Archaeological Site of Yaxchilán

It's open! I went on a tour to Yaxilán and Bonampak from Palenque on Tuesday 16th April 2024. It was absolutely incredible and I 100% recommended it. I booked my tour with Pedro from the tour agency inside the ADO bus station. He had the best price compared to two other tour agencies I visited in town. Do the tour! It's 100% worth it. Support the locals. They rely on tourism. I looked into doing the tour myself but transport is complicated and it would end up being around the same price. Have fun!

A great hidden gem next to the Guatemala border! You need to take the ferry, which is also really good experience. The main pyramid is built on a hill and if you look from the bottom, it is just gorgeous.

Our favorite ruins so far. It feels like a big adventure as you load into the lancha and head out, skirting the Guatemala border. The kids were thrilled to so casually “dip into” another country.

The ruins themselves are amazing. It felt wild in the jungle with howler monkeys all around. I recommend going up to the Pequeño acropolis first and seeing what’s up top, then coming down into the labyrinth zone last. Don’t dally cause you don’t want to miss the labyrinth. We could have easily spent the entire time in the labyrinth, bring a flashlight!

Impressive is not even beginning to describe these ruins. The jungle itself, the boat ride to it, its all so special.

The ruins are spectacular. You get to see bats hanging around inside the temples as well as other wildlife.

These are definitely one of my favorites, if only, I could had spend more time there....

A river boat ride is the only way to get to this awesome set of ruins in the jungle. A guide is a real necessity to get a historical perspective.

What a great adventure! You get there by boat (45min) and then you are off to explore. It feels a lot more open/free and less touristy than the other ruins in Palenque. It’s also less reconstructed so you get a more original feel for the Mayan ruins.

The only ‚downside‘ is a relatively long journey from Palenque to the site. We took colectivos which worked fine but it’s at least 3 hours each way and on the way back we needed to pay a tuktuk to bring us to the main highway as no colectivos were running anymore from Frontera (this was about 3pm).

So if you are down for an adventure and don’t mind a lot of time in transit this is a must visit in Chiapas. Alternatively there is accommodation close by e.g. in Frontera or with indigenous villages in the area. Worth looking into for a night for sure it you want to take this trip more relaxed.

Visiting this site is the closest you'd get to a real indiana jones adventure. For a start you get on a small 8 person riverboat early in the morning on the Guatemalan border.
On the 40 minute boat trip we saw crocodiles, large birds of prey and monkeys.
At the end where you land there is dense jungle either side of the river. A path through the jungle suddenly reveals the temples as though you are the first person there. It is a well kept site and spectacular, you are allowed to climb to the tops of the Pyramids where on one there are 3 tombs with painted murals and ceilings. All around there is dense jungle with howler monkeys And spider monkey's. We saw large tarantulas and many large lizards.
A great day!

By far the most spectacular experience I've had in Mexico. This site is like an Indiana Jones experience. It was super well kept and the entrance was cheap. The boat to get there is quite expensive, but worth it.

Incredible. Unexpected. The most magical Mayan ruins I've visited so far. Bodies during the pandemic and we got to explore the park completely alone for 2 hours. If you are in the area, you can't miss it!

My favorite Mayan ruins in Chiapas. Howling monkeys all over the place, huge trees, and of course the Mayan ruins deep in the jungle. You’ll need to take a boat ride up-river to get here which is enjoyable and this river divides Guatemala and Mexico which is pretty cool. Just don’t be a snitch if you see Guatemalan people crossing.. also .. im not sure if there are crocodiles in this river , I think there should be some.

Archeological site of a pretty large former Mayan city. This site differs from many other such sites in Mexico in that many of the trees that grew there intentionally were left standing. This allows one to get an impression of both the former city and the way it was looking when it was discovered by archeologists. We went there by boat and that ride was already very enjoyable in itself, including seeing some aligators in the river.

Fantastic site, definitely worth the visit from Palenque. Our favorite Maya ruins in the region.

Drive to Frontera Corozal, where parking is available. Entry is by boat across the river and quite expensive (~1200 pesos), you can haggle down at least 200 pesos and/or wait for other tourists to arrive to share costs. The lacandonese people do charge for everything, don't be surprised you need to pay to enter the main road. Even so, I'm glad we visited.

Thick jungle backdrop, with a great walk up to the main palace. You enter through a dark 'labyrinth' ( which symbolized the direction where the sun went down, hence darkness) so bring a light. Your phone torch will work fine.
Consider doing bonampak on the way back, but take in mind that would take 3 hours because of more ridiculous extortion (you can't enter the road and need to pay for a van) so if you didn't leave very early from palenque (06:30) you may need to skip it.

Wear long light clothes, bring sun screen and insect repellent. The mosquitos are very aggressive.

Beautiful place and ruins! A must if you are in Chiapas. Unique experience having to travel by boat to get to the archeological site. Make sure to take water, electrolyte replacement drink, insect repellent, sunscreen, hat and tennis shoes. It's about 4 hour excursion, 40min by boat to get to the site, 2 hour site tour and 50min boat ride back. It's about a 3 hour drive from Palenque. Also make sure to visit Bonampak on your way back, beautiful as well and has a well preserved pained mural. If you are in between doing Palenque or these 2 sites....i would definitely go with Yaxchilan and Bonampak....both much less touristy and more beautiful in my opinion!!👍👍👍👍👍

Remote and beautiful...worth the trip!

We took a collectivo (via two collectivos but there are direct collectivos to Frontera Corozal from Palenque) to Frontera Corozal. The hotel we stayed at (Hotel Nueva Alianza) offered boat services so we got a deal thru them, which is highly recommended! I think you usually get 2hrs at the ruins but we were able to extend the stay by an hour for paying a little extra. 30min boat ride was beautiful, we got there around 8:30am and we pretty much had the place to ourselves most of the time. Ruins are gorgeous, but the jungle is amazing. Huge Ceiba trees, monkeys, rivers right next...what a site! It’s definitely a trip to get here but well worth the trip! The town of Frontera Corozal is small but people are friendly and polite. We really enjoyed the stay and are glad we stayed in town for a couple of nights.

Absolutely great place. As interesting as Palenque but with more spirit of Dr.I.Johns missions. Big minus for those who drive themselves is the road to Frontera Corozal with numerous topas- serious speed bumps. Stay alert and enjoy!

I can't express how awesome and worth it these ruins are. Such an amazing experience from start to finish! Getting there is half the fun on the river boats and then once you're there the site is a perfect mixture of partially reclaimed, partially overgrown. It was also architecturally different from a lot of other sites which made it refreshing from classic pyramids and worth the long trek. What's better is it's not overrun by tourists at all - our group had the place to ourselves. A must see!

This is wow. Takes 3 hours by car and a 40 minutes boatride to go thete but best Maya city I have seen so far. You can also see crocodiles at the river leguans or howling or spider monkeys.

One of the best Mayan ruins in the Usumicinta river. Worth visiting despite that is s bit far away.

This was my favorite archaeological site in Mexico after visiting 10+. The town of Frontera Corozal is a bit sleepy, so I’d recommend just taking a long day trip from Palenque in one of the passenger vans. It’s a cheap and gorgeous drive and lots of fun characters along the way. Early afternoon there were maybe 3 other people at the entire site.

Brilliant! The nicest Maya site I've seen (and I have seen a couple). Some of hieroglyphs on the lintels are in perfect shape. There are big structures and some of them you can get in and through. The way over there is spectacular, following a crocodile infested river (we saw 3). Could the day get any more Indiana Jones-like?