Queretaro & Tequisquiapan (Mexico): 1N/2D

October 2021

Six friends visited us during our 17 day stay in Guanajuato in October 2021, and we decided to go out of town with them for a couple of nights. First stop was in Queretato, the capital of Queretaro State, followed by the hot springs town of Tequisquiapan for the night. From there we stopped in San Miguel de Allende & spent the second night there before heading back to Guanajuato.

We took the luxury Primera Plus bus (2.5 hours, $13.50) to Queretaro (population: 1.05 million) and had breakfast at a hotel restaurant, pictured above, near the meeting point for the walking tour. The central bus station was a 10-15 minute taxi ride. This restaurant had an interesting interior decorations and decent food. The full name of the city is Santiago de Queretaro, and its historic downtown is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We thought the best way to see this city in a short time was doing a guided walking tour.

We waited at this park, Jardin Zenea, for our tour to start at 11 AM. No guide showed up. It turned out that we waited at a wrong place for our tour, which was supposed to start at Plaza de Armas a few blocks away. Some kind people who tried to help us gave us wrong advice because there was another walking tour by a different company on a different day. Not knowing this at that time, we didn’t know what to do. We noticed a tourist information booth across the street, and they told us about the hop-on hop-off bus that would leave in 10 minutes from the stop in front of San Francisco Church next door.

We had been to Queretaro before, but, our friends hadn’t. So all 6 friends got on that bus tour (about $5), and we stayed behind and walked around.

Our friends were back where they started in about 60-75 minutes. We found a place for lunch near the San Francisco church and went across the street for churros after lunch. Queretaro well deserves at least an over night visit, but, maybe next time. This time was just a quick introduction.

We had left our bags at a luggage storage place at the Queretaro Central Bus Station, so we went back to retrieve our bags. We got two cabs (500 pesos each) and drove to Tequisquiapan, 40 miles east, for our night of spa treatment – or that was the plan.

Tequisquiapan (population: 54,900), or Tequis in short, means place of water and tequesquite (mineral salt). I got interested in this town when I heard that this was a weekend get away hot springs town for people from nearby big cities like Queretaro and Mexico City. Unfortunately, it was not easy to tell which would be the best spa hotel for our group by looking through hotel reservation sites. We ended up picking Hotel Sol y Fiesta where we could have “king suite rooms with spa” at $44/night. The rooms were spacious and comfortable and a wonderful freshly made to order breakfast was included in the price. The outdoor pool was not in operation due to the pandemic, but our rooms had an in-room Jacuzzi in the bedroom with mineral water coming out of the faucet. It took forever to fill the tub, but, when we did, it was heavenly. We also wanted to get a 70 minute massage ($30), but, the masseurs required cash only, and we did not have enough cash on hand. Alas!

Dinner at Origens restaurant was a special treat. We had to hunt for this place which I had read about. There was no sign and the front door was closed. I wish I had better pictures to show the tastefully done setups, but, we were too busy enjoying our meals to take photos! Wonderful wine pairings and delicious desserts. We paid about $15 per head for this feast.

Next morning we walked over to the town square (Plaza Miguel Hidalgo) and checked out the famous pink church, their main church called St. Mary of the Assumption. Tequis is not a tiny town, but the town center is pretty much in and around this square. I could see how this could be a relaxing weekend getaway for the city dwellers, a slowly moving place filled with small hotels with warm water swimming pools. One can go to an opal mine or a winery, too, if desired.

I was actually interested in going to Bernal, a colonial village 20 miles north of Tequis. But that would get us farther away from our home base of Guanajuato. So we headed to San Miguell de Allende. The same cab drivers who got us to Tequis from Queretaro picked us up and drove (750 pesos per car) us to SMA, 75 miles northwest.