Chiapas itinerary details

I’ve written this Chiapas itinerary without numbering the days I recommend spending. It really depends on how fast or slow you wish to travel. When I took the particular Chiapas road trip with my family that inspired me to write this article, we spent two weeks driving around the state.

✈️ This Chiapas road trip begins in Chiapa de Corzo, rather than its more famous neighbour, San Cristóbal de las Casas, because Chiapa de Corzo is closer to the airport in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. We assume you’ll be flying in, probably via the incredible Mexico City, and will be picking up your rental car there.

🚗 Check car rental prices and availability now

Chiapa de Corzo – visit the Cañon de Sumidero

Chiapa de Corzo is a beautiful pueblo mágico that receives very few foreign visitors. Most people come, visit the Cañon del Sumidero and leave without even checking out the town, which is a shame. If you can, I highly recommend staying in this small town, as Mexican visitors tend to do. It is one of just four pueblos mágicos in Chiapas and I really like this place.

→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to exploring Chiapa de Corzo

What to do in Chiapa de Corzo

Cañon del Sumidero

This is where the Sumidero Canyon (Cañon del Sumidero) boat trips begin. You can take a tour from San Cristobal but it’s actually perfectly feasible to turn up in Chiapa de Corzo and organise it yourself – in fact, if you have time, I highly recommend doing it this way.

The canyon, part of the Grijalva River where the walls reach up to a staggering 1000 metres at their highest point, is one of the most famous tourist sites in Chiapas.  Apparently, 80% of visitors here are Mexican despite the fact that this is the second most visited site in the whole state after Palenque.

Visit the Cañon del Sumidero viewpoints (miradors)

All except one of the ‘official’ viewpoints are in the national park (in the far north of nearby Tuxtla Gutiérrez). The main two are La Ceiba and El Tepehuaje. 

Mirador Manos que Imploran: this viewpoint is near the dam and the town of Osumacinta. There’s a small restaurant that has delicious and well-priced food, served by the very friendly owner. There is a pool with incredible views and a viewpoint that will steal your heart. I stood for a very long time listening to the silence, watching eagles swoop and dive over the wide expanse of the river I could see.

👣 Tours from San Cristobal or Tuxtla Gutiérrez will take you to a few land viewpoints. Without a tour or a car of your own, these would be very hard to visit. 

Zona Arqueológica de Chiapa de Corzo

Free to enter, nice for an hour’s adventure, some information given on site.

Other activities around Chiapa de Corzo

Cascada El Chorreadero – around 10km from Chiapa de Corzo is this small waterfall park where you can while away a few hours paddling, jumping and even climbing up inside a cave where the waterfall begins. If you have kids then they’ll have an absolute blast here – mine certainly did. 

Chiapa de Corzo Plaza – as in almost every Mexican city or town, the main plaza is an absolute delight. Chiapa de Corzo’s plaza has a particularly beautiful fountain on it to which we went to enjoy dusk every evening. Hearing the birds come in to roost for the night, watching them swarm together in the balmy sky while children play, young couples stroll hand in hand, older people come out to meet their friends and street vendors set up is my favourite memory of this small town. The plaza is flanked on two sides by artisan shops. I’m not a great shopper so I didn’t buy anything but I enjoyed exploring there. There are also artisan market stalls on the road down to the river and beside the old convent. 

San Cristóbal de las Casas – culture, shopping and Indigenous villages

🚗 Approximately one hour drive from Chiapa de Corzo

San Cristóbal de las Casas is, surprisingly, not the capital of Chiapas, that’s Tuxtla Gutiérrez but it’s to San Cris (as locals know it) that most visitors flock, and with good reason.

San Cris is a perfect spot to base yourself while taking excursions and day trips as well as giving yourself time to enjoy the city. You could easily spend a week here in this most picturesque of cities. It’s a pueblo mágico with charming cobblestone streets, incredible views of the surrounding hills, wonderful architecture & great street art. And don’t even get me started on the quality of the coffee & chocolate here!

It is a colonial city but the Indigenous culture is a huge part of the charm and draw for tourists. The local, Tzotzil name for San Cristóbal de las Casas is Jovel.

