22 within 3½ hours · 6 under 2 hours
Tehuacán, the mineral-water city, has its Pueblos Mágicos over the sierra in Veracruz: Orizaba, with its river walk and cable car, is about an hour, Córdoba and Coscomatepec a little further. Huautla de Jiménez, two hours into the Sierra Mazateca, is the mushroom town of María Sabina; Teposcolula, in the Oaxacan Mixteca, has a great Dominican open chapel. For a weekend, Puebla's Cholula and Atlixco, or the coffee towns of Xico and Coatepec.
Best months for the area: Feb, Mar, Apr, Dec (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 6
Close enough to drive there and back from Tehuacán in a day. Closest first.
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 16
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
~2 h 15 min · 155 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Feb, Mar, Apr, Jun, Aug, Sep, Nov
~2 h 20 min · 155 km
Best: Feb, Mar, Apr, May
Fiestas: Apr, May, Sep, Nov, Dec
~3 h · 200 km
Best: Feb, Mar, Apr, May
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, Jul, Aug, Dec
~3 h 5 min · 210 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Mar, Apr, Sep, Nov, Dec
On the map
Getting there
Tehuacán has no airport with scheduled flights; the usual one to fly into is Veracruz (VER).
A car is the easiest way to reach most of these towns; the bigger ones also have direct buses from Tehuacán. 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.