How are the roads in San Miguel de Allende? Do I need a four-wheel drive in San Miguel de Allende?

In general, you don’t need a 4-wheel drive in San Miguel de Allende unless you are going to through the mud, for example, to the colonias. If you are going to neighborhood that has a dirt road then you might want a 4-wheel drive but the roads are usually not that bad, so you can drive through them using a regular vehicle. The road out to Queretaro (the nearest large city) is being repaired and they’re putting a new road there.

 

The roads in San...

In general, you don’t need a 4-wheel drive in San Miguel de Allende unless you are going to through the mud, for example, to the colonias. If you are going to neighborhood that has a dirt road then you might want a 4-wheel drive but the roads are usually not that bad, so you can drive through them using a regular vehicle. The road out to Queretaro (the nearest large city) is being repaired and they’re putting a new road there.

 

The roads in San Miguel de Allende are mostly cobblestone because San Miguel is a colonial city so you couldn’t drive very fast here because it wouldn’t be good for your car. The roads in San Miguel are narrow but the drivers here are so good that even the garbage truck that collects garbage around the city makes it through these narrow roads.

 

I have a car.   They’re working on the highways right now, which are a mess, but they are improving them considerably. In the not-too-distant future that’s going to be very nice. The streets have already gotten a lot better than when I got here. The cobblestone streets are beautiful and romantic. On the other hand, they have built-in speed bumps. When I’m in California and I look down a half a block on the street and see a car coming, I wait. When I’m...

I have a car.   They’re working on the highways right now, which are a mess, but they are improving them considerably. In the not-too-distant future that’s going to be very nice. The streets have already gotten a lot better than when I got here. The cobblestone streets are beautiful and romantic. On the other hand, they have built-in speed bumps. When I’m in California and I look down a half a block on the street and see a car coming, I wait. When I’m here in San Miguel de Allende, if a car is coming at me a quarter of a block away, I know I can make it across the street because the street is very narrow, and the cars are going 10 miles an hour so I don’t worry about it, and they have plenty of time to stop. 

 

The streets are safer in that regard. On the other hand, it can be dangerous to walk on them, especially for women.  , If you’re wearing high heels, don’t, because you might have an accident. A lot of people do fall down and get hurt because the sidewalks are landmines. You have to watch where you’re walking all the time. I’ve heard of people getting serious injuries from being distracted for a couple of seconds - didn’t see that hole, didn’t see that post. Plus, there are all these obstacles on the sidewalks that are awful. They’re beautiful, but you’ve got to pay attention. And that’s the thing about most places in the Third World. 90% of the world live like this. You have to pay attention, and if you’re not paying attention, you’ll break your leg. There’s nobody to sue so its tough luck; you had better pay attention.