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- San Cristóbal de las Casas (historic center and markets) — The beating heart of the Highlands: narrow cobbled streets, lively markets, indigenous vendors, and colonial churches all piled into one walkable town. You can eat cheap street food, drink excellent coffee on a plaza, and overhear Tzotzil or Tzeltal in the same conversation — a cultural mash-up you won’t get in the lowlands.
- Na Bolom Cultural Center (San Cristóbal) — The former home of Frans and Trudi Blom turned museum/guesthouse is part archive, part activist hub for Lacandon Maya culture and rainforest conservation. It’s intimate, full of original photos, ethnographic objects and local voices — a place that actually connects you to the stories behind the region.
- San Juan Chamula church and plaza — The syncretic Tzotzil rites
- San Cristóbal de las Casas (historic center and markets) — The beating heart of the Highlands: narrow cobbled streets, lively markets, indigenous vendors, and colonial churches all piled into one walkable town. You can eat cheap street food, drink excellent coffee on a plaza, and overhear Tzotzil or Tzeltal in the same conversation — a cultural mash-up you won’t get in the lowlands.
- Na Bolom Cultural Center (San Cristóbal) — The former home of Frans and Trudi Blom turned museum/guesthouse is part archive, part activist hub for Lacandon Maya culture and rainforest conservation. It’s intimate, full of original photos, ethnographic objects and local voices — a place that actually connects you to the stories behind the region.
- San Juan Chamula church and plaza — The syncretic Tzotzil rites inside the church are singular: candles on the floor, pine boughs, and ceremonies that blend Catholic and Maya belief. Visit quietly and respectfully (ask before photos) — it’s an intense, very local religious experience that travelers rarely forget.
- Zinacantán — weaving, flowers and home-visits — A short ride from San Cristóbal, Zinacantán is famous for its floral embroidery and cooperative workshops where you can see—and sometimes try—traditional backstrap-loom weaving. The town’s communal work rhythms and seasonal flower markets give a clear sense of highland village life.
- Lagunas de Montebello National Park — A chain of dozens of small, impossibly blue and green lakes set among pine forests and limestone hills near Comitán. Each lake has its own color and mood; rent a boat, swim where allowed, and stay in a tiny lakeside posada for sunrise light that’s hard to beat. (Personal favorite: the color palette and quiet here always win me over.)
- Toniná archaeological site — A highland Maya city with a brutal, vertical pyramid that you can climb for an exceptional panorama of the mountains. It’s less polished than Palenque and feels raw: carved reliefs, narrow stairways, and a sense of scale that really shows a different Maya aesthetic from the lowland jungle sites.
- Tenam Puente archaeological zone (hidden gem) — Small, understated, and often empty of other tourists, Tenam Puente has plazas, stelae and quiet jungle trails. If you like archaeology without the crowds and want to imagine how the highland Maya lived and moved through mountain landscapes, this is a rewarding stop.
- Comitán de Domínguez and Casa-Museo Rosario Castellanos — A pretty colonial town with shaded plazas and a strong literary/cultural vibe thanks to native daughter Rosario Castellanos. It’s a good base for Montebello and offers a gentler, more provincial highland atmosphere than San Cristóbal.
- El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve (cloud forest, hidden gem) — Thick cloud forest on the Sierra Madre with endemic birds (resplendent quetzal sightings are possible), moss-draped trees and challenging rural tracks. It’s cooler, wetter, and quieter than the tourist routes; birders and nature-heads who make the trip see a very different face of Chiapas.
- Highland coffee fincas and cooperative tours (hidden gem) — Smallholder coffee farms on the slopes around San Cristóbal and Comitán where you can walk the fields, learn processing steps, and buy single-origin coffee direct from producers. These visits are hands-on, often run by cooperatives, and give a concrete sense of how the region’s economy and culture tie to the land.
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Customs of indigenous villages of Chiapas
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Day of the Dead in the Indigenous Towns of Chiapas
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Pottery workshop with traditional potters
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San Cris - Canyon of the Sump Miradores Chiapa - San Cris in Spanish
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Biking in Chiapas Los Molinos Route
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Sumidero Canyon & Chiapa de Corzo from Tuxtla & San Cristobal
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Food Walking Tour San Cristobal de las Casas
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Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past decade, I’ve backpacked through 80+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.