Campeche is a Gulf-coast state on the western side of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, best known for its walled capital, San Francisco de Campeche, a UNESCO World Heritage city of pastel facades, baroque churches, and Spanish colonial ramparts built to repel Caribbean pirates. Inland, the state holds two-thirds of the Yucatan Peninsula's tropical forest and the vast Maya metropolis of Calakmul, hidden inside a biosphere reserve on the Guatemalan border. Campeche receives a fraction of the visitors that reach Cancun or Merida, which is precisely its appeal.
Campeche's history runs from the Snake Kingdom of Calakmul, the Maya superpower that fought Tikal for control of the lowlands, to the walled Spanish port that pirates spent two centuries trying to sack. The Spanish landed on this coast first, at Champoton in 1517, where Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba was routed in the encounter that gave the Bahia de la Mala Pelea its name, and San Francisco de Campeche was founded in 1540 as the only deep-water port serving the whole Yucatan peninsula. Wealth from logwood dye, salt and hardwood drew English, Dutch and French raiders, and after repeated sackings the crown enclosed the town in a hexagonal baroque wall with eight bastions, two gates and two hilltop forts, finished between 1686 and 1801. That circuit survives almost complete and earned Campeche its UNESCO World Heritage inscription in 1999, while Calakmul was inscribed in 2002 and extended in 2014 as Mexico's only mixed cultural and natural World Heritage property. Campeche separated from Yucatan to become a state in its own right in 1863, and the discovery of offshore oil in the Sonda de Campeche in the 1970s reshaped its economy once again.
Historical timeline
Key moments that shaped Campeche.
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1
First Settlement at Calakmul
Farming communities establish themselves at Calakmul in the Peten forest, beginning an occupation that will last more than 1,500 years
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2
Founding of Edzna
Edzna is settled on the western Chenes plain and begins cutting the canal and reservoir system that will allow a city to grow where there are no rivers
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3
Calakmul Defeats Tikal
The Kaan or Snake Kingdom of Calakmul defeats its rival Tikal, opening more than a century of dominance over the central Maya lowlands
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4
Defeat of Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk'
Tikal defeats the Calakmul ruler Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk', breaking the Snake Kingdom's hegemony and beginning its long decline
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5
Collapse of the Southern Cities
Calakmul, Becan and the Rio Bec cities are progressively abandoned as the Classic Maya political system collapses across the southern lowlands
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6
Battle of Champoton
Maya forces under Moch Couoh rout the expedition of Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba at Champoton, giving the bay the name Bahia de la Mala Pelea
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7
Cortes at Itzamkanac
Hernan Cortes passes through the Chontal Maya capital of Itzamkanac, identified with El Tigre, where colonial accounts record the execution of the last Mexica ruler Cuauhtemoc
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8
Foundation of San Francisco de Campeche
Francisco de Montejo the Younger founds the Spanish town over the Maya settlement of Ah Kin Pech, creating the principal port of the Yucatan peninsula
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9
Pirate Sack of Campeche
A combined force of buccaneers storms and plunders the town, the worst of a long series of raids and the decisive argument for building a wall
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10
Construction of the City Wall Begins
Work starts on the hexagonal baroque enceinte with eight bastions, designed by military engineers to enclose the entire town
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11
Wall Circuit Completed
The Baluarte de Santiago closes the circuit, giving Campeche the most complete fortified perimeter of any port on the American mainland
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12
Fuerte de San Miguel Finished
The last of the outlying hilltop forts is completed, extending the defences beyond the walls; its guns are never fired in anger
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13
Independence from Spain
Campeche joins independent Mexico as part of the Yucatan, and the fortifications lose their military purpose
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14
Campeche Declares Autonomy
After long rivalry with Merida over trade and taxation, Campeche breaks from Yucatan and asserts its own government
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15
Statehood
Campeche is formally constituted as a separate state of the Mexican republic under President Benito Juarez
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16
Demolition of the Sea Gate
The Puerta de Mar and long stretches of the wall are pulled down to open the growing port, a loss reversed only when the gate is rebuilt in 1957
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17
Offshore Oil Boom
Production begins in the Sonda de Campeche, transforming Ciudad del Carmen and reorienting the state economy toward petroleum
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18
UNESCO Inscribes the Fortified Town
The Historic Fortified Town of Campeche is added to the World Heritage List as the best-preserved example of a fortified Spanish colonial port on the American mainland
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19
Calakmul Inscribed by UNESCO
The Ancient Maya City of Calakmul joins the World Heritage List, extended in 2014 to include the surrounding tropical forest as a mixed cultural and natural property
Historical eras
The chapters of Campeche's past.
