I’m Kim, the Abundant Traveler, and welcome to the channel. If you’re a subscriber, thank you so much for stopping by; I really appreciate your support. If you’re new here, I put out laid back luxury travel videos inspiring you to get out there and go. So if you’re worried about where to go, what to do, how to get there, and how to make it economical and go without overspending, make sure to subscribe to the channel. That’s the red button below, and give this video a thumbs up.

Today, I am in the beautiful city of Guadalajara, Mexico. I love Mexico, and I am here about four times a year. These are the top things to do while you’re visiting the city. So let’s talk about central Guadalajara. You don’t necessarily have to stay in the center where all the squares are, but it is a great place to start your tour of Walking Tour Guadalajara.

The first thing I recommend is taking a walking tour with Mino GDL. That is a free walking tour; it’s every day of the week, and they will give you a great overview of what to see and do in Guadalajara. I always recommend the first thing that you do when you come to any city is do a walking tour, and honestly, you can do some of the best tours, and they’re absolutely free. You get your bearings; you have a guide your first morning. Make sure to tip them and tip them well, though, because they’re there to help you understand the city that you’re visiting.

So since we’re talking about tours with Camino GDL, I also recommend that you do their evening tour that is cantinas and bars. Camino and Bars tour is a great education. You get to try some of the local cocktails as well as you get to taste some of the tequilas and the mescals that are from the area. Such a great trip and a great idea if you want to meet some other travelers.

Now that we’ve talked a little bit about drinks, let’s talk about food. There are several things in Guadalajara that you have to try. It is a meat city, so be prepared if you’re vegetarian; you’re going to have a hard time here. This city is known for red meat and pork. The first dish that you have to try is called Karne in Suhugu. It’s sort of like aju if you’ve had a sandwich with beef aju, it’s sort of like that, except because it’s in a bowl, it is served with lime, cilantro, and salsa, and it’s really, really delicious.

The place that you have to try Karne into Hugo is called Carne Garibaldi. They have the world record for the fastest service. While I was there at Carnegie Baldi, the service was quite slow. I’ve seen several YouTube videos with different times from they served in 30 seconds to 45 seconds. Well, mine took 2 minutes and 14 seconds. It was delicious. Let me show you what the food looked like. [Music] So here goes my first bite. Look at this deliciousness, she squirted everywhere, very vaguely sliced meat. The cilantro is a nice touch. Gotta have lime because the lime actually helps you digest this meat, and I think I’m going to do a little salsa because it’s pretty mild.

The next thing that you have to try is called Tahuino. It is made with fermented corn, lime, salt, and ice cream on top. I’m not much of a sweet eater, and it sounds really strange, but it was definitely worth trying. I love the savory and the sour with that; it was really delicious. So the next thing that you have to try is birya. On this trip, I did not try any video because I don’t like goat. Birya is famous in Guadalajara. It is a goat stew in a red sauce. It’s supposed to be delicious, but again, I don’t love goat. I just got my meat type, so I decided not to try it, but video is also something new to try.

The next food that you need to try are the sandwiches. They’re called Ajogados. They are made with bread that is a little bit dried, they have minced pork in it, and what they do is they pour a red sauce over the top, so your sandwich is actually quite soggy. The way to eat this is actually in a plastic bag where you squish it all up together. I had it one of the cantinas on the cantina tour, which was great, but I did not get to eat it in the bag because I’m gluten-free, and I couldn’t actually eat the bread, so I ate the guts.

The last dish that you have to try when you’re in Guadalajara is a version of creme brulee. It’s actually their flan that has been overcooked, and it doesn’t have sugar on top, but it is crystallized. A delicious way to end any meal.

Restaurants, I definitely suggest that you try a couple of high-end restaurants. The first one is Minta Negra, and it is near the arches, so sort of like the Arctic Triangle in Paris, and they have the best bone marrow there, and on Wednesday nights, they have mariachi as well, and it was the only time I’ve ever seen mariachi with a harp, which is supposedly well-known in Guadalajara, definitely worth going to see. The other restaurant I recommend is super high-end. It is quite expensive, but it is called BrunA, which is brown hair, and it was so yummy. Some of the most amazing cocktails I’ve ever had, and then I had all of these dishes you’re about to see. I am having a delicious piece of fish with aptiote, and then I have a pineapple sauce and an avocado sauce on top of that. I’m also having a gorgeous salad that is served on top of a blue corn tortilla. I’m also having potatoes that are really spicy with some chili in them, and then I’m having also the most delicious cocktails I think I’ve ever had. BrunA is spectacular.

So as I mentioned, I’m in Mexico quite often. I love the country, and it’s very close to where I live in Texas, so I can pop down here for a long weekend. I’ve been to Mexico so many times and so many places that I have created a top things that you need to know before you go to Mexico in general. It’s the free guide in the link below in the description.

