The Mayan city of Chichén Itzá on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, and a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. Meaning ‘at the well of the Itzás’, it was first settled in the 6th century CE, and developed by the Itzá tribe to include temples, monuments, and a large Mayan ball game pitch, before being mysteriously abandoned in the 15th century. Understandably it was high on our list of places to go when we planned our trip to the Riviera Maya, and visiting Chichén Itzá does need good planning to get the most out of your visit. Here’s how we did it…
(Featured Photo Credit: Instagram @smytocreative)
Table of Contents
Practicalities of visiting Chichén Itzá
Where is Chichén Itzá?
Chichén Itzá is inland on the Yucatán State in the Mayan heartlands. If driving, it is 2 hours from Tulum, 2 hours and 10 minutes from Playa del Carmen, or 2 hours and 20 minutes from Cancun on the east coast of the Peninsula. Alternatively, if coming from the west, it is 1 hour and 25 minutes from Merida.
Getting there independently
If you are hiring a car on your visit to the Yucatán peninsula, then you can easily drive to Chichén Itzá and visit under your own steam, rather than visit on an organised tour.
Toll Roads – the roads are good as there is are toll roads right across the peninsula, with hardly any traffic on, which made for easy driving. From Playa del Carmen we had to pay two toll fees which cost around 475 MEX or approx. £18.00. Alternatively, you would take the old road which is slower and bumpy – we thought the toll road was money well spent!
As you travel from the east coast to Chichén Itzá, the toll road takes you through hundreds of miles of forest and you can get an idea of just how extensive the forested area of the peninsula is (and why Jaguars call this home). You can see the newly built train stations for the Mayan Train (Tren Maya) which was finished at the end of 2024 and goes around the peninsula.
Parking at Chichén Itzá
There is a government car park right outside the entrance to Chichén Itzá which costs around 60-80 pesos. It was quiet when we arrived, and chaos when we left with cars and buses double parked everywhere – we had to enlist some help to get us out of our space without hitting other cars!
When to go to Chichén Itzá
Go early – it is strongly advised to visit Chichén Itzá early, when it opens at 8.00am, to enjoy a quiet hour before the tour buses arrive.
TIME ZONE – if travelling to Chichén Itzá from the Quintana Roo state in the east, you change time zones as you move into Yucatán state and you gain an hour which can work to your advantage.
We left Playa del Carmen at 6.15am and so should have arrived at Chichén Itzá at 8.30am, however with the benefit of the time zone change, we arrived for 7.30am. This gave us time to get parked up, find a guide, and get into the small queue which had already formed.
Note – by the time we finished our tour at 9.30am, it was already extremely hot and busy and so I would strongly advise arriving later in the day.
Hiring a guide
If visiting under your own steam, you can pick up a trained guide around the entrance to Chichén Itzá. If you use one of the Mayan guides then you will learn more about the Mayan civilisation and their way of life, and views about Chichén Itzá’s history.
We recruited a Mayan guide at the entrance and found him extremely helpful, also showing us which of the many queues to stand in and where to pay the tourist tax.
Visiting Chichén Itzá on a tour
If you don’t want to hire a car and travel to Chichén Itzá independently, you can book onto an organised Chichen Itza Guided Tour through Get Your Guide, departing from various cities on the Riveria Maya:
Entry costs (as at February 2025)
There are two fees to pay when visiting Chichén Itzá (even if you are on a guided tour):
- General entrance fee paid by everyone – $100 MXN (approx. £4.00), and
- Foreign visitors fee – $548 MXN (approx. £22.00). This is paid as a separate transaction in a separate queue. The guide was helpful about telling us where to stand and where to queue.
- Skip the line tickets – you might be able to buy Skip the line tickets in advance from some websites such as Get Your Guide, to cut down queuing time.
Don’t forget – to pack a sunhat and sun cream as there is zero shade on site. Although there are drinks vendors on site, a refillable water bottle is also a good idea (no single use plastics allowed!).
Note – climbing Chichén Itzá or the other buildings is strictly forbidden.
What to expect when visiting Chichén Itzá
When visiting Chichén Itzá, you’ll find a relatively compact area to explore. The main event, El Castillo, sits in the middle of a grassy space with most of the other structures built in a square around it, known as the great Plaza.
The mighty Kukulcan, El Castillo
The 1000-year-old Mesoamerican Temple of Kukulcan, or El Castillo (the castle) as it is known, is the main event when visiting Chichén Itzá. This large 24-meter stepped pyramid is visible from all around this important archaeological site. It is dedicated to the plumed serpent god Kukulcan and is the iconic temple that you might recognise from photos.
Clever Mayan Calendar
El Castillo is not only attractive, but also clever – it functions as a giant calendar as follows:
- each of its 9 levels is divided in half by a staircase, making 18 separate terraces that commemorate the 18 x 20-day months of the Maya year (20 days because they only had 20 digits on their hands and feet for counting).
- the 4 stairways up the pyramid sides each have 91 steps each (totalling 364), plus the top platform makes 365 – the total number of days in the solar year.
