San Sebastián del Oeste: the Town That Was One of Jalisco's Richest and Became a Ghost Town

An hour from your beach, up a winding mountain road, there's a town that 150 years ago was one of the RICHEST in all of Jalisco — only Guadalajara outranked it. It had 20,000 people and 30 silver mines. Today it has fewer than a thousand residents, cobblestone streets frozen in time, and a gorgeous ghost-town air. It's called San Sebastián del Oeste, and almost no one who visits Vallarta knows it.

What is San Sebastián del Oeste?

It's a colonial Pueblo Mágico hidden in the Sierra Madre, about 60 km northeast of Puerto Vallarta (an hour's drive) and over 1,400 meters high. It was founded in 1605 by Spanish silver miners. The climate is cool, it smells of pine and coffee, and the town is almost perfectly preserved: cobblestone, haciendas, chapels, and mountains everywhere.

The boom: silver, 30 mines, 20,000 souls

When the silver and gold mines were discovered, San Sebastián became one of the most important mining centers in New Spain. It grew to nearly 30 mines and over 20,000 residents. With the sole exception of Guadalajara, it was likely the most prosperous town in Jalisco. Picture that: mining opulence, deep in the sierra, above Vallarta.

The fall to ghost town

It all collapsed with the Mexican Revolution. Silver production crashed and the last active mine closed in 1921. Without mines, the town collapsed: empty ranches, haciendas, and churches remained. From 20,000 to a handful of families. But that very thing — being stopped in time — is what makes it magical today.

What's there today?

In 2011 it was named a Pueblo Mágico. Today you go for the high-altitude coffee (grown right there), the restored haciendas, the mountain overlooks, the region's raicilla (the forbidden spirit of these hills), and that other-era silence. It's the perfect contrast to the beach: in an hour you go from tropical sea to pine-cool mountains.

How do I get there from Vallarta?

By car it's ~1.5 hours via the Mascota road; there are also day tours from Vallarta. Head up early, have breakfast on the plaza, walk the town, try the coffee and the sierra raicilla, and come down at sunset. A perfect day of contrast with the bay.

The moral: Vallarta isn't only beaches. An hour uphill sits a town that was rich, went ghost, and was reborn as a gem. One of the bay's best-kept secrets.