→ Read the full MexicoCassie guide to San Cristóbal de las Casas

👧🏽 Read the MexicoCassie guide to visiting San Cristóbal de las Casas with kids

🚐 Read the MexicoCassie guide to getting to San Cristóbal de las Casas from the airport

🥶 Insider Knowledge: Winter in San Cris can be extremely cold, especially if you don’t have a hotel or house with good heating. We were colder inside than outside on one winter trip. Be sure to check temperatures before you visit.

What to do in San Cristóbal de las Casas

👣 If you don’t have a rental car, San Cristobal is a great place to pick up a tour – I make some recommendations below.  

Exploring town

👣 If you like to take your time to get to know somewhere, you could begin your time in San Cris with a walking tour to help you get your bearings before you go off exploring on your own.

🌲 Nature spots

El Arcotete Parque Ecoturístico – this is a fabulous space for running, exploring, playing, and breathing deep while enjoying the Chiapan countryside. It costs a nominal sum per person to enter and is possible to take public transport.

There are bathrooms, small shops for snacks and souvenirs. You can zipline, explore caves, take a tiny boat on the river or just wander around. 

Orquídeas Moxviquil – this is a kind of botanical gardens – you can explore the spectacular orchid gardens before taking a guided tour into the forest covered hills to learn about orchids, epifetas  (epiphytes in English) and bromelias  (bromeliads in English) – the different types of plants that live in symbiotic relationships with trees. The tour requires a lot of walking and at the peak includes a small guided meditation.

Huitepec Ecological Reserve (Reserva Huitepec)  – Pay a minimal fee to enter this gorgeous forest spot on the road towards San Juan Chamula. You can climb trees, mushroom spot, enjoy views and hiking.

There are, of course, incredible hikes all around Mexico, including around San Cristobal de las Casas. 

Culture in San Cristóbal de las Casas

Churches – On the zocalo you’ll find the Cathedral but don’t miss Iglesia de San Cristobalito or the Templo de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe – the two churches at either end of the city. Both are perched atop hills and require climbing up steps to reach the top. Highly recommended for the views. Behind San Cristobalito you’ll find a good spot for a little walk in the woods. 

Museums – my favourite is the Museo de Medincina Maya. For more information on museums, check the full MexicoCassie guide to San Cristóbal de las Casas

Coffee – Chiapas is a coffee-producing region so be sure to take time to explore this delicious drink while in San Cristobal. My personal favourite (after much research) is Carajillo Expendio on Real de Guadalupe. 

👣 If you’re a coffee-aficionado then this coffee tour into the mountains and the Tzeltal town of Tenejapa to learn about the traditional art of coffee making from harvesting to brewing will be a perfect day adventure for you.

Chocolate – If you have time, take a chocolate making class at Chocolateria Jangala and spend a few hours learning about the chocolate making process and the innovations these guys, who say they are trying to preserve the soul of Mexico in a chocolate bar, have made. Also be sure to visit Kakaw, the chocolate museum in town, it’s excellent (tours in English at 1pm and 6pm).

Take day trips from San Cristóbal de las Casas

Because San Cristóbal is the main tourist town in Chiapas, most of the tours available leave from here. You could drive yourself if you wanted to but my recommendation is to take the odd tour, relax and let someone else look after you at this point!

The most popular day trips from San Cris are:

San Juan Chamula

This small autonomous town is thirty minutes from San Cristóbal and is an absolute must to visit. It’s one of the Indigenous villages that people visit specifically for the church (photo above). The national police and military are not permitted to enter San Juan Chamula. The vast majority of people living here are Totzil and this is considered to be one of the last remaining truly living Maya places in Mexico. While the church is ostensibly Catholic, it’s also very much pre-hispanic Maya in its rituals.

The church, well, wow. Just wow. As I said, it’s well known on the tourist route but in reality, there is nothing touristy about it at all. Non-pueblo residents pay to enter the church and are not permitted to take photos (seriously, don’t or they’ll remove your camera/phone from you). 

