Zona Arqueológica Palenque — Attraction in Chiapas

Review: Visiting the Ruins of Palenque

I am sharing this review to help future visitors understand what to expect when visiting the ruins of Palenque. My wife and I have been traveling to Mexico for over 25 years, visiting many archaeological sites, and this one stood out—not for the ruins themselves, but for the overall experience.

Arrival and Car Rental

We flew into Villahermosa and arranged our rental car in advance with American Car Rental, paying in full from the U.S. The company includes 90% insurance coverage, which we considered a valuable benefit. The rental process was handled directly at the airport, which was convenient. Driving to Palenque took about two hours due to road construction.

Hotel

We stayed at La Aldea Hotel, less than a mile from the ruins’ parking lot, surrounded by lush greenery. The location was ideal for easy access.

Entrance Process

This is where visitors—especially international travelers—should be aware of some recent changes that complicate entry:

Parking: Upon arrival, you are directed to a parking lot where you pay 63 pesos.

Ticket Booth: You then walk about a block to the ticket booth, navigating persistent offers from guides along the way.

Multiple Fees:

Entrance fee: 215 pesos per foreign visitor (includes a wristband identifying you as an international traveler).

Park fee: 100 pesos per person at a second booth.

Shuttle fee: 60 pesos per person for a minibus that takes you about 4 km to the actual entrance.

Guides

From the start, guides will approach you with offers. Prices on the posted menu ranged from 1,500 to 2,800 pesos, but we were repeatedly offered lower rates until we agreed on 400 pesos for a short tour. Our guide rode with us to the trailhead and included a jungle walk. While the ruins themselves are stunning—just as seen in books and online—our guide was average at best (and we speak Spanish).

It’s worth noting that independent, non-uniformed local guides were offering tours for as little as 200 pesos. If you’re patient and willing to negotiate, you may find an affordable option, possibly even in English. Paying 1,500–2,800 pesos seems unnecessary.

Overall Experience

The ruins themselves are breathtaking and absolutely worth seeing. Vendors selling souvenirs and replicas are common, but expected at major sites in Mexico. We put the “pink braces” given to us on our backpack instead of standing out by having it in our wrists, FYI.

For two people, however, our total cost exceeded 1,200 pesos (about $65 USD), making Palenque the most expensive archaeological site we’ve visited in Mexico.

Final Thoughts

The ruins are magnificent, but the layered fees and aggressive guide sales make the entry process more frustrating than at other sites. Go prepared, negotiate firmly if you want a guide, and budget for higher costs than you might expect...

Absolutely stunning! Way less people compared to Chicen Itza, less people selling stuff, cheaper to visit, more peaceful, more beautiful, stunning waterfalls and jungle. You can sometimes enjoy the place totally alone.

We had a rental car so we drove here early before the place opened. There is a gate where you enter the Palenque park (take a look at my picture taken from inside the vehicle. Btw this pic was taken when we were heading out of the park so it is taken from the opposite direction). At the gate some people usually stop you and offer you map, a professional guide etc. You can easily find a map online (if u have access to internet / have downloaded it beforehand) + there are some maps along the way and I find it difficult to get lost, so you really don't need one. There should not be any fees to pay at this point.

If you drive for like a minute longer you will reach the "main parking area", museum and ticket office. Parking is free. The parking lot is quite big, but I suggest going early in order to find a parking place. You can also continue further and drive to the end of the road and leave your car there (not sure if it is free or not).

At the ticket office you need to buy 2 different tickets (1 for the ruins + museum, 1 for the park). I find this utterly stupid, but it is common in Mexico. Cannot remember how much the tickets cost (maybe 150-200 mxn in total?), but they were super cheap compared to Chichen Itza for example. The museum was closed and nobody told about it, which was kinda disappointing.

The fastest route to the ruins was just across the street. First you enter the beautiful forest, see waterfalls and smaller ruins and finally make your way uphill to the larger ruin area. The paths are just fine, but making your way uphill can be difficult for someone who is totally out of shape. You can also enter the park from the other entrance (at the end of main road). Then you will see the main ruins first.

There is one more temple (it is called "the forgotten temple") further away in the forest (20min walk?). It was cool, but did not feel very special after visiting the bigger ruins. You need to take some sort of jungle path in order to get there. You can get there without a guide, but it might take a little longer since some of the signs along the path do no longer exist. If you follow the path seen in Google Maps you will get there easily. The location of the temple is marked...

The ruins are simply amazing! We went early in the morning around 8 by collectivo from town center (20 pesos per person). There are two entrances for the ruins, the first one which is next to the museum/ticket centre and the main one 1,5km further up the road, where all the organised buses stops and the tours starts. Since we went on our own, the collectivo dropped us off on the ticket centre/museum where you have to buy two types of tickets - one for entry into the national park and then another queue for the entry in the actual archeological site of Palenque. 180 pesos altogether.(as of March 2022) After we got the tickets we returned on the main road and started walking up the road toward the first entrance. We decided to enter the site from there, instead of walking 1,5km on the road for the main entrance. That was the right choice and we highly recommend that approach, since that part of the site is literally in the jungle, the ruins are surrounded by it, there is a cascade waterfall Sombrillas and small suspension bridge. There were no people at all, all we could hear was the jungle and the river running. It was so Indiana Jones we even got a bit scared, by the wildness and absence of people at all. There were some signs showing direction, but the overall feeling was excitement, as if you are in the jungle on your own. There were guys providing guide services at the entrance, but we chose not to have one. The signs are in English as well, so there is some information, but if you feel you need a guide you can hire from the entrance. After probably 30min being alone we started seeing people coming ahead, who have entered from the main entrance. We explored all the site, there were plenty of vendors selling all kind of stuff, the prices of which were probably the cheapest we have seen in mexico. We would recommend you do your buying there (or from the market at Agua Azul), you can haggle as well. Just for info we bought a medium sized colourful skull pained on a leather piece for 700pesos in Cancun. Similar size pieces were around 200 pesos at the site (after haggling). Another thing, there is a shop next to the ticket centre which sells legit chiapas amber at very reasonable prices. We bought a very nice piece...