Touching down at General Leobardo C Ruiz International Airport in Zacatecas places you close to cities like Guadalupe, Jerez, and Fresnillo, all easily reachable. Zacatecas is a pink-stone silver city stacked up a narrow mountain valley, with a UNESCO-listed center, a cable car that glides over the rooftops, and a tradition of evening street parties led by brass bands. The altitude keeps the air crisp, and the baroque cathedral facade is one of the finest in Mexico.

Standout experiences around Zacatecas: - Ride the teleferico over the city to the Cerro de la Bufa and its views - Go underground on the Mina El Eden tour, a 16th-century silver mine with a bar at the bottom - See the cathedral facade up close, carved from rose-colored cantera stone - Browse the mask collection at the Museo Rafael Coronel inside a ruined convent - Join a callejoneada, an evening parade through the alleys with a tamborazo band and mezcal - Visit the Museo Pedro Coronel for its Picasso, Miro, and Dali works - Eat asado de boda, a pork stew in red chile that is the dish of every local wedding - Walk the old aqueduct and see the bullring turned hotel on the edge of the center

Guadalupe, with its colonial convent museum, is practically part of Zacatecas, and the Pueblo Magico of Jerez, known for its 19th-century mansions and the poet Lopez Velarde, is about an hour west. The hilltop ruins of La Quemada sit about an hour south, and the mining town of Fresnillo is about an hour north. Every August the Morismas de Bracho fills the hills with thousands of costumed participants reenacting battles between Moors and Christians, one of the biggest spectacles of its kind anywhere.