We recently traveled to Mexico’s second largest city (behind its capital, Mexico City): Guadalajara. As expected, it was not built around tourism but rather around everyday life, which was a welcome and refreshing feel for us.
The city is huge and bustling with life, but each neighborhood has a slightly different feel. We loved walking around the historical Centro, especially Plaza de la Liberacion. We stumbled upon a huge street party one Thursday night which was so fun: lights everywhere and it seemed the whole city had come out to see what was going on.
Another area was the small town of Tlaquepaque (which is fun to say!), that has been swallowed up by the big city but retains its charming character. It is a bit touristy on the weekends, so we ventured back to the area one weeknight to see it without all the crowds. It was one of our favorite areas of the city.
We also visited the town of Tequila and enjoyed taste-testing many different types of tequila and people watching in the small town square (we even witnessed a proposal!).
Finally, we also took a day trip to Mexico’s largest lake, Lake Chapala. The towns of Chapala and Ajijic line its shores and we wish we’d had more time to spend in the beautiful and charming town of Ajijic.
