What to do in Chichen Itza and how to plan your trip
One of the New Seven Wonders, two and a half hours inland from the coast, and a site with almost no shade. Everything about visiting it well comes down to what time you arrive.
- 1transport zone
- 11hotels
- 1tour & activity
- 365steps on Kukulkan
- 08:00gates open
- UTC−6one hour behind Cancun
Everything you need to know about Chichen Itza
Chichen Itza was the largest city in the northern Maya lowlands for four centuries, and what survives is unusually complete: a pyramid built as a calendar, the largest ball court in Mesoamerica, an observatory, the Temple of the Warriors with its Court of a Thousand Columns, and a sacred cenote that was a place of offering. UNESCO listed it in 1988 and it was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. It is also 188 kilometres from Cancun and 115 from Merida, across flat scrub where there is no sea breeze, on open ground with almost no shade. Those two facts together are the whole planning problem.
Getting to Chichen Itza
- Cancun Airport (CUN)Around two and a half hours by road, most of it on the toll motorway. The usual starting point for the day.
- Maya TrainA station at Chichen Itza links the site with Cancun, Valladolid and Merida without a car.
- From the Riviera MayaPlaya del Carmen and Tulum are both a similar distance by the inland roads. Leaving before 7am is what buys you the cool hours.
Beyond the beach
The three things worth building the day around.
Good to know
- LanguageSpanish and Yucatec Maya. Guides at the gate work in English, French, German and Italian.
- CurrencyMexican peso (MXN). Entry is two separate fees — federal and state — and cards are not always accepted.
- Time zoneUTC−6. Yucatan is one hour behind Quintana Roo, so 8am at the gate is 9am in Cancun.
- Power127 V, 60 Hz, flat two-pin US-style plugs. Bring an adapter from the UK.
- WaterBring more than you think. There is no shade on the site and the nearest shop is at the entrance.
- Emergencies911 nationwide. There is a first-aid post at the main gate.
Transfers from the airport to every zone of Chichen Itza are a fixed price per vehicle, with the driver waiting at the exit. See availability.
What to see and do in Chichen Itza
The full list, not a top three: what the destination’s tourist board puts first.
The pyramid of Kukulkan, built as a calendar: four stairways of ninety-one steps make 364, and the top platform is the 365th.
The largest in Mesoamerica, 168 metres long, with an echo you can test by speaking at one end and hearing it at the other.
A round tower with windows aligned to Venus, which is how the Maya kept a calendar that needed no correction for centuries.
Rows of carved columns running out from its base into the Court of a Thousand Columns, which once held a roof.
A sixty-metre sinkhole at the end of a causeway, used for offerings. Not for swimming: it is an archaeological site in its own right.
The evening visit under special lighting: forty-five minutes through the ruins and a twenty-five-minute projection onto the pyramid. 20:00 in summer, 19:00 in winter, separate ticket.
On the March and September equinoxes the afternoon light throws a shadow down the north stairway that reads as a snake descending. It draws an enormous crowd.
Five minutes from the gates: an open sinkhole with vines hanging thirty metres to the water. Busiest exactly when the site empties at midday.
Half an hour east: a colonial town with a convent, two cenotes inside the town itself, and lunch at a third of what it costs at the site.
A stop of its own now links the site with Cancun, Valladolid and Merida without a car, which changes how a day here can be planned.
The site museum at the entrance, with pieces that used to be scattered between Merida and Mexico City.
Tours and activities in Chichen Itza
Pick-up from your hotel, and each tour’s cancellation policy is shown before you pay.
When to visit Chichen Itza
It is the same ruin all year. What changes is the heat, the crowd and the light.
The only months that are genuinely comfortable: dry, 24 to 28 °C and a breeze. Also the busiest.
The equinox brings the serpent shadow down the pyramid and a very large crowd with it. Hot from ten in the morning.
Above 35 °C inland, with no sea breeze. If you come in these months, being at the gate at opening time is not advice, it is the plan.
Fewer people, green landscape and short afternoon rain. The most pleasant compromise of the year.
Visiting Chichen Itza and what is nearby
The site, the cenote next door and the town people pair it with.
Two to three hours on foot on flat ground. Climbing the pyramid has not been allowed since 2006 — don’t book anything that promises it.
Licensed guides wait inside the entrance and charge a fixed rate per group. Worth it: almost nothing on the site is labelled.
Five minutes away by road, with changing rooms and a restaurant. Life jackets are compulsory and the steps down are steep and wet.
Door to door from Cancun, Playa del Carmen or Tulum at a fixed price per vehicle, which is what lets you leave at six instead of joining a coach at nine.
Areas of Chichen Itza we serve
1 transport zones, each with its own page: hotels, times and fixed transfer prices from the airport.
Hotels in Chichen Itza we pick up from
Fixed price to every hotel in the zone. If yours isn’t here, type it in the search box.
Chichen Itza
Cancun · 11 hotels- Free cancellation with Premium
- Flight monitoring
- Meet & greet
Tips from our local team in Chichen Itza
What travellers ask us most, answered by the people who live here.
Be at the gate when it opens
The coaches from the coast arrive between eleven and midday. Before that you have the site nearly to yourself and the stone is still cool.
Yucatan is an hour behind
Chichen Itza is on UTC−6 and Cancun on UTC−5. Forgetting it is how people miss opening time by an hour, or arrive an hour early.
You can’t climb the pyramid
Access was closed in 2006. Any tour suggesting otherwise is selling something it cannot deliver.
Two tickets, not one
Entry is charged as a federal fee plus a state fee. Bring pesos: the card machines at the gate are unreliable.
There is no shade
The site is open limestone plaza. A hat, water and sun cream are not optional between March and September.
Pair it with Valladolid, not with two more ruins
The journey is long enough. A cenote and lunch in a colonial town make a complete day; a second archaeological site makes an exhausting one.
Chichen Itza travel guides
Practical, written by the team that drives the area every day.
Getting to Chichen Itza from the airport
Fixed price per vehicle to every zone, driver at the exit with a name board. Full details on the airport page.
Transfer prices per zone in Chichen Itza
| Transport zone | Journey time | Passenger van8 8 | Airport taxi3 3 | Luxury SUV5 5 | Group van15 15 | See availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chichen Itza | 2 h 30 min | $280 | — | $567 | $871.32 | See availability |
One way in USD per vehicle, taxes, tolls and luggage included. Return is the total for both legs. Journey times are estimates without traffic, worked out from distance and speed limits; those marked ≈ are approximate.
The prices shown are the Economy fare. Many services also have a Premium fare in the same private vehicle, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before and free changes up to 12 hours before; Economy includes one change with 24 hours’ notice. You choose between them when you see availability.