14 within 3½ hours · 8 under 2 hours
Tepic is the quiet capital in the middle of Nayarit's Pueblos Mágicos. Compostela, the first Spanish capital of the region, is half an hour away; San Blas, the old port with mangrove boat trips to La Tovara, under an hour; and the volcano towns of Jala, Ixtlán del Río and Ahuacatlán about the same along the Guadalajara road. Two hours away are the surf village of Sayulita and Mexcaltitán, the island village in a lagoon. For a weekend, the sierra towns of Mascota and Talpa de Allende, or Tequila.
Best months for the area: Jan, Mar, Nov, Dec (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 8
Close enough to drive there and back from Tepic in a day. Closest first.
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 6
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
~2 h 26 min · 165 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Nov, Dec
Fiestas: Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct
~2 h 50 min · 190 km
Best: Mar, Apr, May, Nov
Fiestas: May, Jun, Nov, Dec
~3 h 15 min · 130 km
Best: Mar, Apr, May, Nov
Fiestas: Jan, Aug, Oct, Dec
On the map
Getting there
Tepic has its own airport, Tepic (TPQ), 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 Tepic. 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.