Preclassic and Classic Maya
Campeche held some of the largest Maya cities in Mesoamerica. Calakmul, seat of the Kaan or Snake Kingdom, contested supremacy with Tikal across the Classic period and left more than 120 carved stelae and royal tombs containing jade funerary masks. To the north, Edzna engineered 25 km of canals and reservoirs to survive on a plain with no rivers, while the Rio Bec and Chenes regions produced the most theatrical architecture in the Maya world, with towers built purely for display and building fronts modelled as the open jaws of the earth monster.
Contact and Spanish Conquest
The first Spanish landfall on the Mexican mainland reached this coast, and the first serious defeat was suffered here when Moch Couoh's Maya routed Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba at Champoton in 1517. Cortes crossed the Chontal Maya province of Acalan in 1525, and Francisco de Montejo the Younger founded San Francisco de Campeche in 1540 over the Maya settlement of Ah Kin Pech. Franciscan friars followed, building the convent of San Francisco and the fortified churches of the Camino Real corridor.
Pirates and the Fortified Port
As the only deep-water port of the peninsula, Campeche shipped logwood dye, salt and hardwood to Spain and became a magnet for English, Dutch and French raiders, among them Diego el Mulato and Laurens de Graaf. After the devastating sack of 1663 the crown commissioned a hexagonal wall with eight bastions and two gates, built between 1686 and 1704, and completed the system with the hilltop forts of San Jose el Alto in 1792 and San Miguel in 1801. The defences worked so well that the later forts never fired a shot in anger.
Independence, Statehood and the Hardwood Boom
Independence stripped the fortifications of purpose and long rivalry with Merida over trade and taxation led Campeche to break away in 1857, becoming a separate state in 1863. Logwood dye and mahogany floated down the rivers of the southwest built the fortunes of Palizada and Ciudad del Carmen, and ships returning from Europe carried Marseille roof tiles as ballast that still cover Palizada's houses. In 1893 the Sea Gate and long stretches of wall were demolished to open the port to modern shipping.
Modern Campeche
The 20th century brought archaeological rediscovery and reconstruction: the Baluarte de Santiago was rebuilt in the 1950s, the Puerta de Mar in 1957, and INAH excavation opened Edzna, Becan and finally Calakmul to visitors. Oil production in the Sonda de Campeche from 1976 transformed Ciudad del Carmen and the state economy. Restoration of the walled city culminated in the UNESCO inscription of 1999, followed by Calakmul in 2002 and its extension as a mixed property in 2014.
Historical sites
Places where Campeche's past comes alive.
Historic Fortified Town of Campeche (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Founded in 1540 by Francisco de Montejo the Younger over the Maya settlement of Ah Kin Pech, Campeche became the only fortified port town on the American mainland to survive largely intact. UNESCO inscribed it in 1999 for its hexagonal baroque wall circuit, eight bastions, two gates and two outlying hilltop forts, together with a grid of pastel houses that preserves the layout of a 17th-century Spanish colonial port.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free to walk the streets; individual bastions and museums MXN 20-80 (~USD 1-5)
Puerta de Tierra
The Land Gate of 1732 was the only overland entrance to the walled city and controlled all traffic from the interior. It survives with its guardrooms, portcullis grooves and the longest continuous stretch of rampart in the city, about 200 m of paso de ronda linking the Baluarte de San Juan to the Baluarte de San Francisco, and hosts the evening light-and-sound show El Lugar del Sol.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Rampart walk MXN 20 (~USD 1); El Lugar del Sol light-and-sound show approx MXN 60 (~USD 3.50)
Puerta de Mar
The Sea Gate faced the harbour and was the point at which all cargo and passengers entered the walled city under the eye of the customs house. Demolished in 1893 when the wall was opened up for the growing port, it was rebuilt in 1957 on its original footprint and now marks the western end of pedestrian Calle 59 beside the Baluarte de la Soledad.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free
Baluarte de San Carlos
The first bastion of the defensive circuit to be built, San Carlos anchors the southwestern angle of the wall where it met the sea. It is the only bastion with a vaulted underground chamber, part of the tunnel system that allowed the garrison and residents to move and shelter during pirate assaults, and today houses the Museo de la Ciudad beneath a rooftop gun terrace.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: MXN 20 (~USD 1)
Baluarte de la Soledad
