San Cristóbal de las Casas

San Cristóbal sits at over two thousand metres in the Chiapas highlands, which makes it cold at night and startlingly clear by day, and its centre is a grid of low colonial houses in ochre and blue with two pedestrian streets, a market and a great many cafés serving Chiapas coffee. It is the base for the surrounding Tzotzil and Tzeltal Maya villages, where traditional dress is everyday wear and communities run their own affairs; San Juan Chamula's church, with its pine-needle floor, candles and no pews, is unlike any other and photography inside is strictly forbidden. Beyond the highlands lie the Sumidero canyon, the blue cascades of Agua Azul and El Chiflón, and the road east towards Palenque.

What you actually see

• The colonial centre - cobbled pedestrian streets, the market and the cathedral.
• San Juan Chamula - the extraordinary church, visited with a guide and no camera.
• Chiapas coffee and amber - the highland products sold in the town.
• The waterfalls - Agua Azul and El Chiflón on the roads out.

When to go

November to April is the dry season; the highlands are cool year-round and genuinely cold at night, so warm clothes are needed whatever the month. The waterfalls run bluest in the dry season and turn brown after heavy rain.

Honest expectations

The Maya villages are living communities, not attractions: go with a local guide, follow their instructions exactly, and understand that photographing people or the inside of the Chamula church is forbidden and taken very seriously. The altitude and cold surprise people arriving from the coast. Road blockades occasionally affect routes in the region, so check locally on the day.

Nearby

The Sumidero canyon is an hour west; Palenque is five hours northeast.