Truly an adventure! Our inner Indiana Jones came out as we prowled through these ancient ruins. Structures were a solid 20 minutes apart at a brisk walk/run through deep, lush, dense jungle. The 4 hours that the taxi driver gave us didn’t even let us begin to scratch the surface of this incredible place. (Not to mention the wild roller coaster ride of a drive it took ta get there.) We hit most of Tikal at a run and ended up gasping for air on our way up the gazillion steps to the top of one temple. These incredible raccoon/monkey animals called coatis walk close by like stray cats. We heard a clatter in the trees high above us and looked up to see what animal could be up there and only narrowly dodged poop bombs sailing down from monkey snipers. We LOVED crawling all over everywhere we were allowed to and everywhere we weren’t allowed to. Rainbow turkeys flutters around and a capybara trundled past. Thick vines covered the ridges of sacred tree trunks that turned us into tiny ants. A place of mystery and adventure like I’ve never seen.
Tip: Do not underestimate how huge this place is. The temples take some time to walk between. Give yourself plenty of time to enjoy it. We left ourselves 4 hours and it was not near enough time.
Visiting Tikal with Kids
Tip: Bring plenty of snacks and water for the long walks between ruins.
Tip: Keep your eye out for a coati! They really add to the experience.
Tip: Since the site is so large, there’s plenty of room for advensuresome kids. Although there is limited climbing right on the ruins themselves. Rangers stand around to enforce this.
Walkabout 