The largest bastion in the circuit protected the Puerta de Mar and the landing stage in front of it, and its thick casemates carried the heaviest guns facing the anchorage. It lost its side walls when the ramparts were dismantled in the 19th century but keeps its full seaward face, and now holds the Museo de Arquitectura Maya under a roof terrace overlooking the main square.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Baluarte de Santiago
Santiago was the last of the eight bastions to be finished, closing the wall circuit in 1704 at its northern angle. It was demolished in the early 20th century and rebuilt faithfully in the 1950s, and its courtyard now holds the Xmuch'haltun botanical garden, whose Maya name means water that springs from the earth and which shelters around 250 identified plant species.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: MXN 20 (~USD 1)
Baluarte de San Pedro
San Pedro guards the northeastern angle of the wall and is distinguished by the crenellated stone crown added above its parapet in the 18th century, a decorative flourish unique among the bastions. It served for a period as the headquarters of the Inquisition tribunal in Campeche and now hosts a craft shop and exhibition space run by the state.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free
Baluarte de San Juan
San Juan sits at the southern end of the surviving rampart and is joined to the Puerta de Tierra by the walkable paso de ronda, making it the best place to understand how the curtain wall, gun platforms and gate worked as one system. Its position overlooks the Barrio de San Roman and the old approach road from Champoton.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Included with the Puerta de Tierra rampart walk, MXN 20 (~USD 1)
Baluarte de San Francisco
San Francisco closes the northern end of the preserved rampart beside the Puerta de Tierra and carries a gun platform reached from the wall walk. It is the assembly point for the El Lugar del Sol light-and-sound show, and its terrace gives the clearest view along the top of the surviving wall toward the Baluarte de San Juan.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Included with the Puerta de Tierra rampart walk, MXN 20 (~USD 1)
Fuerte de San Miguel
Built on a hill 3 km southwest of the walled city and completed in 1801, San Miguel is the most complete Spanish fort in the region, with a dry moat, working drawbridge, glacis and its original cannon still mounted on the gun platforms. Its guns were never fired in anger, and the fort later served as a prison and a military school before becoming the Museo de Arqueologia Maya.
Where: Cerro de Buenavista, San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); video permit MXN 63 (~USD 4); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Fuerte de San Jose el Alto
Finished in 1792 as the northern counterpart to San Miguel, this compact hilltop fort watched the coastal approach from Merida and completed the outer ring of the city's defences. Its dry moat, drawbridge, chapel and gun platforms survive intact, and it now holds the Museo de Arqueologia Subacuatica with material recovered from wrecks on the Campeche Bank.
Where: Cerro de Bellavista, San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); video permit MXN 63 (~USD 4); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion
Begun in 1540 on the spot where the first Mass in the settlement was said, the parish church of Campeche took more than two centuries to complete and was raised to cathedral rank in 1895. Its pale limestone facade is flanked by the twin towers known locally as La Espanola and La Campechana, and the white vaulted interior holds the Santo Entierro, a silver-mounted 18th-century sepulchre carried in procession each Good Friday.
Where: Plaza de la Independencia, San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free
Ex Templo de San Jose
The former Jesuit church of San Jose carries the most exuberant facade in Campeche, a wall of blue and yellow glazed tile framed by twin towers of unequal height. One of those towers was fitted in 1864 with the first lighthouse on the Campeche coast. Since the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 the building has served in turn as a school, a warehouse and, today, a cultural centre of the Universidad Autonoma de Campeche.
Where: San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free; charges apply for some ticketed events
Iglesia de San Roman and the Black Christ
The church of the indigenous quarter of San Roman was completed in 1565 and holds the Cristo Negro, a black ebony crucifix brought from Italy in 1575 and credited with saving the neighbourhood from epidemic. It remains the most venerated image in the state and is carried through the barrio on 14 September, when the San Roman fiesta fills the surrounding streets.
