We did a long day trip from Chaa Creek in Belize. it seems important to make the border crossing early, and be sure to have a quality guide on the other side. Tikal is very haunting, with the magnificence and scale of what has been recovered balanced by the jungle that surrounds it.

This was our first trip to a Mayan site and we were not disappointed. The entire complex is huge, and at the Great Plaza . you could feel how the city used to buzz with activity here. Our teenage nephews really enjoyed this site, as did all of us adults.

Tikal is not that amazing. The ruins are quite large but dumpy. There are signs everywhere restricting you access to explore. The price to enter is 150q per person and once inside they make you pay for a map! Absolutely ridiculous. The most impressive part about Tikal is the park itself... The trees and wildlife.

There is simply nothing that compares to walking the great plaza inTikal.

They actually let visitors climb the structures which made the whole thing even more amazing than the amazing that it would have been just to walk around them.

It's the center of the ancient city and is where most of the past excavations have taken place.