Ever since I first visited Mexico City, I have wanted to experience Mexican cities. When I saw $200 flights to Guadalajara Mexico, it was a no-brainer! Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, which happens to be where my grandmother was born. I was super excited for the chance to explore another Mexican city and of course, gorge on authentic Mexican food. As it turned out, we had so many fun tours near Guadalajara, that we didn’t spend much time in the city at all! Which obviously gives me a good excuse to plan a return trip. Here are five fun Guadalajara tours and day trips that I recommend.
Tapatio Tour Guadalajara
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I love hop-on-hop-off bus tours. In Guadalajara, the bus is called Tapatio Tour, named for the colloquial term for someone from Guadalajara. Tapatio has four main tours running continuously throughout Guadalajara and surrounding areas. All tours originate in historic Guadalajara near the Rotonda de Los Jalisiences Ilustres. Route One takes you through Guadalajara, from the Cathedral to the Expo Guadalajara and the American Consulate. We also rode along Route 3, to Zapopan.
We hopped off the bus in Zapopan and strolled through this neighborhood for a bit. There is a cathedral and some really interesting public art, plus lots of places to grab a bite to eat, and vendors selling crafts, jewelry, and food.
Tlaquepaque Restaurant Tour
When researching this trip, I was excited to find that the company I joined for a Polanco Taco Tour in Mexico City, operates a tour in Guadalajara!
Tlaquepaque is sort of a suburb of Guadalajara, but it’s really a quaint little artisan’s village founded in the 1530s, making it older than Guadalajara. We spent a lot of time in Tlaquepaque and I would consider choosing a hotel in Tlaquepaque on my next visit. The Tlaquepaque restaurant tour was everything I love in a food tour, and it’s woman-owned, which is great! We had a total of EIGHT food tastings along the walking route, as well as several informative stops to learn about the colorful history of the area. We started our tour in the Mercado Benito Juarez, where we learned a bit about Mexican food and its ingredients.
Did you know? A chili has one name when it’s dried and another when it’s fresh! Chipotle is just a dried jalapeno, and ancho is a dried poblano! I had no idea!
The food and drinks we sampled were all spectacular, featuring many local specialties. We had Chile en nogada, torta ahogada, a tequila tasting, a sweet corn drink called tejuino, and of course, plenty of Mexican sweets! Just like my Mexico City taco tour, each stop had a specialty drink to go with our meal, including horchata, jamaica, and limonada.
Torta Ahogada, or drowned sandwich, was my favorite foodie find on this trip. Starting with Birote, a sourdough-like bread only available in Jalisco, with a marinated pork filling, then drowned in salsa. You have to try torta ahogada when you visit Jalisco!
If you do one tour in Guadalajara, join Amaya of Mexican Food Tours for a tour of Tlaquepaque restaurants!
Tlaquepaque Artisan’s Tour
When planning my trip to Guadalajara, Amaya at Mexican Food Tours put me in touch with Ada, at Sensaciones Turisticas. Another woman-owned tourism company based in Tlaquepaque, Sensaciones Turisticas is introducing Guadalajara visitors to unique aspects of the city that you normally would not see. We joined our tour guides for the Artisan’s Tour, which visited several local artists’ workshops, with a walking tour of Tlaquepaque along the way.
We first visited the studio of a woodworking artist named Augustin and got to try our hand at wood carving. Augustin has been doing this his whole life, and his passion was so evident!
We then visited the Nunez family clay workshop. Three sisters are continuing their father’s (and grandfather’s) business of beautifully crafted clay designs. Pilar Nunez walked us through the entire process and helped us create our own miniature sculptures.
We ended our Tlaquepaque artisan’s tour with a delicious lunch of Birria (goat stew) at La Mata Tinta. Starting soon, the artisan’s tour will include a stop at a Mexican candy factory, where you can try your hand at making dulces!
Check out these fun and interesting facts about Mexico!
