Tulum ruins: entrance fee, hours and how to visit

The Tulum ruins are the remains of a walled Maya port on a low cliff above the Caribbean, about 3.5 km east of the centre of Tulum town in a straight line. INAH, Mexico’s national institute of anthropology and history, opens the site from 8:00 to 17:00, with last entry at 15:30. Foreign visitors pay MXN 265 in total since July 2026; Mexicans pay MXN 80, or nothing on Sunday.

The site sits inside Parque del Jaguar, a federal park that formally opened in September 2024. That park changed how you get in, what you pay and where you can park, so the details below matter more than they did a few years ago.

Tulum ruins entrance fee and hours in 2026

A presidential decree published on 17 July 2026 cut the fees and merged two of them. It took effect on 20 July 2026 and runs through 2027. INAH’s own Tulum page shows the same totals.

Who	Parque del Jaguar	Ruins + Tulum National Park	Total
Foreign visitors	MXN 100	MXN 165	MXN 265
Mexican nationals, Monday to Saturday	Free	MXN 80	MXN 80
Mexican nationals, Sunday	Free	Free	Free
Tulum municipality residents	Free	Free	Free

Checked October 2026 against the DOF decree of 17 July 2026 and INAH’s Tulum page.

Practical detail	2026
Hours	8:00 to 17:00 daily
Last entry	15:30
Electric carts inside the park	MXN 20 per person (Por Esto, July 2026)
Exempt from fees	Minors, older adults, people with disabilities, pensioners, students, teachers, accredited guides

The MXN 165 is one payment covering two federal charges: MXN 100 for the archaeological zone and MXN 65 for Tulum National Park. You will see “MXN 165” quoted alone in some news reports. That figure leaves out the separate MXN 100 park entry, which is why INAH’s page says MXN 265.

Before the decree, the park and the national park charged MXN 415 between them for foreigners, on top of INAH’s MXN 100 for the ruins (INAH bulletin, February 2025). The cut is large, so expect older blogs to show much higher prices.

Coach day trips from Cancún and Playa del Carmen often leave entry fees out of the tour price. One popular half-day tour asks for about USD 40 in cash on the day for site and park fees. Check what your booking includes before you go.

Getting into Parque del Jaguar

Parque del Jaguar covers 2,913 hectares and joins Tulum National Park (declared in 1981), a jaguar protection area (2022), part of the Caribe Mexicano biosphere reserve and the archaeological zone. Grupo Mundo Maya, a state company under the defence ministry, runs the gates, with CONANP (the national parks agency) and INAH managing their own parts.

Inside, INAH says you can walk, rent a bike or ride the electric vehicles on a set route. Trails link the ruins with bird-watching towers, viewpoints, a lighthouse and beach access points.

Driving is the awkward part. In 2026 the park has no public car park, according to the Tulum Times (updated October 2026). Drivers are told they need a booking at a restaurant or beach club inside the park before they can drive in. Arriving by bike or being dropped at the entrance avoids the parking problem. Our getting around Tulum guide covers those options.

The Museo Regional de la Costa Oriental (MURECO), INAH’s museum, is also inside the park. It opened on 7 September 2024, entry is free once you have paid the park fee, and INAH lists it as open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 to 17:00.

What you see inside the walls

INAH describes Tulum as the largest and most important town of Ecab, the Maya province that controlled most of the north-east of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Late Postclassic period, roughly 1400 to 1550 AD. It was a trading port. Some buildings worked as markers for boats finding the gaps in the reef.

Sixteenth-century sources call it Zamá, which in Maya may mean “morning” or “dawn”. Tulum, the later name, means “wall”, after the defences that still enclose the area open to visitors. Juan Díaz, chronicler of Juan de Grijalva’s 1518 expedition, wrote of a large city with a tall tower. That tower is the building now called El Castillo.

What INAH’s site guide highlights:

• The wall: about 380 m long, 4 to 8 m high and 3 to 5.5 m thick, with four gateways and two watch points at the north-west and south-west corners.
• El Castillo: on a natural rise at the eastern edge, the tallest building at Tulum and on almost the whole east coast.
• Temple of the Descending God: a one-room temple with a winged figure diving head first in a niche over the door. INAH says it may represent Venus.
• Temple of the Frescoes: murals inside, and red human handprints on the outer wall.
• Temple of the Wind: a round platform linked to Kukulcán as god of wind, with six miniature temples in front, possibly for offerings.

The American archaeologist Sylvanus Morley began research here in 1916, and the site opened to the public in 1939. INAH says Tulum receives more than 3,000 visitors a day.

INAH notes that buildings in this East Coast style are small, some of them miniature. The draw is the setting: grey stone on a cliff with turquoise water below. For the bigger pyramid-and-jungle sites, see the Cobá ruins and Chichén Itzá from Tulum.

The Tulum ruins beach

INAH’s guide notes that the city was built right on the coast with access to the beach. Four beaches lie below the cliffs inside Parque del Jaguar: Playa Santa Fe, Playa Pescadores, Playa Maya and Playa del Mangle.

Access to them has been contested since the park opened. Quintana Roo’s governor declared them free every day of the year in November 2025, but residents blocked Highway 307 in May 2026 to protest that the promise was not being kept. Beach entry itself costs nothing. Getting there by car is the problem, as above. The Tulum beaches guide covers each beach and the free access points further south.

Pairing the ruins with a cenote

The ruins take a morning. The closest cenotes are on the Cobá road west of town: Cenote Calavera is about 3.3 km from the centre and Gran Cenote about 5 km. Cenote Cristal and Escondido sit about 4.8 km south-west on Highway 307. Our cenote entrance fees page lists what each one charges.

Two of the tours below combine the ruins with cenote swims:

• Tulum Ruins and 2 Cenotes Half-Day Tour: the most reviewed (4.4 from 1,186), with swims at Cenote Mariposa and Chen-Ha. About USD 40 in fees is paid in cash on the day.
• Ruins, 2 Secret Cenotes and Mexican Lunch: a ten-person day from Playa del Carmen with 105 minutes at the ruins and two hours at jungle cenotes.

There is also a two-hour boat snorkel on the reef that passes the ruins from the water. The tours page lists every Tulum ruins and cenote tour we checked.

Tips for visiting

• Bring a hat and water for the walk between the park entrance and the ruins.
• Take swimwear if you plan to use the beaches below the cliffs.
• Mexican citizens and foreign residents of Mexico can save the fee by going on Sunday. Foreign tourists pay the same every day.

For where the ruins fit into a longer stay, see things to do in Tulum and our list of cenotes near Tulum.