Guadalajara is a great city. When you arrive you'll be pleasantly surprised to be greeted by friendly employees at the airport. Taxi drivers are friendly as well. Downtown is where all the buzz is. Great historical buildings and monuments to see. Unlike, Mexico City, their downtown is pedestrian friendly. Many plazas and water fountains. Women in particular will love "Centro Joyeria Magno" at the "Plaza Tapatio". It's is a large department store like building that houses hundreds of jewelers. While in downtown you must ride the "Tapatio Tours" tour bus. Best way to see the most important sights. The food is great. Stop by any "Sanborns" restaurant in downtown for breakfast, can't go wrong. Scattered around downtown you'll find tourist information centers. Before you leave Guadalajara make sure you stop at "Bariachi" restuarant and bar. Perfect place to see Mariachis. Personally I agree with what the locals claim, Guadalajara is definitely the "most mexican city". The only thing that I did not like about the city is the unsightly graffiti plagued neighborhoods. Worst then Mexico City. If that doesn't bother you, then you'll have a memorable time in this great city.

October is a great month to visit Guadalajara. Cultural and arts activities are scheduled all over the city. In addition to a month-long carnival, there are Mariachi performances and Ballet Folklorico performances scheduled on various plazas downtown.

On a Wednesday evening we ran into the Mariachi Internacional de Guadalajara playing in the gazebo on Plaza de las Armas and folk dancers performing late into the night on Plaza de los Fundadores de Guadalajara a couple blocks down. Other Festival activities include concerts and poetry readings around town.

Outside of October, the Mercado de San Juan de Dios (also known as Mercado Libertad)is always a great place to visit. It is the largest indoor market of its kind in Latin America. Three levels of vendor booths sell everything from kitchen utinsils to fine jewelry, musical instruments to pig intestines, folk art to produce. If you're looking for something in particular, it's best to ask. A lot of people come out of the market thinking it didn't have what they were looking for, when they just never made it to the right part of the market. Most of the folk art vendors are located on the central patio, but there are a few more scattered throughout the market.

Most tourists don't venture beyond El Centro and Tlaqupaque (another great place to buy folk art), but if you have kids along, it's worth a trip to the Zapopan neighborhood to Trompo Magico (the Magic Top), an interactive museum designed for children, but a lot of fun for adults too. Little kids can play at making tortillas or being a doctor. Big kids can learn to create animated films, edit film, try digital photography, play in a rock and roll band and much more. Language isn't really an issue, but if you call ahead, you can arrange an English-speaking guide.

Just got back from , 11 days in Guadalajara. Mexico. A great place to visit. Things we really enjoyed: The Dance Hall, run by the Musician's Union , right down the street from Hotel de Mendoza, great bands, 4 nights a week, only 40 peso per person, drinks are cheap. Vising the Hospicia Cabanas and seeing the Orozco murals and the other 4 or 5 rooms of paintings. Only 10 peso's during the week and seeing the Artist at work. The jewlery stores, near Hospicia Cabanas, the prices were reasonable and the variety and choices are more than you can imagine. The Liberty Market just a few blocks away is overwelming. Visiting the Catedral in Historic Guadalajara and the many shops and resturants in that area (La Fonda de San Miguel and Antigua are two of the better ones) Finding a English newspaper at the newsstand near Sanborn's Department Store. Taking the bus to Tlaquepaque and having lunch at El Patio, definitely visiting Bustamante Jewlery, a fantastic artist as well as jewlery designer. Trips to Jose Cuervo tequila distilleries is a must, its like a museum, and a stop at Corona Brewery.Get to Tonala on Thursday's Market day.

We fell in love with Guadalajara. It's a beautiful city and much to do.
We took a Panoramex tour to Jalisco and Lake Chapala. Both were very informative and enjoyed. We had planned on taking the train to Jalisco, but it only runs on the week-end. The bus drive to Jalisco was good, and the tour itself included the harvesting of the Blue Agave and then a tour of the Sausa distillery, and of course, some tequila drinks!
Both tours take a whole day - leaving at 9:30 a.m. and returning around 3:30 or so. The Lake Chapala and Ajijic areas were nice, although the lake is not at full capacity. There's so much to see in Guadalajara!
There's literally a Plaza around every bend of the city and each one is beautiful. Restaurants were great, too and very inexpensive.

We arrived at San Miguel while the town was celebrating the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. Colorful and entertaining. There's a restaurant right next to the Cathedral with an outside patio, and we watched the whole parade from there. It's a smaller town, very Americanized, and bit more expensive than Guadalajara. The best restaurant we found was Hacienda Los Laureles. We stayed at Posada de las Monjas - nice hotel, inexpensive, BUT not tv or telephone (we didn't need these though- it was nice to just rest after all the walking around San Miguel.) Our whole trip was by bus - from McAllen, TX to Guadalajara, to Ixtlan del Rio, to San Miguel and back to McAllen. We will definitely return!