs in the air, we looked up and went speechless. Millions, by my accurate counting. So many that the tree limbs were bending. It was the coolest reward for a hike that I can remember. We sat in awe until one landed on me while I was taking a photo of its friend. Be silent and don’t use flash, say the signs.
After hiking out we grabbed tacos at one of the vendors before restocking on road trip snacks and securing an addition to my ugly magnet collection at the souvenir stands. We weren’t the only ones there but saw less than 10 others the entire outing. They offer donkeys if you fear the hike but they only get you about 65% of the way. Avoid if you are able-bodied and moderately fit.
San Miguel de Allende
4 hours mas to our destination for 5 days, San Miguel de Allende. Highly recommend Meson Hidalgo to stay. Our room had a terrace where they brought us a light breakfast and coffee/tea each morning. There’s a small art gallery in the lobby and the cutest little shop. My girlfriend purchased table linens while I browsed the Mummer-esque portraits on the wall.
San Miguel is hilly, but walkable. There’s a stunning church on the main square that glows at night. There are florals everywhere, growing on the walls, up the face of multi story buildings, often sprouting seemingly from the concrete.
Both Fabrica La Aurora and Amatte are worth the hefty walks. The former is a massive art center with some artisan shops, the latter, a wellness spa & hotel but go for an afternoon bite or drink to enjoy the view. Solid option for sunset if you time it right.
Visit Ted Davis Galeria for an artist’s view of the town. He’s often there and is a pleasant presence. You must try Lavanda and Jacques Cafe for lunch. Ki’Bok for Coffee.
Do you know anything about mezcal? I didn’t either until I consumed enough of it during this trip to earn an honorary PhD. San Mezcal is an unintimidating place to start. The Room is also phenomenal and dedicated to the craft.
If Marcel is in town at Octogano Vino Ancestral, go say hi, buy whatever he recommends and book a tasting. It may be called a wine tasting, but I can’t recall. There was wine, there were snacks and then there was mezcal. It consumed our evening and was hands down my favorite night in town. Don’t miss the street tacos as you wander back to your lodging. Was I ill the next day from the drinking or the street meat? Don’t know, don’t care. Worth it, 11/10.
