Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
certainly not worth prioritizing the museum over the site itself, it makes an interesting
stop-off before you leave.
Highlights include the remains of
Stela 29
, Tikal's oldest carved monument (dating
from 292 AD), as well as assorted tools, jewellery, polychrome pots and obsidian and
jade objects. There's also a reconstruction of
Hasaw Chan K'awil's tomb
, discovered
beneath Temple I and among the richest ever found in the Maya world, with beautiful
polychrome ceramics and jade ornaments, including bracelets, anklets, necklaces and
earplugs. One delicately incised human bone depicts deities paddling the dead to the
underworld in canoes.
Museo Lítico
Mon-Fri 8am-4.30pm, Sat & Sun 8am-4pm • Q30
Adjoining Tikal's main visitor centre, the
Museo Lítico
or
Lithic Museum is a relatively
modern but nonetheless rather rundown gallery that holds assorted stelae and carvings
from the site. With all the explanatory panels in Spanish, it's liable to disappoint
English-speaking visitors, and the dead bats on the floor don't really help either.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
TIKAL
From Flores
The easiest way to reach the ruins is via
one of the tourist minibuses (Q70 return) that pick
up passengers from every hotel in Flores, Santa Elena
and El Remate, as well as Flores airport, starting from
3.30am.
From Belize
If you're travelling from Belize on an ordinary
bus and not a shuttle bus, you'll almost certainly have to
change buses at Ixlú, the T- junction at the eastern end of
Lago de Petén Itzá, from where plenty of minibuses head to
Tikal throughout the day (Q35 one-way).
INFORMATION AND GUIDES
Opening hours and tickets
Tikal is open daily
4am-8pm, and has three kinds of entrance ticket. The vast
majority of visitors choose to buy a standard ticket
(6am-6pm; Q160), which for most people allows su
cient
time at the site. For the separate sunrise (4am-8am; Q100)
and sunset (6-8pm; Q100) tickets, you have to be
accompanied by an o
cial guide, at additional cost. So if
you want to arrive at dawn, catch the sunrise and leave at
4pm, you'll need two tickets (Q100 and Q160).
Guests staying inside the national park still have to buy
entrance tickets.
Visitor centre
The main visitor complex, where the road
reaches the site proper, holds a café-restaurant, an espresso
café (see p.168), toilets and luggage storage, as well as the
Museo Lítico (see above), a post o
ce, and assorted gift
shops and stalls selling souvenirs and accessories.
Guides
You can book a tour with a licensed guide at the
open kiosk in the roundabout at the entrance. Most are
excellent and very knowledgeable, and charge around
Q350 for up to five people for a 4hr tour.
Sunrise tours
Hotels and tour companies in El Remate
and Flores offer sunrise tours of Tikal, which offer the
chance to watch the first rays of the sun pick out the
temple-tops that poke from the jungle canopy, and hear
the howler monkeys share their morning greetings. From
Flores, that can involve a departure time as early as 3am. Be
warned, though, that the rising sun is often obscured
almost entirely by thick mist.
Website
W
tikalpark.com has useful information about
the site and the reserve.
ACCOMMODATION
Although you can comfortably see Tikal's main sights in one day, the three hotels near the site entrance, all of which have
restaurants, are hugely convenient if you plan to stay longer, want to be on the spot for a sunrise tour or simply fancy
waking up in the jungle. That said, they're expensive by local standards, and electricity can be sporadic.
Camping
It's possible to rent either a tent under a shelter,
or a good hammock with attached mosquito net, in a well-
maintained campsite behind the main car park t
hat
holds
toilets
and (co
ld) showers. Hammock per person
Q35
, tent
for two
Q150
Jaguar Inn
T
7926 2411,
W
jaguartikal.com.
Thirteen
bungalows, each sleeping two and equipped with a hot-
water bathroom, fan and porch, along with
a dece
nt
restaurant, and electricity from 9am until 11pm.
US$80
Jungle Lodge
T
2476 8755,
W
junglelodgetikal.com.
Attractive lodge, with a pool and large private en-suite
bungalows on well-shaded grounds, along with a few
FLORES
P.168
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