Layout of Villahermosa
Villahermosa stands on a bend of the Río Grijalva at about 10 m above sea level, on the flat, wet plain that Tabasco occupies between the Gulf and the first hills of Chiapas. It is the seat of the municipality of Centro, which had 643,324 residents at the 2020 census — a little over a quarter of the state's 2,402,598 — of whom roughly 353,600 live in the city proper. Founded in 1564 as Villa Carmona and long known as San Juan Bautista, it took the name Villahermosa in 1826. Cacao and then bananas paid for the old town; oil paid for the modern one, after the Tabasco fields came into production in the 1970s, and the city is still the onshore base for Pemex's operations in the Campeche Sound.
The city reads as three pieces. The Zona Luz is the old centre on the west bank of the Grijalva, a compact grid of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings around the pedestrianised Calle Juárez, with the cathedral, the state museums and the tiled Casa de los Azulejos. Along the river the Malecón Carlos A. Madrazo runs north–south, and road bridges cross to the eastern bank and the Tabasco 2000 approach roads.
Paseo Tabasco is the axis that links the old centre north-westwards to Tabasco 2000, a planned civic and commercial district laid out in the 1980s that holds the state government offices, the planetarium, the convention centre and most of the newer hotels and shopping. Between the two lies the Laguna de las Ilusiones, an urban lagoon of about 2.6 km² with crocodiles in it, and on its southern shore the Parque-Museo La Venta.
Carlos Rovirosa Pérez International (VSA) is 13 km east of the centre on the Macuspana road, and is the nearest airport to Palenque as well as the state's own. The first-class bus terminal is on Avenida Javier Mina at the northern edge of the centre. Federal Highway 180 runs west to Coatzacoalcos and Veracruz and east along the coast towards Ciudad del Carmen; Highway 186 runs east across the plain to Escárcega and on to Chetumal, passing the Catazajá turn for Palenque; Highway 195 climbs south over the sierra to Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
Distances from Villahermosa
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villahermosa airport (VSA) | 13 | 20 min | Macuspana road |
| Comalcalco ruins | 55 | 1 h | Hwy 187 north-west |
| Teapa and Grutas de Coconá | 55 | 1 h | Hwy 195 south |
| La Venta (Olmec site) | 130 | 1 h 45 | Hwy 180 west, Huimanguillo |
| Palenque | 150 | 2 h | Hwy 186 then 199 |
| Coatzacoalcos | 165 | 2 h | Hwy 180 |
| Ciudad del Carmen | 220 | 3 h | Hwy 180 coastal |
| Tuxtla Gutiérrez | 290 | 4 h 30 | Hwy 195 |
| Campeche | 420 | 5 h 30 | Hwy 186 to Escárcega, then 261 |
| Veracruz | 470 | 6 h | Hwy 180 and 145D |
| Mérida | 600 | 7 h 30 | Hwy 186 then 180 |
Around Villahermosa
The country around the city is water. Tabasco takes more than 2,000 mm of rain a year on the plain and over 4,000 mm in the southern sierra, and the Grijalva and Usumacinta together carry roughly a third of Mexico's surface runoff — the two largest rivers in the country by volume, joining below the city before reaching the Gulf at Frontera. The floodplain is a mosaic of lagoons, and the Pantanos de Centla biosphere reserve, 300,000 hectares of freshwater wetland, begins 60 km north. See the rivers map.
The Parque-Museo La Venta is the reason most travellers stop. In 1958 the poet Carlos Pellicer, a native of the city, had 33 stone monuments lifted from the Olmec site of La Venta, 130 km west in Huimanguillo, as oil exploration closed in on it, and set them along a shaded path here; three of the colossal heads, carved from basalt hauled from the Tuxtlas mountains, are among them. La Venta itself was the principal Olmec centre from about 900 to 400 BC and can still be visited.
Comalcalco, 55 km north-west in the cacao belt, is the only major Maya city built of fired brick rather than limestone — the plain has no stone — and many of its bricks carry stamped or scratched designs. South of the city, Highway 195 runs into the hills at Teapa, with the Coconá caves, and on to Tapijulapa, a whitewashed village at the meeting of two rivers 90 km out with the sulphur springs of Villa Luz nearby. Palenque, on the archaeological sites map, is two hours east, and Villahermosa sits at the eastern end of the Gulf Coast.
Questions about Villahermosa
Where is Villahermosa on the map of Mexico?
On the Gulf coastal plain of the south-east, at 17.99° N, 92.93° W, about 60 km inland from the Gulf on the Río Grijalva. It is the capital of Tabasco and lies 150 km west of Palenque on Highway 186.
How far is Villahermosa from Palenque?
150 km east, about two hours by car on Federal Highway 186 to the Catazajá junction and then 27 km south on Highway 199. Buses run several times a day, and Villahermosa's airport is the usual way to fly in for the ruins.
What is Parque-Museo La Venta?
An outdoor museum on the Laguna de las Ilusiones holding 33 Olmec monuments — three colossal basalt heads among them — moved here from the site of La Venta in 1958 by the poet Carlos Pellicer when oil prospecting threatened them. It doubles as an enclosure for Tabasco wildlife.
Does Villahermosa flood?
Yes. Tabasco receives more rain than almost anywhere in Mexico and the Grijalva and Usumacinta drain into the plain the city stands on. The floods of October–November 2007 covered most of the city and put more than half the state under water; there was serious flooding again in November 2020.