Tikal sells its own tickets, priced in quetzales, and you can buy one without booking a tour. Here is what you pay, where you pay it, when the gates open and how you reach the ruins from Flores, Belize or Guatemala City. If you would rather hand the planning to someone else, compare the Tikal day trips from Flores.
Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture and Sports runs the park and sets its fees. As a foreign visitor you pay Q150 to enter for the day. If you want to be inside for sunrise or sunset, you buy a second ticket of Q100 on top. The museum ticket is Q30, again on top of the entry ticket.
| Ticket | Foreign visitors | Guatemalans with a DPI |
|---|---|---|
| Park entrance, 06:00–18:00 | Q150 | Q25 |
| Sunrise ticket, on top of the entrance | Q100 | Q20 |
| Sunset ticket, on top of the entrance | Q100 | Q20 |
| Museum entry, on top of the entrance | Q30 | Q5 |
| Camping area, on top of the entrance | Q50 | Q10 |
| Children under 10 | Free, no ticket needed | Free, no ticket needed |
Children enter free until their 10th birthday. From then on they pay the full rate. There are no other discounts: seniors, students, disabled visitors and groups all pay the same, because the fees are set by law. The Guatemalan rate needs a DPI identity card. If you are a foreign visitor holding a national ticket, you will be refused entry. There is no separate rate for other Central Americans either.
The prices have not moved since at least September 2021, and the ministry quotes none of them in US dollars. So budget in quetzales. A sunrise visit costs you Q250 in park fees before you pay for a guide or a ride.
That sum matters when you compare tours. Some fares include the park ticket and some do not. A $48 sunrise fare without the ticket costs you Q250 more at the park. A fare with the ticket in it costs you nothing more. Read what each fare includes before you set the prices side by side.
There are three official ways to buy a Tikal ticket. If you can, buy before the day.
There is no ticket office at the ruins. Phone and internet signal inside the park is weak or absent, so you cannot count on buying online once you are through the gate. Download the PDF before you leave your hotel.
The gate window works for a daytime visit. For sunrise it does not. The window is reported to open at 06:00, two hours after sunrise entry begins, so buy both of your tickets before the day.
If anyone tells you to pay at Banrural, that advice is out of date. Banrural stopped selling Tikal tickets when its agreement with the ministry ended on 17 January 2025.
Tikal tickets are not refundable, under any circumstances. You have up to 30 days from purchase to use one, whatever date it shows. Once it is scanned at the gate, it is used up for that day. Each day you spend at the ruins needs its own ticket.
The park opens from 06:00 to 18:00 every day of the year. That includes Christmas, New Year and Holy Week, barring force majeure. No separate last-entry time is published, so do not count on getting in late in the afternoon.
| Window | Times | What you need |
|---|---|---|
| Regular entry | 06:00–18:00, every day | The park ticket |
| Sunrise | About 04:00–06:00 | Park ticket, sunrise ticket and an INGUAT-authorised guide |
| Sunset | About 18:00–20:00 | Park ticket, sunset ticket and an INGUAT-authorised guide |
| The two museums | 08:00–16:00, every day | Park ticket and museum ticket |
Sunrise and sunset are watched from the top of Temple IV, which you climb by a wooden staircase. The sun does not keep to the windows, though. In December and January it rises at around 06:30, so you are on the temple in the dark and wait for it. From about October to February it sets before 18:00. A winter sunset visit is really a dusk visit, and you walk back through the forest in the dark, so bring a torch.
You can switch a sunrise ticket to sunset, or the reverse, only with authorisation from the ticket platform’s support team. The park also closes a staircase now and then for repairs. Temple IV’s was shut on 7 and 8 April 2025, while the rest of the park stayed open. The Tikal weather page gives sunrise and sunset times through the year.
Not in daytime. Between 06:00 and 18:00 you can walk the site on your own with just the park ticket.
For sunrise and sunset you do. A guide authorised by INGUAT, Guatemala’s tourism institute, is compulsory, and the sunrise and sunset tickets do not include one. You hire the guide yourself, either at the park entrance or through an authorised tour operator. No official guide rates are published, so agree the price before you set off.
That rule is why most sunrise visitors book a tour. A sunrise tour brings the guide, the 3:00am pickup and the drive in the dark, and some fares carry both park tickets as well. In daytime a guide is your choice. What you gain is the story behind the Great Plaza and the North Acropolis, and a second pair of eyes for monkeys in the canopy.
A sunrise tour collects you in Flores or El Remate at around 3:00am and brings the licensed guide the park requires. On some fares both park tickets are in the price too.
