Hot Springs of the Bajío: San Miguel de Allende and the Tolantongo Caves

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Mexico's Bajío region guards some of North America's best-kept hot-spring secrets. This 7-day itinerary begins in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico's most beautiful colonial city, with its cobblestone streets, bougainvillea, art galleries and rooftop sunset cocktails. But the real discovery lies three hours away: the Tolantongo Caves, a hot-spring complex in a canyon of the Sierra Gorda. Here, calcium-rich thermal waters gush from the mountainside, forming stepped natural pools of an impossible turquoise blue. The thermal river flows along the canyon floor at 38°C, and you can float for hours between rock walls. The grotto with its inner waterfall is a natural cathedral of steam. On the way back, the Dos Búhos vineyard offers Mexican wine tastings among the lavender, and the Gruta thermal pools invite one last mineral soak in a temperate forest setting. Accommodation alternates between boutique hotels in San Miguel and rustic cabins beside the pools.