17 within 3½ hours · 10 under 2 hours
Aguascalientes sits in the middle of a tight ring of Pueblos Mágicos: four of them, Pabellón de Hidalgo, San José de Gracia, Calvillo and Real de Asientos, are inside the state and all under an hour away, so you can do a different one each Sunday. Calvillo is guava country, with orchards and a sweets trade around them; Real de Asientos is an old silver town with catacombs under its church; San José de Gracia is the gateway to the Sierra Fría. Push a little further and you reach the Zacatecas highlands and the Altos de Jalisco, with Nochistlán and the hot-spring canyon of Temacapulín.
Best months for the area: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 10
Close enough to drive there and back from Aguascalientes in a day. Closest first.
42 min · 44 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, Jun
1 h 1 min · 59 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Apr, May
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, Jul, Nov
~1 h 55 min · 130 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Apr, Dec
Fiestas: Mar, Apr, Jun, Oct, Dec
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 7
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
~2 h 15 min · 150 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr
Fiestas: Mar, Apr, Oct
~2 h 30 min · 170 km
Best: Mar, Apr, May, Nov
Fiestas: May, Jun, Nov, Dec
~3 h 20 min · 230 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Apr, May, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct
On the map
Getting there
Aguascalientes has its own airport, Aguascalientes (AGU), so you can fly in and rent a car there.
A car is the easiest way to reach most of these towns; the bigger ones also have direct buses from Aguascalientes. Each pueblo's page has its own getting-there notes.
Drive times are from OpenStreetMap routing without traffic. Times marked ~ are estimated from the distance and may run longer on mountain roads.