San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel has won "best city in the world" from travel magazines so many times it stopped being news. The reason is obvious the moment you walk into the Jardín: the neo-gothic pink spires of the Parroquia, the ochre walls, the bougainvillea and the light. It is a UNESCO city that has been an art colony since the 1940s, and today one in ten residents is a foreigner.

That gives it the best restaurant scene of any city its size in Mexico, galleries on every block and a real estate market that rivals the coast. It is also a base for the Guanajuato wine region and the hot springs of Atotonilco.