Tikal, El Remate & Flores

Trip date December 2025 1GBP = 10.15 Guatemalan Quetzal March 2026

When deciding where exactly to stay for our visit to Lake Peten Itza and more importantly Tikal national park, two locations kept on showing up: Flores and El Remate. Each had their pros and cons; Flores had colonial charm but could be over touristy and crowded, whereas El Remate was closer to nature but had less options for dining and was far less convenient. In the end we decided to visit both but El Remate was first, mainly as it was actually closer: both to the border of Belize, which we crossed to enter the country, and the Tikal Archeology site as well.

Getting to El Remate was relatively simple. From the border town we hopped into a colectivo heading towards Flores but asked to be let out at El Cruce. From there we could have waited for another Colectivo heading north but we decided to walk instead, the weather wasn't too hot and it was only 40 minutes. It wasn't too long after we passed the welcome to El Remate sign that we saw our first glimpses of the lake. It was so still, perfectly reflecting the cloudy sky. We stopped to admire it for a second before deciding we were too hungry for wistful lake appreciation and continued our backpack laden stroll into town. Thankfully, not long after, a lakeside restaurant was happy to welcome us and all of our belongings in for breakfast so we could continue enjoying the view without rumbling stomachs.

The hotel we had picked wasn't quite in El Remate town, but slightly outside of it on the road that circled the lake. Posada Del Cerro wasn't like the simple hotels and hostels we usually chose to stay in, this eco-hotel was set amidst the forest and the wooden loft we were staying in didn't even have glass in the windows (though there was chicken-wire to keep the larger creepy-crawleys out). We hadn't been checked in for five minutes before the first troop of Geoffreys Spider Monkeys came to say hello. Over our stay we spent hours laying in the hammock outside our room just watching the wildlife that came to visit, it was a truely special place to stay. Luckily, as it was a good 20 minute walk to the restaurants in town, the food was also decent and not too expensive. During breakfast, tiny erratic hummingbirds would frequent the feeders dotted the edges of the open-air dining space, beautiful.

Besides visiting Tikal, there were only a few things to do in the area: visit El Remate high street, swim in Lake Peten Itza and hiking the "Biotopo Cerro Cahui" loop. We visited the high street and while it was absolutely fine, it was also nothing to write home about. The lake, while very picturesque, was home to crocodiles... so that was a no from me (no matter how much the woman in the reggae bar insisted that the man whose arm was ripped off by crocodiles a few years prior was at fault as he was rumoured to be crocodile egg hunting at the time). Hiking it was.

The entrance to the hike was a quick five minutes away from where we were staying. Before we could get stuck in, we needed to sign in, be briefed on the route and pay the Q40 entry fee. As we entered the lush tropical rainforest the humidity hit and we immediately started sweating. At least we'd come prepared with a couple bottles of water and some much needed insect repellent... that would have to do.

Although it was only 6km, most of it was uphill and it was tough. As we walked along, spider monkeys played, crashing though the trees above us while the deep growling sounds of the howler monkeys echoed from their unseen territories. Adding the melody were a plethora of small birds, their trills lifting the forest soundscape.

The first viewpoint was a welcome respite. We were greeted by a bench and a stunning view over the lake far below. We had climbed so high! Although we were sweaty and tired; this really buoyed our spirits giving us the kick we needed to continue on. Then, in typical fashion, it began to rain. Just a small drizzle at first but this turned to a downpour soon after we reached the second viewpoint. It rained so much that we couldn't see the lake at all, or much of anything to be honest. We did have a small hope that the rain might cool things down a notch... but no luck! Sticky as ever, we continued our hike slowly making our way back to our accommodation and the single hammock unfairly calling both our names.

As much as we were enjoying El Remate, the real reason we were in this part of Guatemala at all was to see the Tikal archeological site: our grand finale in exploring the Maya World. Tikal is a mammoth site of over 3,000 structures, situated deep in the rainforest in what is now a national park.

Although you can buy tickets at the ticket office outside of Tikal National park, we decided to be organised and pre-buy our tickets online. The entry fee was Q300 per person and we paid an extra Q30 each to get entry to the onsite museum. It did take a while for the tickets to actually get emailed over to me, so it might be best to pre-buy them the night before rather than the morning of like we did.

Rather than join any sort of tour we decided to wing it. Colectivos are constantly passing through El Remate going towards Tikal, so it shouldn't have taken too long to find one. In the end it took 30 minutes, but that was entirely on us. We didn't realise that the colectivo vans flashing their lights at us were saying they had space... so we didn't wave any of them down. One driver noticed our idiocy and pulled up beside us, asking if we were heading to Tikal before quickly ushering us into the final two seats left. The Q80 each that we paid was less than i'd seen elsewhere online so I was happy, and this included a 3pm return too.

The bus took maybe an hour and it wasn't the most interesting of drives. 14km from the site, the driver pulled over to the ticket office - why its located so far away I don't know. Everyone who hadn't pre-booked tickets had to line up at the ticket office and the rest of us were free to explore the overpriced coffee stalls if we wished. Once everyone bundled back in, we passed the well manned security check-point and were finally on the last stretch. There was one more round of queueing before we could get in, here we presented our tickets and our passports to receive the wristband that let park employees know we'd paid our way in.

