Staged Tourism or a Celebration of Culture?

Staged Tourism or a Celebration of Culture? Folkloric dancing, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Almost every evening during our stay in San Miguel de Allende, there have been wonderful performances of traditional Mexican dances by San Miguel’s different folkloric troupes on a stage in the main square. The ‘staging’ of tourism, the recreation of cultural traditions through performance and the production of tourism as a series of staged events … Read more

San Miguel Take-Homes: Supermarket Souvenirs

Supermarket Souvenirs, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

As we found that prices are more or less similar in San Miguel de Allende to Mexico City, we decided not to do a Price Check here. We still wanted to provide some shopping tips for those of you who are planning on settle in for a while, so we thought we’d roll it into … Read more

Shopping Local in San Miguel de Allende

Shopping Local in San Miguel de Allende. Ave María and Shopping Local in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Specializing in cool, kitsch and quirky Mexicana – t-shirts, bags, jewellery, art, and interior design products — everything in Ave María, Giovanna Canela Miranda’s hip store in San Miguel de Allende, is ‘hecho en Mexico’ or ‘made in Mexico’, by Mexicans. That means that Giovanna has designed the products herself and commissioned Mexican artists and … Read more

Local Knowledge: Giovanna from San Miguel de Allende

Local Knowledge: Giovanna from San Miguel de Allende. Giovanna Canela Miranda, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

San Miguel de Allende, our second ‘home’ in Mexico, is renowned for its shopping. I was told it was possible to find anything here from anywhere in Mexico, and it seemed to be true. As I did the rounds of the stores, I saw every kind of Mexican handicraft and folk art conceivable, from the … Read more

The Streets of San Miguel de Allende

The streets of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

San Miguel de Allende is beautiful, our friends in Mexico City had told us. We believed them, but based on what we’d read and heard we somehow expected a Disney version of a Mexican town, with perfect buildings and immaculate streets, with all the gritty character and atmosphere painted over and scrubbed away. The streets … Read more