Tonalá – Hidden Jewel of Guadalajara

My parents came to visit in early 2020 (right before the pandemic), so we decided on a roadtrip to Guadalajara..stopping in Tequila and ending up in the hidden jewel of the Guadalajara area, Tonalá.  In asking an expat friend for advice on where to stay in Guadalajara, he strongly recommended the Tonalá area.  He had made several trips to the city….telling us about its well known ceramics industry and that it’s one of the safest (low key) areas to stay in.

Getting There: 

From La Cruz (Puerto Vallarta) we took the quota road (Toll Roads) through the mountains up to Tequila and then into Guadalajara/Tonalá.  These are easy, well maintained roads with 2-3 lanes on each side (like freeways) and Green Angels if you needed them (like AAA in Green Trucks).  So getting there wasn’t bad, even in light rain and light mountain driving.  See my maps next.

Where We Stayed: 

We were lucky to get a good hotel recommendation from an American expat for both Tequila and Tonalá before we started the trip, otherwise we would have had to just do lots more research to make sure we were staying in a safe area and a decent hotel.  Turns out, this hotel was great.  The hotel has secure parking located right next to it, really clean rooms and we walked everywhere in the Tonalá area, never moving the car in the two days we stayed, taking a taxi into Guadalajara to avoid city driving.  Hotel Hacienda Del Sol is on the map above and easy to find, easy to book and gave us great restaurant recommendations, via safe streets even in the dark.  I was really impressed with how easy this area was to navigate….especially as it’s not set up with alot of tourist infastructure.  Why?- Tonalá has been a center for ceramics since before the Spanish arrived and the industry continues to flourish, shipping its wares all over Mexico and into the US.  But, this means the area is slightly more industrial still and you are often walking into a store to look at pretty ceramics while those same wares are being made by workers in the rear of the building.  These were my favorites to check out.  The workers loved it and they hooted and laughed when I tried out my fledgling Spanish to say hello and tell them how awesome the designs were.

Tonalá Ceramics:

Tonalá has been the center of Jalisco ceramics since before the Spanish arrived and is well known for its handicrafts and ceramics.  There are three museums dedicated to the art and science of ceramics and 33% of all residents work in the industry…in one way or the other.  The city is also known for its large street markets set up two days per week.  Tonalá ceramics now include stoneware and high-fire methods of finishing the ceramics, using a glaze.  You can see ceramics with gold inlay, terra cotta motifs and hand-painted and finished with every sort of design imaginable.  Coming here would be less expensive if you have a shopping list in mind….otherwise you might leave with a custom ceramic toilet or a case of tile you have to haul all over the world.

Tonalá with family? 

– Tonalá with family:  YES….I would go back to Tonalá and I would take the family again.  While not all of Guadalajara has the best areas and there are dangerous areas in any large city, I think as long as you know the areas you are going to and get LOCAL advice….you can’t go wrong by visiting or staying in Tonalá, especially if you want original, beautiful ceramics at a fraction of what you might pay for them anywhere else. 

– Driving around the Tonala area and Guadalajara:  Nope…no thank you.  We drove into Tonalá and then drove back out two days later, straight shot down the freeways.  But I didn’t want to drive the rental around the areas, so we just hired cabs.  We did make sure the hotel called the cabs for us and then took us to the cab to make sure we’d get a fair price, but our Spanish and general knowledge of fair prices helped too.

– Walking Around:  We walked from the hotel the short distances to the main boulevard that was chocked full of ceramics shops….Av. Tonaltecas.  We even crossed this busy street to head across to more of the factory side of the town, where more of the pottery was made behind small shops.  We didn’t venture into the areas further away where the larger ceramics factories were running.  Then we walked to dinner two nights in a row.  The area is fun and open but doesn’t have lots of tourist infrastructure.

– Close By:  We were told about Tlaquepaque….another part of Guadalajara right beside Tonalá which is more geared toward tourists- has more hotels and restaurants and is generally geared toward tourists, but we were fine where we were.  We did one day in Tonalá proper and then we did one whole day in central Guadalajara….that’s for next week.

Like everywhere we travel to we know there’s good/bad areas of town and smart ways to travel.  Learning a bit of the language, understanding that we’re visitors to their country and treating everyone with respect help us to travel safer.  We also never carry much cash, don’t wear much jewelry and don’t really wear fancy clothes as we visit other places.  But this advice should translate to anywhere we go.  I’ve been to countries and areas much, much more dangerous than Mexico…and this same advice holds true there and anywhere.  Respect the people, traditions and lands you are visit and you will have fewer problems and more open experiences anywhere you go.  

We loved Tonalá and I had a blast writing this story because the visit is still so fresh in my memory….and I see the tiles we dragged back from Tonalá everyday.  They make me smile, because I vividly remember rolling up on my wife buying them from the small shop….then telling me that come hell or high-water, she was going to get those tiles back to the US.  That next year, during the raging pandemic, we rented a van in Baja Mexico- drove all the way back to the US with that case of tiles and left them at the in-laws.  When we finally returned to the US, we reclaimed them and we still have half a case sitting in the garage. 

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Here’s my recent story about our visit to Tequila…the city: 

Tequila- More Than Just a Spirit

Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos- More Than Meets The Eye

From The HelmsMistress: Roadtrip: Tequila, Tonalá and Guadalajara