Tikal has two site museums, both beside the Visitor Centre: one for pottery and the tomb of a king, one for carved stone. A conservation centre reopened to visitors in 2026. Here is what each one holds, when they open, what the separate museum ticket costs, and which of the Tikal day trips from Flores leave you time for them.
| Museum | What it holds | Open | Entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Museo Sylvanus G. Morley | About 250 pieces: ceramics, jade, flint, obsidian, stelae and altars, and a reproduction of the Burial 116 tomb | Daily, 08:00–16:00 | Q30 museum ticket (Q5 Guatemalans) |
| Museo Lítico | 25 monuments: 21 stelae, 3 altars and 1 sculpture | Daily, 08:00–16:00 | Q30 museum ticket (Q5 Guatemalans) |
| Conservation and Research Centre (CCIT) | Pieces from 300 BC to the Classic period | Monday–Friday, 08:00–16:00 | No fee published |
Both museums open every day from 08:00 to 16:00. That is shorter than the park itself, which opens from 06:00 to 18:00, so plan the museums inside the middle of your day.
The museums are not included in the Q150 park entrance. The ministry sells a separate museum ticket, Q30 for foreign visitors and Q5 for Guatemalans with a DPI, and its tariff sheet names it as entry to the museums, plural. A May 2026 newspaper report said the entrance covered them; the ministry’s own ticket platform charges for them, and that is the price at the door.
The Museo Sylvanus G. Morley stands on the left-hand side of the Visitor Centre area. It is named after Sylvanus Morley, whose Carnegie Institution expedition of 1937 found Group H and a large reservoir. His Inscriptions of Petén (1937–1938) gathered all the work done at Tikal up to then.
The museum holds about 250 archaeological pieces: ceramics, jade, flint and obsidian, with stelae and altars. Its centrepiece is a reproduction of the tomb of Burial 116, first found under Temple I. The ministry still calls its king by his old nickname, Ah Cacau. Today he is read as Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, who reigned from 682 to 734.
The real tomb was opened in November 1962 by Aubrey Trik of the Penn project. It was the richest yet found at Tikal. It held a collar of 114 jade beads weighing 8.5 lb, and 89 worked bones were catalogued from it, 37 of them carved with glyphs or scenes.
The Museo Lítico’s full name is the Centro de Visitantes y Museo del Sitio de Lítica: the Visitor Centre and site museum of stone. It was built in 1982 and opened in 1989, under the Proyecto Nacional Tikal, the same Guatemalan project that restored the Lost World.
It shows 25 monuments: 21 stelae, three altars and one human figure, a sandstone sculpture known as the Hombre de Tikal. The stelae include numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 26, 39 and 40, and the collection has Altar 5.
Stela 11 is the one to find. Set up in AD 869 by Jasaw Chan K’awiil II, it is the last dated monument at Tikal and carries the city’s last Long Count date. The first dated monument, Stela 29, is 577 years older.
The Conservation and Research Centre, the CCIT, reopened to the public on 10 March 2026. It opens Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00, and it is closed at weekends. Its pieces run from 300 BC to the Classic period.
The ministry has published no fee for it. If you want to see it, plan your visit for a weekday.
Both museums stand at the Visitor Centre, and the Great Plaza is about 1.3 km further on foot. So the museums fit best at the start or the end of your walk, not in the middle of it.
On a sunrise tour: sunrise entry is about 04:00 to 06:00, before the museums open. The sunrise tours come back to the Visitor Centre later in the morning, when both are open, so ask your guide for the time before you get back in the vehicle.
On a sunset tour: the private sunset tour leaves Flores at 12:30pm and reaches the park in the early afternoon. The museums close at 16:00, well before sunset entry at 18:00. See them first.
On a day tour: the day tours pass the Visitor Centre in museum hours. A tour with a long lunch in the park, or a private guide, gives you the most room to add them.
On your own: in regular hours you need no guide, so you can be at the museums at 08:00, see them, then take the path to the Great Plaza. If you stay at one of the three hotels beside the Visitor Centre, the museums make an easy late afternoon before 16:00.
The museum ticket is Q30 for foreign visitors and Q5 for Guatemalans. You can buy it only on top of a park entrance ticket, which is Q150 for foreign visitors. Add the Q100 sunrise ticket and a museum day at sunrise costs a foreign visitor Q280 in park fees.
There are three ways to buy. Online at the ministry’s platform, up to 30 days ahead, by Visa or Mastercard; international cards pay a 2.30% surcharge. In cash at any Bantrab branch in Guatemala. Or in cash at the Bantrab window at the park’s outer gate, about 17 km before the Visitor Centre. There is no ticket office at the ruins, and phone signal inside the park is weak, so buy the museum ticket when you buy your entrance. Tickets are not refundable.
If your tour fare includes the park entrance, it pays the Q150. The museums are priced on a separate line, so ask your operator, or buy the Q30 ticket yourself.
Some of Tikal’s finest carving is not at Tikal. Seven carved wooden lintels are known, cut from zapote, the local hardwood. Parts of only two are still in place: Lintel 2 of Temple I and Lintel 2 of Temple III.
In 1877 Gustav Bernoulli had lintels removed from Temple I and Temple IV. They reached Basel in 1878, and the Museum der Kulturen Basel holds three sets today, among them most of Temple I Lintel 3 and Temple IV Lintels 2 and 3. Seven of its beam fragments were lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2022–2023.
The British Museum holds the two fragments of Temple I Lintel 3 that J. W. Boddam-Whetham bought in Flores in 1875. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has one beam of Temple II’s Lintel 2, and two beams from Structure 10 that H. J. Spinden removed in 1914.
An 8:00am start from Flores or the airport, the visitor centre first and a two-hour lunch at the park restaurant, with the Tikal admission fee in the fare.
From $78 per person · park ticket included
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About seven hours in the park from before dawn, ending back at the visitor centre. The park and sunrise tickets are extra; buy them before the day.
From $48 per person · park ticket extra
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About seven hours in the park from before dawn with a guide specialised in archaeology. The park entrance and the sunrise entrance are in the fare.
From $230 per person (min. 2) · sunrise ticket included
Check AvailabilityMuseum hours and fees change, so check the ministry’s own pages before you go.
The king in the tomb is on the history of Tikal, the temples the lintels came from on the Tikal ruins guide, and every tour on Tikal National Park Tours.