All that was left was to explore.

Tikal is huge: so big in fact, that even though we had a whole day to explore, we knew we weren't going to be able to see it all. We decided to start with point 11 on the map, Temple 6 (AKA Temple of Inscriptions) and even this took a good 20 minutes of walking down a slippery, jungle lined path to get to. The temple was huge, and lonely, set apart from the next set of temples we came across by another 20 minute walk. It was also well worth the extra time it took to visit. Although not flashy with huge stone steps like other pyramids we would see, it was unique in that all of its large white coloured stones had been individually carved.

From there, I don't really know where we went. I think we visited group "G" and I know that after a few wrong turns, and a small amount of accidentally climbing down areas we really shouldn't have, we eventually made it to the central acropolis. From the acropolis we had stunning views over the main plaza and the incredibly tall Pyramids it houses. One of these pyramids you could climb. Unlike other sites we'd visited, here most of the ruins themselves can be climbed apart from the pyramids. The pyramids have had modern wooden staircases and platforms added for the safety of both the people climbing them and the structures themselves.

As an avid climber of ancient Maya pyramids, the added wooden stairs don't take away from the experience in my opinion. It's not like there aren't hundreds of other actual stone steps around this insanely expansive site to have a chance to literally step back in time. The wooden steps are still steep and the views, which are one the main reasons to make the hard climb, are still phenomenal. I think it's a brilliant compromise between experience and preservation, one that will allow further generations to feel what it's like to stand in the clouds looking over impressive feats of the past.

While the pyramids were certainly special, the rest of the site had impressive and unique structures seemingly around ever corner.  One of my particular favourites was the “Acropolis del Norte” with its vast scramble of platforms and staircases that didn’t really make sense as a usable building to my modern eye. This Acropolis wasn’t only fun to explore, often finding ourselves at the edge of the building with just a steep drop before us. It also had impressive friezes and steles, the friezes hidden in lower levels only visible due to the degradation of the building itself. 

Another favourite was the Plaza of Seven Temples. This was situated next to the “Mundo Perdido” (Lost world) part of the park that is home to Tikal’s oldest ceremonial centre. The seven temples themselves had evidence of being first constructed as early as 650 BCE, although the version we got to explore would have been rebuilt somewhere between 600 - 900 CE - very cool. Each temple had a small room on its uppermost levels, and although they were dwarfed by the large Pyramids in the plaza’s surrounding them, they stick out to me as one of the most memorable plazas we’d visited. Maybe it was the peace from the lack of crowds, or the vegetation that was still covering what once would have been sturdy stone steps but the area just felt special. 

Walking in the Plaza of Seven Temples

Talking of crowds, it wasn’t as busy as we’d feared. Yes there were lots of people around, and it was hard to get that perfect picture without capturing the masses… but it didn’t feel cramped. The site is really so humongous that it was easy to find small spots without many people. Most of the pyramids were busy at the top, but we always got to see the view and we never had to wait to go up. 

Another thing we really enjoyed about Tikal was the animals. Not only did we get to see tons more spider monkeys, but we saw a howler monkey up close, tons of interesting birds and my new favourite, the coati. A coati is, first and foremost, adorable but if you want to get technical they’re part of the racoon family - my favourite thing about them is that they travel in bands, wandering about with their tails held in the air like "backwards furry dinosaurs" (according to Ben's imagination).

As we expected, we weren’t able to visit the whole site before it was time to head back. We just had enough time for a quick visit to the museum. Annoyingly, to get in, we had to head back to the entrance queue for a different wristband than we’d previously had - why they couldn’t give us both at once I do not know! Anyhow, the museum was fine if small, but did have some very vibrant examples of pottery found at the site which was interesting. We made it back to the colectivo with a few minutes to spare, utterly exhausted and ready for a meal back at our hotel. 

With Tikal ticked off, our time in El Remate was over so we packed up our bags and jumped into a colectivo heading to Flores. We’d heard reports of the “Isle de Flores” itself being noisy and expensive so we chose instead to stay in Santa Elena. This was a mistake, the area was still noisy and rather than cute colonial surrounds, we were located in a slightly dodgy neighbourhood. Our hotel even made the effort to mention that it wasn’t safe early in the morning due to the homeless population that frequent the street. 

We visited Flores on two occasions and on both times we found the island pretty deserted and quiet. Mostly we saw people milling around the main square that sits on the hill in the middle of the island. It was a nice place to visit with it’s views over the lake and the extremely cheap street food. Apparently there’s normally different swimming platforms dotted around the islands edge, but as the road ringing the island was entirely underwater during our visit we could only find one platform and it was rammed. 

Maybe we would have had a different experience staying on the island rather than just visiting it, but we really didn’t rate it. It was pretty enough and there were tons of slightly overpriced if aesthetic cafes and restaurants, but it didn’t really do it for us. To be completely fair the weather didn’t help, swinging from bright sunshine to torrential rain - it’s hard to really enjoy anywhere when you’re soaking wet. 

So I’m glad we visited Flores, but I’m happier that we stayed in El Remate first… and if I were to go back (there really is so much more left of Tikal to explore) I don’t think I’d bother with Flores at all. I’m sure it’s perfect for some, but give me a wooden house in the jungle any day.