St-Pons-de-Thomières is an excellent base for exploring the Haut-Languedoc park and the wider Hérault department. Most of the destinations below are within an hour by car, and several can be combined in a single day.
Olargues, about 20 kilometres east along the Jaur valley, is generally considered the most beautiful village in the Haut-Languedoc — a Plus Beaux Villages de France member whose medieval lanes, eleventh-century tower, and famous Pont du Diable are well worth an afternoon. The drive on the D908 through the Orb and Jaur gorges is scenic in itself.
Lac de la Raviège lies about 20 minutes north on the road toward La Salvetat-sur-Agout. The largest lake in the park, it offers a supervised summer beach, sailing and kayak rental from the base nautique, and a forested shoreline path that is superb for walking in autumn when the chestnuts turn.
Béziers is about 55 kilometres south — roughly an hour by car through the Orb gorge, or a train ride on the scenic Transpyrénéen line. The city sits on a high bluff above the Orb, its silhouette dominated by the Cathédrale Saint-Nazaire and visible from the Canal du Midi below. The nine locks of Fonseranes on the canal just west of the city are a seventeenth-century engineering marvel worth an hour of anyone's time.