45 within 3½ hours · 17 under 2 hours
Puebla has Cholula at its edge, fifteen minutes to the great pyramid with a church on top, and Atlixco, the town of flower nurseries, and Huejotzingo, with its fortress convent and carnival, within half an hour. Tlaxcala's Huamantla, Ixtenco and Tlaxco are under an hour. Within two hours the choice widens to the Morelos towns of Tepoztlán and Tlayacapan, Teotihuacán, the Sierra Norte's Zacatlán and Chignahuapan, and Orizaba over the pass into Veracruz. For a weekend, Cuetzalan and the Xalapa coffee towns.
Best months for the area: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 17
Close enough to drive there and back from Puebla in a day. Closest first.
17 min · 14 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Feb, Mar, Apr, Jun, Aug, Sep, Nov
1 h 32 min · 115 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
Fiestas: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Dec
1 h 45 min · 127 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Feb, Mar, Jun, Jul, Dec
1 h 45 min · 137 km
Best: Feb, Mar, Apr, May
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, Jul, Aug, Dec
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 28
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
2 h 24 min · 185 km
Best: Feb, Mar, Apr, May
Fiestas: Apr, May, Sep, Nov, Dec
2 h 44 min · 205 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov, Dec
2 h 49 min · 199 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Mar, Sep, Dec
3 h 1 min · 229 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Feb, Aug, Sep
On the map
Getting there
Puebla has its own airport, Puebla (PBC), 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 Puebla. 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.