Calakmul ruins | Tourist Attraction

181 pp for road and park + 90 pp for site

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We were expecting to be turned away at the checkpoint, as we have our dog with us. The men certainly did see our dog, but we passed without problem. Ruins themselves are of course off limits to dogs, but we were early in the morning, nice cool shaded spots to park. We saw the amazing Ruins, as well as Toucans, Turkeys, Monkeys, Javelina, and many bird species.

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Price is now 165pesos for biosfere + road entrance and then 85mxn$ at the ruins. The reserve opens at 6am and the ruins at 8am.

Very nice site with a lot of wildlife. Early morning you’ll be alone

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At the first gate, the price is now (Jan 1st, 2022) MXN 160 per person for the biosphere (ticket) and the road use (bracelet) and here (at the actual site) another MXN 85 per person to enter the site with the ruins.

Great site in the jungle. Tall piramides. Wildlife. Quiet places. We liked it.

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Best ruins we have seen on whole yucatan & quintana roo. Long way to get there but worth it. We paid 150pp at the entry and 80pp at the actual entrance of the ruins. Come early, chance of watching wildlife. Lots of monkeys, highest pyramid ~35m.

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The site is partially open, you can still go up the large pyramids, not too many people, nice drive in and out, lots of animals, decent roads (well, for motorcycles anyway)
The price is now $230 as follows:
Entrance to the road $60
Entrance to the reserve $90
Entrance to the ruins $80
The rest as per previous posts.

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Open but with covid restrictions like temp check, hand washing and mask wearing, no groups bigger than 10? And the entire Gran acropolis is closed off. Some temple climbing is off limits as well. Still a very beautiful experience deep in the jungle. Still no pets allowed (they checked our backseat and bed!)

60mxn pp to enter road
74mxn pp to enter the zone
80mxn pp to enter the actual park

Hours are limited due to Covid too. The entrance is only open from 0600-1400 but the park itself is open until 1700.

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We're confirming the statements; be impressed by the historical site and enjoy the drive in/out and take your time like we did and you'll see lots of wildlife- colorful turkeys,toucans and jumping and crying monkeys up in the trees; with our 18f long and 10f.high pickup camper it took us 2 hours in and 2,5hours out with many photo stops; the road is in good condition and they're maintaining the last 15km at the moment; there are nice Picknick tables under the tree at the entrance so calm and cool down after the 3-4hour through the ruins-take plenty of water with you,there is no possibility to buy and avoid the higher temperatures at noon; we highly recommend this historical site and the biospheres park👍

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The ruins are amazing and well worth a visit! I enjoyed the full hike and loved meandering through the jungle exploring the many structures and saw many monkeys, birds, butterflies, a snake and an opossum type creature. The museum is very worthwhile too. The road is great to the museum. The road is good the next 40 km to the site. No potholes and just the occasional low hanging branch. It’s a lot faster by car but doable by class b vans. They do not want you to park at the museum. And if you have a dog with you they will not let you pass through the second checkpoint to the ruins. They will not allow you to park and leave your dog in the car at the museum parking lot. You will save yourself a lot of trouble by leaving your dog outside the reserve either at the entrance or one of the cabana or restaurant locations. It’s not about money, it’s against the federal rules and they’ve had problems.

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ok with a 24feet RV 3meters high.
some branches but still doable and road is in good conditions

parking with tables

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Great Mayan Archeological site in the heart of the Natural Reserve. The full walking tour lasts between 3-4 hours, it is worth it! There are ~25 structures/temples open to the visitors.

We were guided by a man called Cristobal (+529831360992 calls and SMS) who actually works taking care of the place and has a lot of knowledge of the archeological place, flora and fauna.

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‘Come for the ruins, stay for the wildlife’.

We have a dog and an oversized vehicle (21ft Toyota Motorhome) and stayed at ‘Cabanas Calakmul’ in the town at the entrance (can find it on booking). Our dog stayed in the cabana (stayed cool, had a fan), while we explored the ruins with a taxi for 1000 pesos, arranged from the Cabanas. Left at 7h30, were back at 14h30. Drivetime one way: 1.5h. Road seemed okay, just sudden potholes that are difficult to see due to sun/shade, so drive slowly. Absolutely worth it: great setting, jungle as far as the eye can see and plenty of wildlife! If you like bird/animal watching: bring binoculars, go early and maybe try to stay a full day!

