What to Do in Tequila, Jalisco: A Guide to the Magical Town
Hola Tequila Tour •
Tequila is a town in Jalisco with cobbled streets at the foot of a volcano, surrounded by blue fields as far as you can see. It has been a Pueblo Mágico since 2003 and its landscape has been a World Heritage Site since 2006. And still, plenty of people visit, take a photo in the square and leave without seeing what makes the place special.
Here is what is actually worth your time, sorted by whether you have one day or two.
The square and the Santiago Apóstol parish church
Everything starts in the main square. The twin-towered Santiago Apóstol parish church is the town's landmark and the best place to start walking without rushing.
Around it there are arcades with shaded benches, ice cream vendors and the feel of a town that lives off visitors without having stopped being a town. It is also where the cantinas and tequila shops cluster.
The National Tequila Museum
A few steps from the square sits MUNAT, in an old townhouse. It is small and takes under an hour, but it explains the full process, the history of the producing families and the evolution of bottles and labels.
If you are visiting a distillery afterwards, coming here first makes what you are about to see far more legible.
Distilleries: the big one or the artisanal one
There is a real choice to make here, and it is worth making it deliberately.
The large distilleries, led by Mundo Cuervo's La Rojeña, offer very polished tours with guides, fixed schedules and a shop. You see a modern industrial operation inside a building with centuries of history. It is comfortable and works well for a first visit.
Artisanal factories are a different animal. They are smaller, noisier, they smell of cooked agave, and there you do see the process at human scale: the masonry ovens, the milling, the open fermentation vats, the stills. You learn more, even if it is less produced.
If you can only see one and you care about how tequila is really made, go artisanal.
The agave fields
What UNESCO protected in 2006 is not the drink: it is the landscape. The blue agave fields, the haciendas and the old industrial facilities, all as one whole.
It is worth getting out of the car and walking between the rows. Up close you appreciate the size of the plants, which take six to eight years to be ready, and you understand the jimador's work, cutting the leaves away with a coa until the piña is clean. If you catch a jima in progress, stay and watch.
Cantaritos in Amatitán
A few kilometres away, in Amatitán, is the region's most contagious custom: the cantarito. It is a small clay jug with tequila, lime, orange and grapefruit juice, grapefruit soda and salt on the rim.
The clay keeps the drink cool and adds an earthy note you cannot get from a glass. You drink it outdoors, with music and people around. It is less solemn than a tasting and probably the thing you will remember most.
The Tequila Volcano
The hill dominating the horizon is a dormant volcano over 2,900 metres high. You can go up by high-clearance vehicle or on foot, and from the top you see the whole agave valley.
It is a half-day plan and does not fit into a quick visit, but if you are staying overnight it is the best view in the area.
What to eat and what to take home
The small eateries in the centre serve good, cheap food: birria, antojitos, set lunches. Nothing sophisticated, and none needed.
What is genuinely worth taking home are bottles from small factories that are not distributed outside the region. Those are the ones you will not find back home. Check the NOM number on the label, which identifies the distillery. There is also ceramics, hats and crafts under the arcades.
When to go
November to May is drier and more pleasant. In summer it rains in the afternoon, which stops nothing but is worth knowing.
The National Tequila Fair takes place late in the year: the town fills up, there are concerts and plenty of atmosphere, but also more crowds and higher prices. If you want quiet, avoid those dates.
Midweek the town is a different place. At weekends the centre gets saturated.
Getting there from Guadalajara
It is about 60 kilometres along the Nogales highway, a little over an hour by car. There are buses from the Antigua Central Camionera, the José Cuervo Express tourist train at weekends, and van tours leaving daily.
The advantage of a tour is not only the transport: it is not having to drive after the tastings, and reaching factories you would not visit on your own.
How much time you need
A full day covers the town, a distillery, the agave fields and the cantaritos. That is what our Tequila tour from Guadalajara does: departure at 11:30 in the morning and back between seven and eight in the evening.
Two days let you climb the volcano and see more than one factory. Half an afternoon is not enough for anything: you will see the square and little else.