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The front and spires of Guadalajara Cathedral
Arcades and tables of El Parián in the centre of Tlaquepaque
A torta ahogada drowned in chile sauce with lime-dressed onion
Aerial view of the Hospicio Cabañas with its dome and many courtyards
Old tombs and chapels in the north section of the Panteón de Belén

Things to do in Guadalajara: 8 experiences

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Photo: El Ágora, Public domain

San Pedro Tlaquepaque, Jalisco

Hear mariachis at El Parián in Tlaquepaque

Check dates and prices

Photo: Encogua, CC BY-SA 4.0

Centro Histórico, Guadalajara

Get your hands red with a torta ahogada

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Photo: Ivan.Romero, CC BY 3.0

Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara

Look up at Orozco's Man of Fire in the Hospicio Cabañas

Tours in Guadalajara

Photo: ProtoplasmaKid, CC BY-SA 4.0

El Retiro, Guadalajara

Take a night tour of the Panteón de Belén

Tours in Guadalajara

Photo: Heterotrofo, CC BY-SA 4.0

Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is Mexico's second-largest city, with about 5.2 million people in the metropolitan area, yet it feels more relaxed than the capital. It sits at 1,566 metres in the Atemajac Valley, and its people are called Tapatíos. The centre is a run of pedestrian plazas round the cathedral, with José Clemente Orozco's murals in two of its great buildings.

The Mexico page covers a distillery tour in the town of Tequila, 65 km west. This page stays in the city: the Hospicio Cabañas, the cathedral plazas, the Mercado Libertad, tortas ahogadas and birria, Tlaquepaque, the Huentitán canyon, the Templo Expiatorio and a night at the Panteón de Belén.

8 things to do in Guadalajara

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Aerial view of the Hospicio Cabañas with its dome and many courtyards

Look up at Orozco's Man of Fire in the Hospicio Cabañas

Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara

About 2 hoursNo booking needed

A vast colonial orphanage turned museum, whose chapel holds the frescoes José Clemente Orozco painted in the 1930s.

Tours in Guadalajara
Been there?
Historic buildings round the Plaza de Armas in central Guadalajara

Walk the cathedral plazas and find Orozco's Hidalgo

Centro Histórico, Guadalajara

2 to 3 hoursFree

Four plazas form a cross round Guadalajara Cathedral, and the palace next door holds Orozco's giant portrait of Miguel Hidalgo.

Tours in Guadalajara
Been there?
Inside the Mercado Libertad in Guadalajara, with stalls on several floors

Eat birria upstairs at the Mercado Libertad

San Juan de Dios, Guadalajara

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

A multi-storey covered market with hundreds of stalls, known to everyone in the city as San Juan de Dios.

Tours in Guadalajara
Been there?
A torta ahogada drowned in chile sauce with lime-dressed onion

Get your hands red with a torta ahogada

Centro Histórico, Guadalajara

A lunchGo alone or with a tour

Guadalajara's own sandwich, a crusty birote roll filled with pork and drowned in chile de árbol sauce.

Check dates and pricesTapatío food tour with 13 tastings
Been there?
Arcades and tables of El Parián in the centre of Tlaquepaque

Hear mariachis at El Parián in Tlaquepaque

San Pedro Tlaquepaque, Jalisco

Half a dayGo alone or with a tour

The old potters' town on Guadalajara's edge, with craft shops on its pedestrian street and mariachis round a central square.

Check dates and pricesGuadalajara and Tlaquepaque day tour
Been there?
The green slopes of the Barranca de Huentitán canyon on the edge of Guadalajara

Hike down the Barranca de Huentitán to the Santiago River

Huentitán el Alto, Guadalajara

Half a dayFree

A forested canyon on the city's northern edge, where a trail of numbered hairpin bends drops about 600 metres to the river.

Been there?
The Gothic Revival front and tower of the Templo Expiatorio in Guadalajara

Watch the apostles parade at the Templo Expiatorio

Colonia Americana, Guadalajara

About 30 minutesFree

A Gothic Revival church whose bell-tower clock sends out a procession of the twelve apostles three times a day.

Been there?
Old tombs and chapels in the north section of the Panteón de Belén

Take a night tour of the Panteón de Belén

El Retiro, Guadalajara

About 1 hourBook ahead

A 19th-century cemetery in the city centre, closed to burials long ago and now visited for its tombs and its legends.

Tours in Guadalajara
Been there?

Traveller picks

Hidden gems suggested by travellers. We check each one before it goes up; the words are theirs, not ours.

No traveller picks for Guadalajara yet. Know a place most visitors miss?

Plan your trip

  • Getting there

    The international airport is 18 km south of the city on the road to Chapala, with frequent domestic flights and flights from the United States and Canada. Long-distance buses use the Central de Autobuses in Tlaquepaque.

  • Getting around

    The historic centre is walkable. The light rail, Mi Tren, has lines that meet on the western edge of the centre, and the Mi Macro Calzada bus line runs diagonally across the city to Tlaquepaque and to the canyon at Huentitán.

  • How many days

    In must30's view, three days: one for the centre, one for Tlaquepaque and the markets, and one for a day trip to Tequila or Lake Chapala.

  • When to go

    The International Mariachi and Charrería meeting fills the city in the last week of August and the first week of September, with concerts round the Teatro Degollado.

Questions travellers ask

How do you get from Guadalajara to Tlaquepaque?

It is about 30 minutes by car south-east of the centre, or take the Mi Macro Calzada bus line, which serves Tlaquepaque.

What is a torta ahogada?

Guadalajara's drowned sandwich: a birote salado roll filled with fried pork and dunked in a sauce of chile de árbol, vinegar and cumin. Milder versions use a tomato sauce.

Where are Orozco's murals in Guadalajara?

The best known are in the chapel of the Hospicio Cabañas, including The Man of Fire in the dome, and the Miguel Hidalgo in the Palacio de Gobierno on the Plaza de Armas.

Can you visit Tequila from Guadalajara?

Yes. The town of Tequila is about 65 km west, reached by bus from the Central Vieja or on a day tour from the city.

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