A guided tour of Guanajuato’s traditional cantinas. History, mezcal, and legends on a cultural tour that reveals the city’s social and mining life.

PRICE: $20
per person

 

The tour kicks off at the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, a symbol of Guanajuato’s mining, social, and political history. Here, you’ll be introduced to the urban context that gave rise to the city and its popular gathering spaces. Since the 19th century, the cantinas have been fundamental places in everyday life: not just places to drink, but true social centers where miners, muleteers, students, merchants, and travelers shared news, discussed politics, closed deals, sang, played, listened to music, and built a collective identity. From this point, the tour is a guided walk through the historic center that lets you understand how the layout of streets, alleys, and squares connected mining work life with leisure and coexistence. Over the course of about an hour and a half, you’ll visit three iconic cantinas that represent different stages and expressions of Guanajuato’s cantina culture. The first stop is Aquí Me Quedo (30 min), a traditional cantina that explains the origin of these spaces, their rituals, unwritten codes, the importance of the bar as a meeting point, and the social function of the snack as an element of hospitality and permanence. The second stop is Los Barrilitos (30 min), where you’ll delve into the cantina as a popular and bohemian space, its relationship with music, collective conversation, local clientele, and the permanence of traditions that have survived urban changes and contemporary tourism. Finally, the tour ends at Bar Luna (30 min), a historic cantina associated with the student, artistic, and intellectual life of Guanajuato, where you’ll reflect on the continuity of the cantina tradition, the mix between the old and the new, and the role of these spaces as guardians of urban memory. Between each stop, there are short walks during which the guide tells anecdotes, historical episodes, and urban legends linked to mining, floods, student life, and the cultural use of mezcal and other drinks as identifying elements, always from a responsible consumption perspective. The experience combines history, heritage, coexistence, and flavor, letting visitors experience Guanajuato through its most iconic cantinas, understood as living museums where every bar, every object, and every glass tells a story that continues to beat in the present.

Authentic immersion in Guanajuato’s social life through its cantinas.
Discover the history, rituals, and drinks that have shaped identity since the 19th century
Each stop turns the tasting into a living story of the past and present
Enjoy a personalized experience in small groups of tourists.
A visual comparison of past and present with old photographs of Guanajuato

Guided tour
A guide specializing in history, heritage, and cantina culture
Drinks and consumption on-site

 

 

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