If you’re wondering how to get from Mexico’s vibrant capital to San Miguel de Allende, arguably Latin America’s prettiest city, then you’re in the right place. This is the complete guide covering how to travel from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, including where to find bus timetables, how to book your bus, benefits of taking private transport, and more.
⛪️ Why go to San Miguel de Allende
Firstly, why go to San Miguel de Allende? Well, mainly because it’s beautiful. The colourful streets and stunning architecture solidified its place as a UNESCO World Heritage site back in 2008. The entire city centre is engulfed with cobblestone roadways that are flanked with sculpted building facades and amazing churches.
Honestly, it’s no wonder San Miguel de Allende has repeatedly been named the “Best Small City in the World”.
While it’s very apparent that the influx of western tourists have settled down here, it remains a perfect blend of tourist-friendly and traditional. It might not be as authentic as other colonial cities in Mexico, but we loved our visit and we’re sure you will too!
If you’re doing a wider trip around Mexico and heading to nearby Guanajuato or Guadalajara, then it would be rude not to visit this little city on the way – we promise you won’t regret it!
How far away is San Miguel de Allende from Mexico City?
San Miguel de Allende is about 265km from Mexico City. The drive will take around 3.5-4 hours in a car or 4-4.5 hours by bus.
🚌 Travelling by Bus
Travelling by bus is the cheapest (and in our opinion, the BEST) option. We’ve constantly been impressed by the bus services in Mexico, especially those north & west of Mexico City run by ETN. The buses are very new, clean & comfortable – and they often have reclining chairs!
The price of a bus from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende can differ depending on the day of travel, which terminal you’re coming from and whether you want a direct bus. For direct buses, you can generally expect to pay around MX $1,150 (£45 / US $61) per person.
➡️ Terminal Central de Autobuses del Norte
Terminal de Norte offers direct buses to San Miguel de Allende. This is the most popular option, and because you’re already in the north of the city the drive time is about 4.5 hours.
We took an Uber from our accommodation in Roma Norte to Terminal de Norte for our bus. You can do the same, or hop on the Metro and head for Autobuses del Norte Station on Line 5.
There are multiple departures from this bus terminal each day. Simply head to Busbud.com to check out the available times for Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende.
If you’re wondering why we recommend using Busbud, read the Budbud section further down this article.
➡️ Cerro de Jesús Terminal
This terminal is a lot closer to the area of Coyoacán in Mexico City, so it would be an easy option for those staying in the south of Mexico City. The drive time is a little longer at about 5 hours.
Prices tend to be very similar from Cerro de Jesús Terminal – around MX $1,200 (£47 / US $64) per person.
Again, the best way to check available times is to head to Busbud.com and enter your intended dates of travel.
Non-direct buses
Typically, bus routes with changes can be a quite a lot cheaper, with the trade-off being that it’ll take you an extra few hours. If you’re on a budget but have the luxury of time this might be a good option for you.
Non-direct buses to San Miguel de Allende from Mexico City start from MX $675 (£26 / US $36).
Tip: buses in Mexico are often air-conditioned, which is brilliant when you’ve just stepped out of the hot sun. However, after a few hours you will start to feel cold, so make sure you take layers in your bag just in case!
Booking with Busbud
Busbud was our saviour for booking buses in and around Mexico. We are planners and love having everything booked rather than leaving things until the last minute.
During our time in Mexico, a lot of the buses we boarded were completely full. If we’d have waited to book or simply tried to turn up to the terminal on the day, it’s likely we’d have had to wait until the next day to travel!
That’s why booking our buses in advance on Busbud.com was perfect for us. We could book them whilst still in the UK or on the move.
It also saved us having to try and communicate poorly with our shocking (but slowly-improving… we hope!) levels of Spanish at the ticket counters – the entire app/website is in English, thankfully.
You can, of course, try your luck and just rock up to purchase your tickets at the terminal on the day, but it comes with a level of risk as we’ve mentioned above. Securing the exact bus we wanted for our travel schedule was important for us, so we ended up using Busbud a lot.
Purchased tickets are stored on the app and you can also choose your seat ahead of time (passengers tend to stick to their given seats in Mexico). Securing that window seat or being near the front of the bus for the best views has never been easier!
Check out Busbud’s website here.
🚗 Travelling by Car
Drive yourself
Driving from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende is pretty simple with 95% of the journey being a straight shot along highway 57D. The traffic in Mexico City can often be full-on, but once out of the city it’ll start to speed up.
The journey will take around 3.5-4 hours if you take highway 57D, which is the most direct route. Note that this is a toll road, so you’ll have to pay around MX $275 (roughly £11 or US $14) in fees to use it.
Tip: often roads in Mexico with the letter ‘D’ are toll roads. 57D, for example, on the way from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende is a toll road, whereas highway 57 (without the D) is free.
Taking a route without tolls will add on about 1 hour.
Tip: if using Google Maps, you can request to avoid tolls by selecting Route options -> Avoid tolls.
We always use Rentalcars.com when we rent cars in other countries, as you get to compare prices upfront and avoid hidden fees. Check out some rental car options below:
Private transfer
The drive is probably a bit far for a regular taxi! However, you can actually hire a private driver for the day to take you to and from San Miguel de Allende if you’d like to travel in comfort and style.
It’s obviously much more expensive than the bus, but if a private driver with snacks, drinks and secured luggage in the car sounds like something you would prefer, take a look at this recommendation: Private Transportation from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende.
✈️ Travelling by Plane
The closest airport to San Miguel de Allende is Guanajuato International Airport. It’s about 100km from San Miguel de Allende and the drive takes about 1.5 hours.
What to do in San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende is one of those places that you could simply explore on foot for hours on end, checking out the beautiful buildings, cafes, restaurants & shops.
There’s plenty to do, so why not check out our ‘How to Spend 2 Amazing Days In San Miguel de Allende’ article for all you need to know about spending time in this beautiful city!
If you’re travelling onwards to Guanajuato – which we’d strongly recommend while you’re here – check out our articles below to help you plan your visit:
- How to Travel from San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato
- Top 10 Things to Do in Guanajuato in Just 2 Days
We hope this give you all the information you need to get from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende! If this is part of a wider trip, we’d recommend checking out our full Custom 1-6 Week Mexico Itinerary article for more details on this brilliant country.
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