Colonial Mexico is a fabulous trip to Europe without the dent in your pocket book and without taking out your credit cards. So much of the feeling of European architecture is here in the old colonial centros of the towns like Queretaro, Guanajuato, Puebla, Cuernavaca and of course Mexico City.

The official word on Mexican National News last year was 30 million inhabitants. Ofcourse that is a little intimidating but what a charming fabulous international city... the latest music, the latest fashions, fabulous restaurants, nightlife that is better than most European destinations and the Mexicans have a flair and such great taste that once bitten you will always come back. Women generally do not pay to get into clubs and the door is watched carefully to let only fairly decent people in who obviously have the ability to pay their way. It is not odd or strange or stoned feeling like New York hot clubs, just an incredible amount of fun. During the day there are endless lovely neighbourhoods that are treelined and filled with cafes and shops for a couple of blocks at a time and then stunning homes from Spanish Colonial times. Some are stores are businesses now but the majority are obviously still family homesteads. With any luck the city you will enjoy this vast fast city without the smog. It is so very much less than it used to be 10 years ago.

Then there are other fabulous place to visit that are colonial but surely do not feel like Europe. Taxco, Dolores Hidalgo, Guadalajara, San Cristobal de las Casas and Vera Cruz. They are feel like you are totally in another culture which with time you will come to know as distinctly Mexican. Nothing feels like anywhere else in the world you have ever been. In some you feel like a cowboy a century ago. Nothing like looking at lovely woven fabrics while a pet pig is at your feet, tied like a dog  but it is a pig and yet is brown with long hair and obeys like favourite pet. Then you look into the beautiful dark eyes of the lady vendor and feel you have never had anyone look at you so long and so deeply.

These marvelous some five hundred year old colonial town centers are under protection now.  They cannot suddenly build elevators and stop lights and many are still lined with only cobblestone streets. You do not feel any modernization and no sameness of anything. Time seems to simply elongate. A week in these places can feel like a month. The most amazing is how you feel it opens your heart!For visiting San Miguel, the why and wherefore, come to www.sanmiguelconcierge.com