Most visitors stay in Flores, about 64 km from the park. By road it takes roughly an hour to an hour and a quarter. The route follows CA-13 towards Melchor de Mencos, turns left at Aldea Ixlú towards El Remate, and runs on into the park. Collective and private minibuses make the trip from Flores every day.
| From | Distance by road | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| Flores | About 64 km, 1 to 1¼ hours | Collective or private minibus, daily; most tours collect you from your hotel |
| El Remate | About 34 km | On the road to the park; many tours collect you here |
| Melchor de Mencos, the Guatemalan border post | About 100 km | Cross from Belize, then by road; some tours meet you at the border |
| San Ignacio, Belize | About 114 km | A tour with a San Ignacio pickup, across the border |
| Belize City | About 226 km | By road through San Ignacio and the border |
| Guatemala City | 484 km, about nine hours | Bus to Flores, or a flight of about an hour to Flores |
From Belize you cross at the border by Melchor de Mencos. Bring your passport, and carry cash, because Belize charges an exit fee at the land border. Some tours collect you in San Ignacio or at the border itself, and on those the fare rises with the pickup point you choose. The Tikal tours from Belize set out the options.
From Guatemala City the road takes about nine hours, and the buses to Flores are run by Autobuses del Norte, Fuentes del Norte and Línea Dorada. The quicker way is to fly. Avianca and TAG Airlines fly to Mundo Maya International Airport, five minutes from Flores island, in about an hour. A fly-in day tour puts the flights, the park ticket and lunch in one fare, leaving at 5:45am and flying back at 5:30pm. The tours from Guatemala City compare them.
Your first stop is the outer gate, Garita Socotzal. This is where your ticket is checked and where the Bantrab window sits. Show the PDF, printed or on your phone, with your passport or ID. Screenshots, bank receipts and card slips are refused.
Staff then give you a wristband. Wear it where it can be seen all day, because park staff may ask to check it at any time. Keep your ticket on you as well.
The gate is not the ruins. From the gate the road runs on for about 17 km to the Visitor Centre, which the ministry rounds up to 20 km. The Visitor Centre is where you find the museums and the three park hotels. From there you walk. The Great Plaza is about 1.3 km along forest paths. Temple IV lies about 0.7 km beyond it in a straight line, and further by the path. The Tikal map lays out the whole route.
Staying the night inside the park? Jungle Lodge, Tikal Inn and Jaguar Inn stand beside the Visitor Centre, about ten minutes’ walk from the Great Plaza. You still need a park entry ticket to pass the gate, even on a day you do not visit the ruins.
Tikal stands in rainforest. The ministry gives average temperatures of 24–35 °C with high humidity, and paths and stairs turn slippery in the wet months. Pack for heat, rain and a long walk.
Food and single-use plastics are not allowed in the archaeological zone, a rule in force since 17 September 2021. Your reusable bottle is fine. You can eat at the Uaxactún car park, the camping area or Rancho Tikal. Anyone caught littering on the temples or paths is expelled. Several tours include lunch, which settles the question for you.
Drones are banned in the park. Climb only the structures opened for climbing, by their wooden stairs, and never a roof comb. Do not feed the wildlife, and keep to the marked routes.
Tours give you four to seven hours in the park. That is enough for the Great Plaza, Temple IV and the Lost World at a steady pace. Here is what each way of visiting gives you.
Gets you: the Great Plaza, the North Acropolis and the Central Acropolis, Temple IV and the Lost World (Mundo Perdido), with a guide. Time: about 4.5 to 5 hours in the park. Cost: from $78 a person with the park ticket in the fare. Best for: a first visit.
Gets you: Temple IV before dawn, then the ruins in the cool of the morning. Time: about 5 to 7 hours in the park, from before sunrise. Cost: from $48 a person with both park tickets extra, up to $230 with the sunrise entrance included. Best for: early risers and birders, since first light is the best time for birds.
Gets you: the flights, the park ticket, lunch and a guide around Temples I, II and IV. Time: about four hours in the park, in a day of 15 hours or more. Cost: from $448 a person, and non-refundable. Best for: you, if you only have one day for Tikal.
Gets you: the park from 06:00 to 18:00 at your own pace, plus the two museums: the Morley ceramics museum and the Museo Lítico with its stelae, both open 08:00 to 16:00. Time: a full day. Cost: Q150 to enter, Q30 for the museums, and the minibus from Flores. Best for: independent travellers who can skip sunrise.
Gets you: Temple IV at both ends of the day, with a night in a park hotel between. Time: two park days. Cost: a park ticket for each day, Q100 each for the sunset and sunrise tickets, and a guide for both. Best for: birders, and anyone who wants the forest waking up.
Your own guide and vehicle from your Flores hotel at 8:00am, with the park ticket and lunch in the fare and about five hours at the temples and plazas.
From $209 per person · park ticket included
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Pickups from Flores and El Remate as far as San Ignacio and the Belize border, a group of up to nine, lunch and about 4.5 hours in the park. The park ticket is extra.
From $85 per person · lowest pickup option · park ticket extra
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Flights from Guatemala City at 5:45am and back at 5:30pm, the park ticket, lunch and a bilingual guide, with about four hours in the park. Non-refundable.
From $448 per person · park ticket included
Check AvailabilityEvery Tikal tour, with what its fare covers, is set side by side on Tikal National Park Tours. For what you will see once you are inside, read about the Tikal ruins and the things to do at Tikal. Shorter answers are in the Tikal FAQs.