Worth getting out of bed for

Jalisco itinerary

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Viewpoint

Pop into the 18th-century Palacio de Gobierno on Guadalajara's Avenida Corona and, after checking out the amazing murals, make your way towards the roof. The views of the cityscape from here are fabulous.

Arts and culture

The Huicholes, who make up a large percentage of Jalisco’s indigenous inhabitants, are beadworkers by tradition, covering gourd bowls and animal sculptures with thousands of brightly coloured beads in trippy patterns – reflecting their culture’s long history of overindulging in the hallucinogenic peyote cactus. Guadalajara is an important centre for the arts in Mexico, so much so that the Guggenheim Foundation have started construction of their sixth museum here, slated to open in the early 2010s.

Something for nothing

Head to Tlaquepaque’s main square on Saturdays and be serenaded by silver-studded charro-suited mariachi strumming their stuff.

Shopping

Guadalajara’s Mercado Libertad on Calzada Independencia is reputedly the largest covered market in the Americas, and you can easily while away hours lost in a panoply of colours, smells and sounds, picking up foodie bargains along the way. The suburb Tlaquepaque is the home of boutique shopping in Guadalajara, and is particularly plunderable when it comes to objets d’art and local craftworks. Head to Casa Canela, a beautiful colonial mansion at 258 Independencia, for a stunning selection of art and antiques, or visit La Rosa de Cristal (theglassrose.page.tl) (232 Independencia) before 2.30pm to watch Jalisco’s most gift glassworkers in action, then take your pick of their pieces. A short drive from the city in Tonalá, the National Museum of Ceramics, (104 Constitucion) has an impressive collection, and a vast choice of local and nationally crafted ceramic pieces in its shop. Puerta Vallarta and the villages of the Costa Alegre have a few little stores worth poking into, but there’s little to seduce the serious shopper.

Daytripper

Drive the tequila route through the towns of El Arenal, Amatitlán, Tequila and Magdelena. You’ll have plenty of chances to sample the potent concoction along the way, as well as learning about its production, from harvesting agave through to the distilleries. Someone, unfortunately, will have to be designated driver. In Tequila itself, stop for a taco-fuelled lunch at Real Marinero at 92 Paseo Benito Juárez (+52 37 421 674). It is on the main square, a short hop away from the Sauza and José Cuervo distilleries and serves great, wallet-friendly ceviche – and great tequila and margaritas, naturally.

Best beach

South of Manazilla, the Barra de Navidad is a surving swathe of sand around a small lagoon and surrounded by down-to-earth fish restaurants. It's peaceful and largely undeveloped, but it can only be a matter of time before the tourist overspill from Puerto Vallarta catches on…

Perfect picnic

Drive out to Lake Chapala and Ajijic, about an hour outside Guadalajara where you can rent a colorful boat, sail out the scorpion-shaped Isla de los Alacranes, and check-out the beautiful homes, and splendour-drenched landscapes. Supplement your picnic supplies (you can pick them up at any of the Gigante supermarkets you find in any of Jalisco’s larger towns) with ‘charales’ from Ajijic’s restaurants, a crunchy local delicacy reminiscent of fried whitebait.

Walks

For a coastal jaunt, start from the pretty village of Yelapa on the Costa Alegre and follow the footpath upriver through the jungle for an hour to the cascadas and catedral, a series of falls and a canyon, where you’ll find secluded swimming holes to splash in. In Guadalajara, take a taxi downtown to the impressive cathedral and saunter down past the Degollado Theater to the Instituto Cabañas. The walk takes about an hour, taking in quirky little shops and street vendors on the way, and it follows the central plaza so you don’t have to cross streets. Once you reach the Instituto Cabañas, cross over to the Mercado de San Juan de Dios, a sprawling marketplace where you can pick up everything from fruit and vegetables (the juices on offer are delicious), to belts, sombreros and silver jewellery.

Children

Mexico’s Costa Alegre is littered with beaches perfect for playing on the sand or boogie boarding, and between December and April is mating season in the cetacean world and hundreds of humpback whales descend on Banderas Bay – a breathtaking sight for kids and adults alike. Guadalajara Zoo (www.zooguadalajara.com.mx) is one of Mexico’s largest, and includes its own theme park, the Selva Mágica (www.selvamagica.com.mx), which is packed with rides and roller-coasters to keep little (and less little) ones entertained.

Activities

Surfing – the Costa Alegre gets some of the best breaks in the Pacific, and there are dozens of top spots around Puerta Vallarto and on the coast to the South. For surf trips around Banderas Bay on board a yacht, try www.amigosurfmexico.com. High in the hills of the Sierra Madre, the Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens (www.vallartabotanicalgardensac.org) hold over 3000 different species of plants indigenous to the region, including desert palms and rare orchids, as well as natural swimming pools too cool off in.

And...

For a sneak peek of Costa Alegre's scenery, check out Alfonso Cuarón’s, sexually charged coming-of-age road movie, Y Tu Mamá También, filmed on Jalisco's Pacific coast.