The equinox phenomenon
Twice a year, on the Spring and Summer equinoxes, the sun aligns with the top of the temple to send light down the north stairway of El Castillo creating the illusion of a snake’s body coming down its side – the snake god, Kukulcan. At the base there is a stone snake head. These dates of the year still attract large crowds to observe this phenomenon. Be prepared to queue!
Special acoustics
El Castillo is built on top of a cenote (sink hole) in limestone rock. Due to this limestone rock platform, when you clap, the sound can be heard around the grounds of Chichén Itzá. As it this wasn’t enough to marvel at, in one place, the sound coming back is said to sound like the call of the ‘Resplendent Quetzal’ bird (koo koo) – the Mayans were very clever indeed.
All things considered, El Castillo is an incredible feat of engineering by the Mayans, in terms of design, mathematics, and acoustics.
Restored or rebuilt?
Hubby Ricardo asked our guide whether the pyramid was in its original form. We were told that it had been ‘partly restored’ from its original state, once brightly painted in red, white, and black colours.
However, when I returned home, I read a book by Ric Hajovsky called Chichen Itza. If we build it, they will come, and concluded that the restorations to El Castillo were extensive and more like a rebuild in places. This was after a conscious decision in the 1920s and 30s to develop Chichén Itzá as a tourist sight, after which hotels were built to facilitate tourism here. It’s just good to have a realistic view, particularly when it’s now one of the Modern Wonders of the World.
Temple of the Warriors
The Temple of the Warriors is a massive structure – 12 meters high and 40 meters wide. It has four platforms with 200 round and square columns to its south and west sides. The Mayans associated warriors with eagles and jaguars – the revered jaguar was a symbol of strength and agility – which is why they feature heavily in the carvings on the temple.
Note – you can’t enter or climb on the temple, just admire it from ground level and appreciate its huge size.
Plaza of a Thousand Columns
This area was once a temple attached to the Temple of the Warriors. In reality, there are only 200 columns, but the name of ‘thousand columns’ was meant to confer greatness. The columns were built between 900 A.D. and 1200 A.D. and offer a Mayan ‘Hall of Fame’ with carvings of gods, dignitaries, and celebrated warriors on the columns.
Platform of Venus
The raised Venus Platform has four stairways, one on each side, leading up to a top platform from which the Mayans tracked the planet Venus and held ceremonies or dances. It has large beautifully preserved plumed serpent heads on either side of the staircases.
Reclining statue of Chac Mool, the Maya Rain God – Near the platforms, sitting on his own is a Mesoamerican statue of Chac Mool, a reclining man with a tray or bowl on chest. There is a better-preserved Chac Mool statue at the top of the Temple of Warriors although it is difficult to see from the ground.
Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars
This platform sits between the Platform of Venus and Platform of the Skulls. It was built between 900 and 1200 AD and has a staircase on each of its four sides, leading up to a platform, with plumed serpents on the balustrades (representing the god Kukulcan).
Carvings on the platform show eagles and jaguars grasping human hearts from prostrate human figures, which are thought to represent the warriors obtaining victims to sacrifice to the gods – ‘eagle knights’ were archers who wore feathers on the battlefield, and ‘jaguar knights’ fought hand to hand with wooden clubs and obsidian knives.
Platform of the Skulls (Tzompantli)
Once the slaves who build Chichén Itzá had served their purpose, they were beheaded in mass numbers on the platform as sacrificial victims (up to 200 at a time) and their heads displayed on spikes around the platform which is gruesome. Similarly, skulls of enemies were also displayed here. There are over 500 skull carving on the walls.
Great Ball Court (Gran Juego de Pelota)
The Maya world’s largest ball court flanked by two towering parallel walls, with temple buildings at each end. The Ball Game was not actually a sport, rather a ceremonial ritual, but as each of the walls has a stone hoop through which the ball was shot, then it looks like a Mayan version of basketball!
The balls used were heavy and made of liquid latex from rubber trees, moulded into balls weighing 3-5 kilos.
The acoustics in the Great Ball Court are such that if someone speaks in the Temple at one end, you can hear it in the Temple at the other end, but not in the middle – the sound travelled along the walls of the ball court and explains how the Maya kings communicated without the players on the pitch hearing them. Clever!
There are carvings on the walls of the ball court showing scenes of decapitations of players – players down on one knee, decapitated with blood spurting everywhere. Did this happen if they lost the game?
Craft and souvenir stalls
Under the shade of the trees around the great Plaza are many stalls offering wooden carvings, discs obsidian rock through which to see the eclipse, and carved whistles which make jaguar noises. Our guide encouraged us to buy from his friends and family using “plastic fantastic” and I bought two hand painted baubles for the Christmas tree which was an unexpected purchase.
Final thoughts….
We were with our guide for around 1.5 hours and by the time we finished at 9.30am we felt ‘cooked’ as there is no shade on site. That said, a lot of the tours last for 3 hours and take in the whole area – our guide missed out the sacred cenote and Observatory building. We felt that had been the compromise for grabbing a guide at the gates rather than pre-booking a tour guide for the full route.
However, after our very early start, refreshments were required, so we wandered back to the entrance (spotting toucans in the trees along the way) to grab coffee and crisps to tide us over until lunchtime in Valladolid. Getting up early when visiting Chichén Itzá had been well worth it, and we very much enjoyed our guided tour of this very special site.
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