So Mariachi, make sure while you’re here, you either do a show of Mariachis, go to the Plaza de Maria Cheese, go to Kirian (I think that’s the way it’s pronounced) into like a Pacquiao to hear the Mariachis, or you go to Montanegra on Wednesday nights to hear Mariachi. They are incredible here, and it’s not just five or six guys, sometimes it’s 10 or 12 guys with multiple guys singing, multiple horns, multiple guitars, and as I mentioned previously, you can even find a harp. They are absolutely spectacular, and unfortunately, I don’t know the words so I can’t sing along, but it is so much fun to watch everybody sing along with the Mariachis with the songs that they have heard their entire lives. I just love, love, love Mariachi.

There are a couple of places to shop, but the place that you’re gonna find all the artisanal glassware and the lemons and the tchotchkes and the souvenirs and shopping everything you could possibly want is in the town of Talaka Pocket. You can spend all afternoon here. My suggestion is you don’t need a guide, just get your shop on, bring an empty bag, and have a great time shopping.

The other place that you need to go shopping is in the center of town where all of the big squares are, and it is called Mercado San Juan de los Dios. Now, they do have some of the souvenir type things that most of us traveling to New Mexico want to buy, but they also have everything that you’re really going to need in daily life. So if you forgot your tennis shoes or you forgot to bring a t-shirt or you forgot to bring a phone charger, this Mercado San Juan de Lucia’s is a great place to go. My suggestion is while you’re in there, make sure you are watching your bag. Guadalajara is a big city, and there are pickpockets, and the quarters are really, really close in this particular mercado, so I put my backpack on the front. It’s just a safety issue. I didn’t have any trouble, but it is just a way to stay safe and keep all your belongings.

Now that we’re in the Plazas center of town, let’s talk about the different plazas that you need to go see as well as a couple of museums you have to go see. You have to go see the cathedral like all Mexican big cities. There is a gorgeous cathedral in Guadalajara, and as I have heard, it’s the second most visited cathedral outside of Mexico City. It is gorgeous inside, and it’s quite interesting because it’s been destroyed or partially destroyed several times by earthquakes, so there’s lots of different architectural styles all within this gorgeous cathedral.

If you are an art fan and specifically a Mexican art fan, then I recommend that you go see the murals from Jose Clemente Orozco. The main place to go see them is Aspisio Cabanas. It is about 65 pesos, which is three dollars and change to go to Aspicio Cabanas. It used to be a huge building for envelopes, the sick, the infirm, and for orphans, but now it is a beautiful museum, and it has probably Jose’s most famous mural called Man in Fire, and it is gorgeous. It’s a rotunda on top, incredible. Definitely worth going to see that particular mural and spend the money. It’s a cool place.

While you’re in the center of town, there are a couple of squares, a little bit of shopping, and lots of things to do. However, my suggestion is that you only need an afternoon to see all of these gorgeous buildings and municipal buildings, such as the Aspco and the Cathedral. The rest of the time, Guadalajara is quite famous for day trips, whether you’re going to Ahihik, which is a big expat city, or you’re going to Lake Chapala, which is a big reservoir and quite famous also for expats, or you’re taking an afternoon to go to Chile. This is sort of a jumping-off point for a lot of things in the general area of Jalisco.

The best day Tequila trip to do hands down without a doubt is to go to Tequila. Tequila is an actual city, not just a drink, and you’re really not supposed to take shots of tequila (that’s the bad stuff). The best thing to do is to go and take an educational tour of Tequila. My recommendation is that you go with the Agave Experience. It’s small groups and may be a little bit more expensive than some of the other ones, but the guides are educated in how tequila is made. It’s a true tasting, and you go to a couple of the distilleries. It’s an incredible trip, and then you spend a little bit of time in the crazy Pueblo Pueblo, which is a magical city of Tequila where you have a little lunch and you get to go take your picture in front of the big letters of Tequila. It’s such a great thing to do while you’re in Guadalajara, and honestly, I think it was the best thing that I did to take that day trip to Tequila. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun, and I had a few sets of tequila.

So, that about covers my favorite things to do and what I think you should do when you’re in Guadalajara. If you’re here for about four days, these are the top highlights. If you’re here for a longer period of time, there’s plenty of other things to do, but these I would say are the top highlights. If you have any recommendations for my next trip to Guadalajara, because I come to Mexico quite often, please leave a comment below. I would love to hear what you think.

Thank you so much for watching! I appreciate you being here. I hope that you enjoyed the video. Again, make sure to subscribe if you are not a subscriber. I am Kim, the Abundant Traveler, and I will see you somewhere amazing in Mexico.