Tequila, Jalisco Tours
The town of Tequila is just over an hour from Guadalajara. It’s a lovely drive through fields tinted blue by agave plants and rolling green hills. We joined Tours Gudygu for a day trip from Guadalajara to Tequila. We were picked up by our driver and tour guide at the hotel in the morning. We stopped at Tres Mujeres Tequila for a tour of the distillery and several tastings of tequila. We even saw special batches of Santanera tequila which are aging for five years in barrels, accompanied by classical music, which apparently keeps the molecules dancing!
I still don’t love tequila, but at least I know how to drink it now! Yes, there’s a trick with your breathing that sends the fire out your nose instead of down your throat, haha!
With warm bellies full of tequila, we headed on to the small town of Tequila. What an adorable, colorful village! It was the perfect size town to explore for a couple of hours and grab a bite to eat before heading back to Guadalajara for the evening. We had one more stop along the way, for a Cantaritos to go. (Similar to cazuela, cantaritos is a citrus soda and tequila drink, but it comes in a mug, whereas cazuela comes in a bowl.)
Ajijic & Lake Chapala
On our last night in Jalisco, we met up with some relatives who have a home in Ajijic on Lake Chapala, Jalisco's largest lake. We enjoyed a beautiful 1-hour drive from Guadalajara, passing many Dole and Driscoll's berry fields along the way. We stopped for lunch and photos in San Juan Cosala, before continuing on to Ajijic. The town of Ajijic is very popular with ex-pats and indeed, English is spoken just about everywhere, even more so than in Guadalajara. It's a very colorful lakeside community, with fun shops and restaurants. This is definitely a place I would love to return to for a longer stay!
Browse Ajijic hotels on Booking.com
LiveDreamDiscover has even more things to do in Guadalajara!
- Chapala & Ajijic Half-Day Private Tour
- Price: $99.00
- Chapala Lake and Ajijic from Guadalajara
- Price: $69.00
Where To Stay in Guadalajara
For our Guadalajara hotel, we chose the Aloft Guadalajara, one of my favorite Starwood hotel brands. I'm all about the SPG points, and Aloft branding is consistent from Southeast Asia to Central America. The Aloft is in a great location for dining out, with many great restaurants within walking distance. We had a nice view from our corner room on the 19th floor. I highly recommend this hotel, but do not recommend the food. We had one breakfast and one dinner at the Aloft; neither were notable or a good value.
Browse Guadalajara hotels on Booking.com
Getting Around Guadalajara
We used Uber extensively to get around Guadalajara. Even traveling across town from Zapopan to Tlaquepaque, the rates were extremely reasonable and all of our drivers were fantastic. Our most expensive trip was from our airport hotel across town to the Aloft in Providencia. Most trips from Providencia to the historic district or Tlaquepaque were in the $6-$7 range.
I was gifted tour packages from Tapatio, Mexican Food Tours, Tours Gudygu and Sensaciones Turisticas. All opinions and photos are my own.
I went to Tequila a few times and loved it there! I think my best visit was via the Tequila Express train – I’d expected it to be super-touristy, but actually it was almost entirely local Mexican tourists. There were only five foreigners on the whole train.
I’m thinking of traveling in Mexico this winter and Guadalajara has been suggested to me by several friends. After reading your post, I can see why. I love your descriptions of all the tours. I’m saving this post to come back to later. Thank you!
On my list of places to visit! I love food tours – good to see that there are some great options in Guadalajara too. And I look forward to learning that tequila drinking trick!
I enjoyed your post. I never knew that there is a special way to drink Tequila and that it’s also a town.
I have been to many parts of Mexico (not just the touristy parts) and I have never been here. I have heard of it in the past before but it looks like a fun place. I would have loved to do the Jalisco Tours for sure! Love good tequila! Yum.
As a fan of tequila you’ve just given me another reason to go to Mexico!
It truly captured the essence of Guadalajara and the surrounding areas. Your description of the food and local tours made me feel like I was there. Thanks for sharing your journey. I’m adding Guadalajara to my bucket list!