Where locals go

Off the Andador

The tourist core is small, so locals do not go far to escape it. On a day off, queretanos drift a few streets out from the main plazas and into the neighborhoods.

Where residents actually spend time

• Mercado Escobedo and Mercado de la Cruz. Working markets where people do their weekend shopping and eat breakfast at the fondas. This is where the cheap, honest food lives, not on the terrace strips.
• Barrio de la Cruz and Barrio de San Francisquito. Older residential neighborhoods just east of the center with quiet plazas, taquerias and a lived-in feel the postcard streets have lost.
• Alameda Hidalgo. The big city park where families walk, jog and picnic on Sundays. Pure local rhythm, no souvenirs.
• Plaza de la Corregidora on a weekday. Locals treat the cafe tables here as a living room in the early evening, before the weekend crowds arrive.
• The cantinas off the tourist streets. Old-school spots pouring cheap beer and free botanas, where the after-work crowd lands.

A friend’s tip

What a resident would tell you: eat your breakfast in a market, not a hotel, and let the plazas fill with families on Sunday rather than fighting the Saturday-night visitors. The city belongs to the people who live in it on weekday evenings, and that is the nicest time to be out.