The Travelers’ Choice Awards Best of the Best title recognizes the highest level of excellence in travel. “Out of our 8 million listings, fewer than 1% achieve this milestone,” Tripadvisor says on its website, which has yet to show the new award information.
The sun sets behind San Miguel’s Church of the Immaculate Conception. (Daniels Joffe/Unsplash)
The accolade is awarded to “those who receive a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews and opinions from the Tripadvisor community over a 12-month period,” the platform says. Previously, such recognition belonged to Cancún.
Tripadvisor’s award adds to praise heaped on San Miguel de Allende throughout the years — it is a five-time winner of the world’s “Best Small City” award by Condé Nast Traveler, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Travel + Leisure magazine’s Best City in the World.
“It’s the type of place that our readers come back to, year in and year out, and a destination where many travelers want to put down roots,” T+L said of San Miguel de Allende, which surpassed cities on the ranking like Florence (No. 6), Tokyo (No. 19) or Rome (No. 14).
Located in the far eastern part of Guanajuato in the Bajío region, San Miguel de Allende stands out for it’s cultural and culinary offerings and is a popular destination for wellness tourism. Moreover, it is a historical city that combines Spanish heritage with Indigenous traditions.
San Miguel de Allende is renowned for its historic colonial-era churches and historic downtown. (Jillian Kim/Unsplash)
Because of its location in central Mexico, San Miguel de Allende acted as a “melting pot” where Spanish immigrants, Mexicans of Spanish heritage and the Indigenous communities “exchanged cultural influences” and “human values,” UNESCO says.
Moreover, the city is a perfect example of buildings in the style of the Mexican Baroque. “Some of these buildings are masterpieces of the style that evolved in the transition from Baroque to neoclassical,” according to the UNESCO website.
As one of Mexico’s most visited cities, San Miguel de Allende saw over 2 million visitors in 2023, surpassing the numbers from 2022 — when it received 1.8 million tourists — and setting a new record for the small city.
“This consolidates San Miguel de Allende as a world-class tourist destination and without a doubt one of the most important destinations in the country,” San Miguel de Allende’s Mayor, Mauricio Trejo, said at the time.
With reports from Milenio