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I would like to address the two main issues for overlanders that want to visit the ruins. 1) Driving to them from the highway 2) Dogs/Pets. My information comes from us visiting the entrance, having a look around the entrance (not attempting to drive), and talking to drivers and guides. We hired a guide which also gave us good info.

1) The workers don't want large vehicles on the access road (from the highway to the ruins). This is because they've had accidents, roll overs, low hanging branches causing damage to tops of vehicles and even windshields. I wouldn't consider us "large" (8m long, 3m high Sprinter Van) but they might. Again, we never tried to drive the road but our guide suggested we might be denied. So it would be worth visiting the entrance the day before you go and seeing if they'll allow your car.

As far as road condition: It has deep potholes here and there which can be carefully avoided. I would have driven it if the circumstances were different (such as possibly being denied and having a dog). Going slow takes 2 hours or more, going in a smaller car driven by a guide/driver takes 1hr 15m.

2) Dogs. This was our main reason for hiring a taxi. However, they front entrance (NOT the museum!) will watch your dog for $50p. Two separate guides offered to take our dog home and have it watched there. There is plenty of shade at the entrance so it could be a good option. We chose to leave our dog in the car and park in the shade. This worked out just fine.

3)Guides and Taxis. We got Roberto's number off TripAdvisor and he speaks great English. He's really friendly and smart. He came prepared with images on his iPad to show us what is inside some of the structures and of wildlife. He also knows a lot about animals and birds. He spots them like a wildlife wizard (howler monkeys. spider monkeys, owls, turkeys, wild pigs, tucans, etc). Guarantee you we wouldn't have noticed the wildlife nor know much about them if it weren't for him. He used to work with the archaeologists so he knows a lot. Texts/calls (not whatsapp) works best for him. 352 111 6569 If Roberto is booked, he can check his friend Enrique. Try to book in advance. Guides can arrange taxis for you or there are drivers waiting at the entrance. Our guide drove the taxi (not literally a taxi, just a car).

Prices: $1000p for a guide (we were two people). $1200p for a ride (per car). Entry fees add up to maybe $200p/person (you pay three times but they all add to ~$200p).

We started driving from the entrance at 7:30am and returned at 3pm. We only did the "short route" (which we never do :)) but Roberto was so full of information and we were a little anxious to get back to the dog, that we opted to not go on the extended route aka see the gran acropolis. It might have taken another hour? I'm not sad about it because I learned sooo much from Roberto and it really enlightened the whole experience.

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We were not allowed to get to the ruins with our dogs, the guards at the second entrance were strong on this point, even when we said they would stay in the car.
They said something about leaving them at the restaurant next to the campground up the road, but we didn’t check this option out.

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very nice ruins, surround by jungle, not too crowd for this major maya site.

we don't know why, maybe because it was sunday, we only had paid the first gate near the main road 50 pesos per person.
At the museum and the ruins they had just register us in a book and waves us for free.

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wonderfull ruins with a wonderfull wild life

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Really interesting place, with lot of monkeys.
To go there, you have to pay three times :
* 50 pesos per person at the beginning of the road leading to Calakmul
* 64 pesos per person at the museum (km 20)
* 70 pesos per person at the entrance of the ruins (km 60)
Consider 1h30 to 2 hours for this road.
Think about your gas before entering the road leading to Calakmul, the closest gas station is at Xpujil, 50 kms west.

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wonderful ruins ! the city (acropolis) is not that passionating when you don't have a guide (whom you would need to hire before getting there) apart from the erected stones, but the pyramids (estructura 1, 2, 3) and the view is breath takink (mainly because of the stairs! ahah)

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Calakmul ruins entrance, 60kms (2h/2h30) from the main road. The reserve open at 5am so you can start the road early and maybe spot some wildlife. The ruins open at 8am.

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