Coba Archaeological Site Guide

Use our realist Coba Guide to plan your next trip to this archaeological site. Coba is a Mayan site from AD 600-900 and a popular tourist destination. This site was our second-to-last stop during the Mexican trip.

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Getting to Coba

Coba is a small village with a favorable geographic location in close proximity to tourist clusters in Playa del Carmen, and Cancun. The Coba’s Archeological Site is located just under an hour (50 km or 31 miles) from Tulum, halfway to Valladolid.

Coupled with the only recently revoked permission to climb one of the site’s pyramids, Coba’s location used to make it a magnet to tourists staying at the seaside or arriving on cruise ships. As usual for these attractions, arrive early and try to beat the tourist crowds.

Where to Stay

Coba has very limited accommodation options. We highly recommend considering properties in Valladolid, Tulum, or even further away in Playa del Carmen or Cancun. This way, you would not only broaden a list of available options considerably but will also greatly increase your chances of securing a better deal. If possible, consider visiting Coba Archaeological site after exploring another Mayan site or sight in the area, like Chichen Itza or Tulum.

Entrance Requirements & Passes

Coba’s growing popularity makes trip planning a little difficult. The price paid for the entrance tickets was quite a bit higher than the price we found online (about MXN250 or $12 for two people and parking at the time of writing). Despite the site’s decision to prohibit pyramid climbing, Coba Archaeological Site keeps attracting tourist crowds. Therefore, the entrance fees are likely to continue growing.

Sights & Places of Interest

After we paid an entrance fee and entered the site, we ran into a pyramid right away.

Thompson Temple

This pyramid turned out to be the Thompson Temple. The temple was closed to public and visitors were advised to not approach this structure.

Temples surrounded by the rainforest trees represent the majority of structures in this section of the site.

The jungle hid the structures well. Sometimes we just followed the path until the structure emerged.

Ball Court

As we explored the site further, we walked into the Ball court. This is structure very common at Mayan sites. We also saw versions of the Ball Court in Uxmal and Calakmul.

Like other structures in this section of the site, the Ball court was completely closed to visitors. While we respect the conservation efforts, it seemed as if walking between the individual structures of the Ball Court could have been a low risk activity. Yet, we were left with admiring the Ball Court from a distance.

We finished our exploration of this area with the views of the temple.

Temple of Nohoch Mul

The Temple of Nohoch Mul, Coba’s main structure, is located further into the archaeological site. It takes about 20-30 minutes to reach it on foot from the site’s entrance. There are other options if you feel that walking in Yucatan’s humid conditions would push your physical limits. Thanks to Coba’s popularity, you could rent a bike or hire a bike rickshaw. The bike rickshaws were particularly plentiful during our visit.

The Temple used to be one of the few structures at Mayan archaeological sites in Mexico that was open to public. In fact, visitors were allowed to clim this pyramid shaped temple long after other sites completely prohibited this practice. The pyramid itself is relatively high and steep. When we were climbing it, we were surrounded by a crowd of other tourists.

Beautiful views from the top of the Pyramid were a reward for a fairly unpleasant climb.

Rainforest for as long as one can see. Beyond the endless jungle and nature, there was unfortunately not much to see on the site. Following a careful descend back to the ground, we walked for another 30 minutes to the archaeological site’s exit.

Takeaways: Coba

As demonstrated by our guide, Coba is a crowded and very touristy site. If you cannot make it to Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Edzná, Palenque, or Calakmul, Coba is worth a visit. After the archaeological site prohibited climbing of the Temple of Nonoch Mul for conservation, Coba has no real unique value proposition to the visitors. In our opinion, it would be wise to save time and money and skip this site all together.

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