In front of the church is a large market where you can pick up artisan handicrafts. There are also some lovely small shops to explore.

⭐️ MexicoCassie recommended tour to Chamula – this tour visits both San Juan Chamula & Zincanatán, giving visitors the chance to explore both villages, & learn about the Indigenous cultures from within the community.

👣 Check out other options for tours to Chamula

Zincanatán

If you’re heading out to Chamula, Zincanatán is also nearby. The main draw of Zincanatán for tourists is the weaving and handicrafts. On my first, of now many visits, I stopped off here for a walk around and lunch and wound up coming home with bags full of awesome souvenirs and gifts.

⭐️ MexicoCassie recommended tour to Zincanatán – this tour visits both San Juan Chamula & Zincanatán, giving visitors the chance to explore both villages, & learn about the Indigenous cultures from within the community. It’s a great option if you want to save time and visit both villages in one day.

👣 Check out other options for tours to Zincanatán

Sima de las Cotorras

This is one of a number of natural sinkholes in the El Ocote Biosphere Reserve that are the result tectonic and erosive processes on the region’s limestone. Although not the largest and deepest of the area’s sinkholes, it is the best known because of the thousands of Mexican green parakeets who live there most of the year, flying in and out in circular patterns.

⭐️ MexicoCassie recommended tour to Sima de las Cotorras – this is a really worthwhile full day tour to the incredible natural sink hole to witness the multitudes of swirling parakeets. (Not included in the price are the awesome adventure activities you can do here such as rappelling into the sink hole). After this the tour heads to the Cueva del Encanto & the Aguacero waterfall.

→ Read more & reserve now

From San Cristóbal de las Casas you can head to the Palenque ruins region or to the Lagos de Montebello Region – the direction doesn’t much matter. You can also drive between them fairly easily.

Mayan jungle ruins of Palenque

The Palenque ruins are located deep in the Lacandon Jungle in southern Chiapas, about a seven hour drive from San Cristóbal de las Casas. People (on tours) regularly do this in one day but I’m a fan of slower travel so ideally, I recommend spending a few days down here actually enjoying yourself and the site rather than simply ticking it off in a rush.

Palenque town itself isn’t super exciting but there are other activities to enjoy around the ruins including the well known Misol-Ha and Agua Azul waterfalls.

Waterfalls

Agua Azul – You’re not going to be alone here as it’s a decently popular place with locals especially. There are sections where you can swim, some adventure courses/tours you can take (guides are on site) if you have time, plenty of restaurants and souvenir sections.

Misol-Ha – This is a smaller site with a long drop waterfall into a pool in which you can swim. There’s also the opportunity to walk behind the waterfall for cool views. There’s a restaurant on site.

➕ There are other waterfalls such as the Cascadas de Roberto Barrios just 45 minutes from Palenque town. Here there are six linked waterfalls, all slightly different. There are even natural waterfall slides. Sadly, I haven’t been here yet.

Lagos de Montebello, El Chiflon & Las Nubes

If you’re unlikely to get down to the Lagos de Montebello on your road trip (see section below for how to get there on your own), you could take a 2-day trip to see these gorgeous spots, but again, I recommend taking your time to explore properly if you can.

🚗 3 hour drive from San Cristóbal de las Casas

This is the lake region on the Guatemala border and it is just stunningly beautiful. There are five visitable lakes in the Montebello Lakes National Park: Tziscao, Montebello, Cinco Lagos, Pojoj and Internacional plus dozens of others that are not really accessible.

💰 National Park Fees: As you drive into the region you’ll stop at a hut where you need to pay a small entry fee into the national park. As you enter the actual lake area you’ll also be required to pay a small sum per person. Only pay once and then just show the little ticket book every time you pass a kiosk.

✅ The Lagos de Montebello are in a Zapatista region. Not once did we encounter any issues or anything but the normal Mexican friendliness but we were fascinated to read signs declaring villages’ intent to rid themselves of the shackles of government or to announce the intention to keep big businesses out. 

What to do in the Parque Nacional de Lagos de Montebello

People mostly visit here to relax, visit the lakes, walk & take boat rides.

