San Miguel de Allende looks the way a colonial Mexican town is supposed to look, which is exactly why it draws artists, retirees, and travelers in equal numbers. Pink stone church spires rise over cobblestone streets lined with centuries-old facades

Oaxaca is where Mexico's culinary and artistic reputation comes from firsthand experience rather than secondhand praise. Zapotec ruins sit on hilltops above a colonial city built from green volcanic stone, mezcal is distilled in the surrounding valleys the same way