Northern Central Highlands

With its gorgeous colonial architecture, enchanting cobblestone streets and striking light, San Miguel de Allende is rightly one of Mexico's biggest draws and has been popular with aesthetes and romantics for much of the past century. This includes a large population of Americans who either live full time in the town or maintain winter homes here, bringing with them a cosmopolitan atmosphere you'll find in few other Mexican towns.

With superb restaurants and high-class accommodations, numerous galleries stocked with quality Mexican artesanías (handicrafts), a fantastic spring-like climate and a surfeit of cultural activities including regular festivals, fireworks and parades, San Miguel is an unmissable highlight for anyone visiting the northern central highlands. The entire ensemble was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 2008, and despite receiving huge numbers of visitors, San Miguel absorbs them well and locals mix warmly with their foreign guests and residents.

The extraordinary Unesco World Heritage city of Guanajuato was founded in 1559 due to the region's rich silver and gold deposits. Opulent colonial buildings, stunning tree-filled plazas and brightly colored houses are crammed together on to the steep slopes of a narrow ravine where excellent museums, handsome theaters and a fine marketplace punctuate cobblestone streets. The city's main roads twist around the hillsides and plunge into long dank subterranean tunnels, formerly rivers.

The city is best known internationally for its acclaimed annual arts event, the Festival Cervantino. Yet this colorful and lively place holds center stage all year; much of the youthful vibrancy and prolific cultural activities – callejoneadas, films, theater and orchestras – can be attributed to the 20,000 students of the city's own University of Guanajuato. In short, Guanajuato is the state's slightly gritty but fascinating capital city and should not be missed by anyone traveling in the region.

The stunning, tropical Huasteca Potosina is a lush, remote subregion of San Luis Potosí but worlds away from it in both geography and climate. Filled will incredible waterfalls and swimming holes, the result of the rivers that flow eastward from the slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental, this alluring region offers some of central Mexico's most breathtaking scenery. The waterfalls here look as though they’ve been photoshopped, so rich is their aquamarine hue due to the high calcium content in the surrounding rocks. The rich culture of the local Huastec people (Tének), plus extraordinary sinkholes, caves and bird-watching, make a visit here extremely rewarding. The best time to visit is in dry season, between November and March. Wet season brings heavy rains and high, less-clear waters.

A wealthy silver-mining town until early last century, Real de Catorce's fortunes changed overnight when the price of silver plummeted, its mine closed and much of the population left, leaving it a 'ghost town' located an inconveniently long distance from anywhere, deep in the giant hills of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Not long ago Real was nearly deserted, its streets lined with crumbling buildings and just a few hundred unfortunates eking out an existence.

But then somebody invented the weekend break and the boutique hotel and Real de Catorce slipped into a new element, attracting outsiders who have helped with the slow (and very much ongoing) transformation of the town into a getaway destination. Although Real is no longer a ghost town, doors still creak in the breeze, cobblestone streets end abruptly and many buildings are ruins, but the fabulous scenery and charming architecture make it a delight to visit.

The Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra Gorda, in the rugged Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range, covers a huge swath of the northeastern third of Querétaro state. Known as the 'green jewel' of central Mexico, the reserve boasts 15 vegetation types, making it the most ecosystem-diverse protected area in the country. Its stunning wilderness areas encompass old-growth cloud forests, semideserts and tropical forests; jaguars, rare orchids and endemic cacti are just some of the fauna and flora on offer here.

The most northern of Mexico's silver cities, fascinating Zacatecas – a Unesco World Heritage site – runs along a narrow valley overlooked by a steep and imposing hillside. The large historic center is jam-packed with opulent colonial buildings, a stupendous cathedral, magnificent museums and steep, winding streets and alleys that simply ooze charm.

Zacatecas was where thousands of indigenous slaves were forced by the Spanish to toil in the mines under terrible conditions. Pancho Villa enjoyed a historic victory in 1914, and he is still feted by locals today. Today travelers can have their own lofty experiences in a teleférico (cable car) to the Cerro de la Bufa, the impressive rock outcrop that soars above the town and affords great views of the church domes and tiled rooftops below. Alternatively, visitors can drop below the surface to tour the infamous Edén mine, a sobering reminder of the city's brutal colonial past.