10 within 3½ hours · 5 under 2 hours
Villahermosa has Tabasco's three Pueblos Mágicos within an hour and a half: Teapa, with its caves and sulphur springs at the foot of the Chiapas sierra; Frontera, the river port at the mouth of the Grijalva; and Tapijulapa, the red-tiled hill village where boats go to the Villa Luz waterfalls. Palenque's Maya ruins in the rainforest are two hours. For a weekend, Palizada in Campeche or the Chiapas highlands at Chiapa de Corzo and San Cristóbal.
Best months for the area: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 5
Close enough to drive there and back from Villahermosa in a day. Closest first.
55 min · 57 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Jan, Feb, Apr, May, Jun, Sep, Nov, Dec
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 5
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
~2 h 45 min · 185 km
Best: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec
Fiestas: Mar, Apr, Jun, Jul, Oct, Nov, Dec
On the map
Getting there
Villahermosa has its own airport, Villahermosa (VSA), 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 Villahermosa. 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.