Visiting Chichén Itzá to be a little more expensive

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Visitors have begun returning to Chichén Itzá in greater numbers since the beginning of the holidays. Photo: Carlos Rosado van der Gracht

Admission fees to Yucatán’s archaeological sites will rise Feb. 1. The confusion will remain the same.

Mexican visitors to Chichén Itzá will now pay 239 pesos, up from 210. The fee for international visitors will now be 539 pesos, up from 497.

This price hike comes exactly one year since the last increase. The price of admission to archaeological sites in Yucatán includes both one fee payable to Mexico’s Institute for History and Anthropology (INAH) as well as to Yucatán’s Ministry of Culture (Cultur). 

Costs also vary according to a five-point rating system developed by INAH, with larger and more visited attractions costing more. In the AAA category are sites in Yucatán such as Uxmal, Chichén Itzá and Ek Balam — along with other widely visited attractions in other states such as Mixtla, Palenque and Teotihuacán.

An experienced tour guide, Sergio Solis, told Yucatan Magazine that tourists are already baffled at the ticket office.

“Visitors find the price structure at archaeological sites very confusing,” said Solis. “They see the INAH fee is 200 pesos and they take out 200 pesos only to find that they have to pay more because of an additional fee to CULTUR. It’s crazy that on top of everything else, tourists are expected to stand in two different lines to pay! This is to say nothing of myriad additional fees they often required to even approach the area in which the site lay — as is often the case with nature reserves. It should all be one single payment… tourists don’t care about bureaucratic price structures or politics, they just want to visit these historic sites.” 

After a record-breaking year in 2020, Chichén Itzá has received but a fraction of its average traffic. However, according to several sources, over the Christmas holidays these numbers started to rise. 

Admission to all archaeological sites remains free on Sundays for both Mexican citizens and International residents of Yucatán. 

Carlos Rosado van der Gracht
Carlos Rosado van der Gracht
Born in Mérida, Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican/Canadian blogger, photographer and adventure expedition leader. He holds degrees in multimedia, philosophy, and translation from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
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