4 within 3½ hours · 1 under 2 hours
Durango's closest Pueblo Mágico is Nombre de Dios, the state's oldest town, under an hour southeast with its Saltito waterfall and mezcal distilleries. Beyond it, two hours away in Zacatecas, is Sombrerete, a silver town of baroque churches at the foot of the Sierra de Órganos, where westerns were filmed among the rock pillars. For a weekend on the other side of the Sierra Madre, the Espinazo del Diablo highway leads down to El Rosario and San Ignacio in Sinaloa.
Best months for the area: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 1
Close enough to drive there and back from Durango in a day. Closest first.
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 3
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
~3 h 15 min · 220 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Nov, Dec
Fiestas: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct
On the map
Getting there
Durango has its own airport, Durango (DGO), 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 Durango. 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.