Guanajuato, Mexico in $150s-$270s RT

Have you ever visited a city where it's beauty felt like a punch to the gut, but like, in the best possible way?

That was Guanajuato for me. 

It only took a weekend trip from nearby San Miguel de Allende to cajole me into packing my bags and ditch the gringo gulch for good. 

Stately colonial palaces and churches tower above the crayola-colored houses, all stacked on top of each other in the valley. The city's manicured gardens absolutely burst with bougainvillea, hinting of a genteel past and a lingering wealth. 

Yet, its pastel walls featuring bold political graffiti and coils of barbed wire show signs of an entirely different reality. Raw, authentic, loud — this isn't Condé Nast's version of Mexico…