Guadalajara Travelers Recommend

If you have a bucket list for Mexican art, Guadalajara’s Centro Historico is a good place to start. The great muralist Jose Clemente Orozco is from Jalisco, and he did right by his home state. If you start at the Plaza Tapatía and walk through the sculpture garden at its eastern end, you’ll find the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, which contains a chapel with 57 frescos by Jalisco’s native son. Get a feel for the surrounding landscape with a morning hike in the Barranca de Huentitán-Oblatos (Calzada Independencia Norte), a tropical nature reserve on the outskirts of town. Then spend a more leisurely afternoon in the shade-dappled Parque Agua Azul a favorite of Tapatío families for more than two centuries. Spend the morning bargain shopping for folk art in Tonalá, and then head for lunch at the cavernous Mercado Libertad (52 Javier Mina). The market’s fondas (stalls) offer traditional, inexpensive fare.