We thought we’d put together a quick note on our experience with visiting one of Guatemala’s most famous sites, the Mayan ruins at Tikal as getting in to the site is a little convoluted!

The most important thing to note is that the ticket office is some 17km from the entrance gate so you need to know exactly the tickets you want otherwise it’s a 35km round trip along a slow speed road (max 45kph with your beginning and end time noted by officials).

Tickets for foreigners are as follows:

General admission    GTQ150 per person

Additional charge for sunrise or sunset admission     GTQ100 per person

Camping    GTQ50 per person per night

If doing the sunrise tour you have to have a guide and we were able to join a small group at a charge of US$20 each.  We had to be at the entrance by 4.20am for a 6am sunrise. 

NOTE ALL THE CHARGES HAVE TO BE PAID IN CASH!!

You then receive a piece of paper for every ticket you’ve bought; we ended up with 8 receipts – 2 for admission to the ruins, 2 for a sunrise tour and 2 each for camping as we stayed 2 nights.

These receipts are then dates stamped and exchanged for wristbands at the entrance to the ruins on the day you visit.  If camping you have to get a new wristband each day.

Our view on the sunrise tour – don’t expect to see the actual sun rise! You climb up Temple IV to sit and watch the jungle gradually getting lighter whilst listening to the animals coming to life.  All the while, tops of the temples come into view, shrouded in mist. 

If you enter after 6am you can just get a general admission ticket, you don’t need a guide, and can probably still see the mist rising over the jungle.  That said, we had a good guide who gave us some Mayan history and pointed out wildlife we might have missed on our own.