13 within 3½ hours · 7 under 2 hours
Zacatecas has Guadalupe at its side, ten minutes to the convent museum with one of Mexico's great collections of colonial painting. Jerez, the arcaded town of poet Ramón López Velarde, and Villanueva, with the La Quemada ruins on its hill, are under an hour. The four Pueblos Mágicos of Aguascalientes are an hour and a half south. For a weekend, Pinos and its baroque churches, or Sombrerete and the rock pillars of the Sierra de Órganos.
Best months for the area: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov (when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons)
Day trips (under 2 hours) 7
Close enough to drive there and back from Zacatecas in a day. Closest first.
~1 h 20 min · 90 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Apr, Nov
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, Jun
~1 h 30 min · 100 km
Best: Jan, Mar, Apr, May
Fiestas: Jan, Mar, Apr, Jul, Nov
Weekend escapes (2 to 3½ hours) 6
Worth a night or two. Closest first.
~3 h 20 min · 225 km
Best: Mar, Apr, May, Nov
Fiestas: May, Jun, Nov, Dec
On the map
Getting there
Zacatecas has its own airport, Zacatecas (ZCL), 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 Zacatecas. 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.