This post should have been about Guadalajara in general, but as we literally just moved around the Americana neighbourhood the week we spend in the city, it’s more appropriate to lay the focus here.

Americana is how I imagine Miami; Art Deco houses, lots of plants and palms in the front yards and pastel colours. The neighbourhood is a bit scratchy, but hey, perfection also lies in the imperfect, right? We really liked Americana and enjoyed our time there, but I must say that I did not really enjoy the rest of the city. I cannot really explain why, I just didn’t feel very comfortable the couple of times we left Americana.

We didn’t do much here honestly. We made some routines of me going to yoga and Lasse going to the gym and then writing some articles when Julian napped. In between that, we just went out for coffee, lunch and played in the wonderful courtyard our place had. It was nice with some routines and to put hands to work again.

We stayed at a totally renovated Airbnb with a perfect location close to all coffee shops and restaurants. We had a large room with private bath and a really top tuned kitchen that was cleaned every day by a maid. Find it here.

Here are the places we particularly liked in Americana, Guadalajara:

EAT & DRINK

Coffee, breakfast & snacks

Distrito Aguacate

The name says it all: Avocado toasts, avocado salads and even avocado pizzas (this one was good! Pizza with avocado cream, topped with chickpeas, tomates and fresh mozzarella!). They also serve smoothie bowls and ricotta pancakes. Distrito Aguacate is a perfect place for healthy food options all day. We also picked up take-away here.

Fitzroy Espresso Bar

Every town has the perfect Instagram-café and in Guadalajara it is Fitzroy. The interior is very nice and even the pink bathrooms are perfect. WiFi is good and it is a great place to work from with various seating options.

The coffee is excellent and they master a flat white to perfection. They were very concerned about my husband’s allergy to nuts and therefore made him a special topping to his smoothie bowl. Nice attention to detail.

Jardín Americana

Jardín Americana is a cultural centre with a co-working office and a nice large garden with food trucks. The WiFi is very good all over, so we worked in the garden some days during Julian’s nap. Once he waked up, the garden was nice for him to run around in. The food trucks offer sandwiches, guacamole, hummus, cakes, coffee, juices, wine and drinks, so there’s a bit for everyone and the quality is very good.

Clementa Donuts

I can’t help but check out the variation of donuts when passing a donut shop. And donuts are not really my favorite cake, but I still enjoy admiring aaaaall those nice colours they come in! At Clementa we tried their donut with grilled marshmallows and it was delicious!

Lunch & Dinner

Chulada Restaurante

This was our first meall in Guadalajara and we immediately knew that it would be a good week food-wise. The cuisine at Chulada is classic mexican with a modern twist and nicely arranged on the plate (something that doesn’t seem to be a thing in the classic cuisine here…). We had tacos, spinach salad and eggs. And a nice typical pudding (flan) for desert.

Mercado Via Libertad

Despite the name this is not the typical Mexican marked, where you can stock up on groceries. Mercado Via Libertad is a newly opened “marked” with a great selection of restaurant and bars and a nice square in front with an ice cream and coffee shop. There are various vegan and vegetarian restaurants, so that’s nice when in search for healthy options. However, I didn’t find the marked very nice for eating in. It was kind of soulless and with a high noise level for my liking. So I would recommend take-away or using the restaurant facing the street, where there is a nice terrasse to use. Like La Muerta (below).

La Muerta Ceviche y Antojitos

La Muerta is part of Mercado Via Libertad. We had a very delicious lunch there our last day in town. Their octopus taco is amazing!

There are in general many nice options for dinner, but as we travel with our 1-year old son, we usually dine at home as he goes to bed around 7.30 pm and many restaurants don’t serve dinner before 8 pm. So I don’t really have any recommendations here.

Yoga & Fitness

I went to some yoga classes at Casa Yoga, which was a very relaxed yoga centre with a nice quiet atmosphere. Price per class was 100 pesos. Lasse went to Sport Gym. It was fine for the location, but the centre was quite worn down.

Practical

Getting around

Uber works perfectly fine and there are many cars around. Inside the neighbourhood everything is within walking distance and even the cathedral and historical center are within walking distance from Americana too. The airport is around 40 minutes from Americana, Guadalajara and cost aprox- 250 – 300 MXN // 12 – 14 €.

We quit our jobs by the end of 2018 to travel in Latin America and work online. Read about it here