Wondering how to get from the beautiful cobbled streets of San Miguel de Allende to the brightly coloured city of Guanajuato? Look no further, this is the complete guide covering how to travel from San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato, including where to find bus timetables, how to book your bus, benefits of taking private transport, and more.
🏘️ Why visit Guanajuato
If you’re spending time in San Miguel de Allende or nearby Guadalajara, Guanajuato is a brilliant place to stop for a couple of days. The small city, with its narrow alleyways and colourful hillside buildings, has plenty to keep you busy while you’re there!
The city’s built into a valley and has a very ‘higgledy-piggledy’ vibe to it. You can easily get lost wandering around, but in the best kind of way! It has a big history in silver mining history and is over-flowing with beautiful colonial architecture.
One of the most famous alleys in the city (and maybe the world!) is the Callejón del Beso (Alley of the Kiss). It got its name due to the buildings on either side of the alley being so close together that couples can reach across and kiss. There’s even a very Romeo & Juliet style love story/legend about the alley too, of two forbidden lovers who’d kiss in secret while standing on opposing balconies – the alley is that narrow!
In summary: we think if you’ve got the time while you’re in central Mexico or the capital, Guanajuato is one not to skip.
How far away is San Miguel de Allende from Guanajuato?
San Miguel de Allende is about 75 km from Guanajuato, which should take around 1.5 hours to cover by car/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!
Bus prices from San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato generally cost around MX $375 (£15 / US $20) per person, but can differ depending on various things like the day of travel.
There are multiple departures from the bus terminal each day. Simply head to Busbud.com to check out the available times for San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato.
If you’re wondering why we recommend using Busbud, read the Budbud section further down this article.
The Central de Autobuses San Miguel de Allende bus station is only a 20 minute walk or 4 minute taxi from the centre of San Miguel de Allende.
You’ll arrive at Terminal Central de Autobuses de Guanajuato which is a 10 minute drive to the centre of Guanajuato. You can get a taxi from someone waiting outside or order an Uber. We paid about MX $120 (£4.50 / US $6.50) for our Uber.
If you’re interested in a cheaper trip into town, there’s a public bus which costs around MX $15 from the bus terminal entrance to the central market.
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 is an online-booking platform for bus transport in Mexico. We’re proper planners and love having everything booked rather than leaving things until the last minute, which is why it was our saviour while we travelled through the country.
We encountered a lot of full buses in Mexico, so if we’d have 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! On top of that, the entire app/website is in English, so if you’re not confident speaking to staff at ticket counters in Spanish it’s a real rescuer.
That’s why we found booking our buses in advance on Busbud.com was so helpful.
Of course, if you wanted to try your luck and simply rock up to purchase your tickets at the terminal on the day, go for it! It might work, but it also might not – like 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.
Your tickets get 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 San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato is pretty straightforward. Simply head west out of the city aiming for a road named ‘Carr. Guanajuato – San Miguel de Allende’ which eventually joins GTO 67. That takes you almost all the way to Guanajuato! Like we said – super simple!
The drive will take around 1.5 hours and the best part is you don’t have to worry about any tolls on these roads (as of 2025).
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
If you don’t want to take a bus or drive yourself, consider hiring a private driver for the day to take you to and from Guanajuato!
It’s typically much more expensive than the bus, but it comes with some big advantages: more comfortable, secure luggage and it’s often quicker. Take a look at these recommendations:
1️⃣ Private Transfer San Miguel de Allende-Guanajuato city, English Speaking Driver
2️⃣ Private transfer between Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende
🏘️ What to do in Guanajuato
While there’s plenty to do in Guanajuato, we’d recommend 2 days as the perfect amount to explore and so see all the sights! We’ve listed out the Top 10 Things to Do in Guanajuato in Just 2 Days, so give that a read before you arrive. It covers all the best things to do over a couple of days in this colourful city.
⛪️ What to do in San Miguel de Allende
You’re probably reading this while you plan to leave San Miguel de Allende, but just in case you’re still wondering what to do check out our ‘How to Spend 2 Amazing Days In San Miguel de Allende’ post.
We hope this give you all the information you need to get from San Miguel de Allende to Guanajuato! 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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