Lago Tziscao – This is a large lake with plenty of options to walk and explore. It is very close to the Guatemalan border and it’s perfectly possible to walk over (without a passport). Just follow the path and be sure to take cash to do some Guatemalan souvenir shopping or have a beer.

🛶 There are kayaks for rent from the beach area in front of the bridge to Guatemala and there is a small floating pier that’s good for jumping off or sitting on with a glass of wine (yes, I did both in the interests of research).

Cinco Lagos – This lake is the most striking and it does look like five lakes that have joined themselves together it’s really just one large lake surrounded by cliffs. It can only accessed by going down a flight of steps by the viewpoint. 

🛶 Here you’ll find small cork rafts and plenty of people offering to row you around this very deep lake. The rafts are great fun and the scenery is just magnificent. There are two options for rafting, we chose the longer tour, which allowed us time to leave the rafts & climb up to another viewpoint. We could have swum had the water not been so cold when we visited in December.

✅ Our guide was full of interesting information about the lake, he was patient with the kids asking a million questions and when a hat went flying, he rescued it for us.

Lago Pojoj  – This lake also offers cork-raft fun and has an island in the middle that you can explore.

Lago Montebello – This is a very large lake (pretty expanded by flooding when we visited) that is popular with Mexicans coming for a weekend visit. There are small restaurant options (honestly, I had the best fries I’ve ever had in Mexico here) and palapas if you want to take your own picnic. 

Lago Internacional – This is a small body of water exactly on the border between Mexico and Guatemala. The Guatemala border is far more fun than the lake. Over the border is a small and bustling tourist market. It’s a great deal of fun to explore and you can trek along the border between Mexico and Guatemala.

📸 Be sure to take millions of photos of yourself half in Mexico and half in Guatemala.

⭐️ MexicoCassie recommended tour to El Chiflon & the Lagos de Montebello – this tour takes in 2 gorgeous waterfalls & the incredible lakes of Montebello. The tour includes accommodation, entry tickets, & transport but not food costs.

→ Read more & reserve now

Other activities around Lagos de Montebello

Archaeological Sites

There are a few ancient ruins to visit: Yaxchilan – (picture above, 5hr 30, 300km), Chinkultic (30 mins, 20km), Tenam Puente (1 hr 30, 70km), El Lagartero (2hr drive, 100km)

👣 These sites are often easier visited as part of an overland tour. 

Waterfalls

These waterfalls can either be visited as a tour from San Cristóbal de las Casas (see above for recommendations) or, if you do have your own car, easily as day trips from the lakes, which is how we did it.

Las Nubes (1hr30 70km) – The road between the lakes and this waterfall is very windy and not always fun but the views are absolutely spectacular and will truly take your breath away. It’s possible to swim in certain sections and there are rainforest walks you can take too.

🏨 There are cabins here should you wish to stay a night or two and explore more.

El Chiflón Waterfalls (1hr 50 90km) – El Chiflón receives more visitors than Las Nubes & the road there is less winding. There are two entrances to the Chiflón waterfalls. Both cost the same but they’re run by different villages and allow you slightly different views of the river and the falls. We entered from the first one as you approach from the lakes. I’d read reviews and figured it had access to slightly higher viewpoints.

El Chiflon is longer and higher than Las Nubes and much of the walking is UP. Most people stop walking at Cascada Velo de Novia but you can go all the way to Cascada Quinceañera should you wish to do so (we did).

It’s possible to zipline back down to the starting point (my daughter and husband did) and you can also swim here. Other blogs and vlogs I’ve seen say this is lovely but the areas we found were restricted, not particularly beautiful and also the water was busy with little black bugs.

🚗 From Lagos de Montebello back to the airport at Tuxtla Gutierrez is a four-hour drive. We took a detour to visit El Chiflon waterfalls on our way back.

🚗 If you wanted to increase your road trip time you could add this awesome Chiapas and Tabasco road trip itinerary. It includes three pueblos magicos, Palenque, and even dolphins. 

🚗 If you want to go even longer, from Tabasco you could head into Yucatán and continue road tripping for another ten days until you reach Mérida.