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    A free Puebloteca guide Michoacán's Pueblos Mágicos

    Free Michoacán travel guide

    All 10 of Michoacán's Pueblos Mágicos on one printable page. Free when you sign up for our weekly email.

    • All 10 Pueblos Mágicos, with a photo and what makes each special
    • A map of Michoacán with each one on it
    • Road trips that join the pueblos close together
    • The best months to go
    • How far each is from the nearest city
    • The sights not to miss
    • The fiestas worth planning around
    • The fiestas month by month
    • Where to stay in each
    • Made to print or save as a PDF

    The 10 Pueblos Mágicos in this guide

    Most visited first. The full guide adds the sights not to miss, the fiestas, how far each is by car, and a layout made to print.

    Tacámbaro10Jiquilpan9Cuitzeo8Santa Clara del Cobre7Angangueo6Paracho5Cotija4Tzintzuntzan3Tlalpujahua2Pátzcuaro1
    1. 1 Colorful wooden boats moored at the dock on Lake Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

      Pátzcuaro

      Pátzcuaro sits near the lake of the same name in the highlands of Michoacán, with big plazas, adobe-and-tile buildings painted white and red, and deep Purépecha roots. It is one of the most famous places in Mexico to experience Day of the Dead.

      When to go: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr

    2. 2 Colorful gabled shops of the Villa de Santa Claus, Tlalpujahua, Michoacán

      Tlalpujahua

      A former gold-mining town in the mountains of Michoacán, now known across Mexico for making handmade glass Christmas ornaments.

      When to go: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec

    3. 3 Church of San Francisco and its bell tower across the convent atrium, Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán

      Tzintzuntzan

      Tzintzuntzan is a small town on the shore of Lake Pátzcuaro that was once the capital of the Purépecha state. Above it stand the yácatas, five stepped platforms with rounded ends that look out over the lake, and in the center is a 16th-century Franciscan monastery complex with a huge atrium. People come for the ruins, the pottery and embroidery, the Señor del Rescate festival, and the Day of the Dead vigil in the cemetery.

      When to go: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr

    4. 4 Bell tower and tiled dome of the Santuario de Guadalupe above the rooftops of Cotija, Michoacán

      Cotija

      Cotija de la Paz is a ranching town in the hills of western Michoacán, close to the Jalisco line, and the home of the salty, crumbly aged cheese that carries its name across Mexico and beyond. Tasting and buying queso Cotija where it is made is the main reason to visit. The town has a strongly Catholic character and a tidy center of churches and old houses, and it is the birthplace of Saint Rafael Guízar y Valencia.

      When to go: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov

    5. 5 Crowd of guitarists gathered for a record attempt below a mountain, Paracho, Michoacán

      Paracho

      Paracho is a Purépecha town on the highland plateau of Michoacán, known across Mexico as the place where guitars are made. Workshops and music shops line its streets, and many let you watch luthiers build guitars, violins, vihuelas, guitarrones and mandolins by hand. Other artisans carve wooden toys, furniture and kitchenware. The big date is the National Guitar Fair in early August, centered on the Casa de la Cultura.

      When to go: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov

    6. 6 Neo-Gothic facade of the Templo de San Simón with Christmas stars over the street, Angangueo, Michoacán

      Angangueo

      A narrow mining town squeezed into a valley in eastern Michoacán, and a base for visiting the monarch butterfly sanctuaries in winter.

      When to go: Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov

    7. 7 Facade of the Purísima church in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán

      Santa Clara del Cobre

      Santa Clara del Cobre is a town of white walls and red tile roofs 18 km from Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, where much of the population works copper by hand. In its many workshops, teams of smiths hammer red-hot metal on the anvil into pots, vases and sculpture. Visitors browse the copper shops around the kiosk plaza, itself roofed in copper, see the Copper Museum, and come in August for the National Copper Fair.

      When to go: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr

    8. 8 Plateresque facade and arcaded portico of the convent of Santa María Magdalena, Cuitzeo, Michoacán

      Cuitzeo

      Cuitzeo del Porvenir sits on the north shore of the wide, shallow Lake Cuitzeo, about half an hour from Morelia. It is a quiet town of narrow streets and white facades, built around the 16th-century Augustinian monastery of Santa María Magdalena with its finely carved Plateresque front. Visitors come for the monastery and its print museum, the lakeside views, reed baskets and mats, and plates of charales, corundas and uchepos.

      When to go: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov

    9. 9 Domes and towers above the rooftops of Jiquilpan under a stormy sky, Michoacán

      Jiquilpan

      Jiquilpan is a small city in northwestern Michoacán, close to the Jalisco border, and the birthplace of President Lázaro Cárdenas. Its surprise is the public library, a former chapel whose walls José Clemente Orozco covered with murals. There is also a 16th century Franciscan convent, a museum on the life of Cárdenas, the house museum of artist Feliciano Béjar and the shady Cuauhtémoc forest park, where the stone Casita de Piedra hosts a workshop that raises silkworms and weaves silk rebozos.

      When to go: Jan, Feb, Mar, Nov

    10. 10 The main plaza and church of Tacámbaro lit up at night, Michoacán

      Tacámbaro

      Tacámbaro is a town in central Michoacán whose Purépecha name means roughly 'place of palms'. It grew up around an Augustinian chapel and convent founded in the 16th century, and its center still follows the street plan laid out in colonial times. It carries the official title of Heroic city for a battle fought here under General Nicolás de Régules, and travelers come for its historic center and relaxed small-town pace.

      When to go: Jan, Mar, Apr, Dec

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