Video: Visit Chichen Itza

Useful vocabulary for this episode:

• Temprano = Early
• Extranjeros = Foreigners
• Mexicanos = Mexicans
• Gran Juego de Pelota = Great Ball Game
• Guía = Guide
• Algo de comer = Something to eat

¡Hola Amigos! Today we are going to share our experience visiting Chichen Itza. We are going to give you tips and all the information you need to visit this amazing place.

First and most important, make sure you get there temprano = early. We left Playa del Carmen at 5am and got to Pisté (the town closest to the archeological site) at 7:30am Playa del Carmen time. Yucatán time is one hour earlier, so it was 6:30am when we got there. We had some time to get coffee and drive around the town.

If you drive there from Playa del Carmen, like we did, you will encounter a few tolls. We spent about $300 pesos on the way there and nearly $400 pesos on the way back just on tolls. Make sure you have cash because I believe they don’t take cards.

Somethings you are going to need when you visit Chichen Itza are sunglasses, a hat and or sunscreen. It might seem like it is a breezy morning, but you have to make sure you protect yourself from getting sunburn. There are very few shaded areas at the site and it gets really hot from 10am and on. In case you forget any of these, there are vendors inside and outside the site who sell all kinds of souvenirs, hats, shirts and sunglasses. There are also bathrooms and places for you to buy water or any other refreshments inside the site. 

The archeological site and parking lot both open at 8am. If you are going with friends, the best thing to do is to have someone from your group stand in line to buy tickets while the others wait for the parking lot to open. It was 7:25am when we arrived to Chichen Itza and there was already a line of cars at the parking lot and a line of people at the ticket booth waiting. It really pays to get up a little earlier to beat the crowds and be able to enjoy the ruins without bustling crowds. 

Admission is $167 pesos for extranjeros = foreigners and $89 pesos for mexicanos = mexicans (you need to show a Mexican ID). Parking is $30 pesos. There is also a fee of $49 pesos for entering with video cameras such as GoPros. 

When we first arrived, we took some time to walk around the site and take pictures and videos. We knew it was going to get crowded quick. Once we had the pictures and videos we wanted, we hired a guía = guide for a 2 hour tour which was $800 pesos. We strongly suggest you get a guide. Without one, you miss out on so much history and interesting information you wouldn’t find anywhere else. 

At the end of our tour around the site, we got algo de comer = something to eat in the town of Pisté and before going back to Playa we stopped at a cenote called “Ik Kil”. There are some others cenotes around that area which don’t get as busy as this one, but I believe this one is the closest to the archeological site and it is pretty cool, too.

We hope you found this video informative and helpful. Thank you all for reading and watching. Let us know in the comments if you have or plan to visit Chichen Itza, and what were some of your favorite parts! ¡Hasta pronto!