Where: Barrio de San Roman, San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free
Ex Convento de San Francisco de Asis
The Franciscan convent of San Francisco, begun in 1546, stands in the barrio just north of the walls and is the oldest surviving religious complex in Campeche. Local tradition holds that the first Mass on mainland Mexican soil was celebrated on this ground in 1517, and that a grandson of Hernan Cortes was baptised at its font. The cloister and single-nave church are still in use.
Where: Barrio de San Francisco, San Francisco de Campeche
Admission: Free
Edzna Archaeological Zone
Occupied from about 400 BC and at its height between 600 and 900 AD, Edzna controlled the western Chenes plain through one of the largest hydraulic systems in the Maya world, some 25 km of canals, reservoirs and moats cut to trap seasonal floodwater. Its five-storey Edificio de los Cinco Pisos combines pyramid and palace in a single structure, and the Templo de los Mascarones preserves stucco masks of the sun god.
Where: San Francisco Edzna, Campeche Municipality
Admission: MXN 105 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 210 for foreign visitors (~USD 6 / ~USD 12); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Calakmul Archaeological Zone
Calakmul was the seat of the Kaan or Snake Kingdom, the superpower that fought Tikal for supremacy over the Maya lowlands through the Classic period, and its rulers controlled a network of vassal cities across the Peten. More than 120 carved stelae, royal tombs containing jade funerary masks and the vast Structure II survive across the site, which UNESCO inscribed in 2002 and extended in 2014 as Mexico's only mixed World Heritage property.
Where: Calakmul Municipality
Admission: INAH ticket MXN 105 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 210 for foreign visitors (~USD 6 / ~USD 12), plus ejido and CONANP fees for a realistic total near MXN 305 (~USD 18) or MXN 515 (~USD 30)
Becan Archaeological Zone
Becan served as the regional capital of the Rio Bec area and is the only Maya city there defended by a moat, a dry ditch about 2 km in circumference and up to 5 m deep cut around the civic core and crossed by seven causeways. Its Structures VIII, IX and X display the solid towers and false stairways that define the Rio Bec style, built for display rather than use.
Where: Becan, Calakmul Municipality
Admission: MXN 85 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 155 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9)
Hochob Archaeological Zone
Hochob is the defining monument of the Chenes architectural style, in which an entire building facade is modelled as the mask of the earth monster and the doorway forms its open mouth. The Principal Palace, Structure II, preserves that composition almost complete, with eyes, teeth and scrolled nose still crisply carved, and served as the model for reconstructions of Chenes architecture in museums worldwide.
Where: Chencoh, Hopelchen Municipality
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9)
Santa Rosa Xtampak Archaeological Zone
Xtampak was the dominant city of the Chenes region, with more than a hundred recorded structures spread across a hilltop. Its three-storey Palacio is entered by an interior spiral staircase, an engineering solution almost unknown elsewhere in the Maya area, and the surrounding plazas are honeycombed with chultunes, bottle-shaped cisterns cut into bedrock to store the rainwater on which the city depended.
Where: Hopelchen Municipality
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9)
El Tigre (Itzamkanac) Archaeological Zone
Set on a levee above the Candelaria River, El Tigre is widely identified with Itzamkanac, capital of the Chontal Maya province of Acalan and a river trading power linking the Gulf coast to the Peten. Colonial accounts place the execution of the last Mexica ruler Cuauhtemoc here in 1525 during Hernan Cortes's march to Honduras, and the site includes a small museum interpreting that encounter.
Where: Candelaria Municipality
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9)
Fuerte de San Antonio and the Bahia de la Mala Pelea
Champoton bay carries the name Bahia de la Mala Pelea, the Bay of the Bad Fight, after the defeat inflicted on the expedition of Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba by Maya forces under Moch Couoh in 1517, the first serious reverse suffered by the Spanish on the American mainland. The ruined 18th-century Fuerte de San Antonio above the river mouth was raised much later to keep pirates out of the estuary.
Where: Champoton
Admission: Free
Historic Centre of Palizada
Palizada grew rich in the 19th century on logwood dye and mahogany floated down the Palizada River to the Laguna de Terminos and shipped to Europe. Returning vessels carried red roof tiles from Marseille as ballast, and those tiles still cover the low houses of the historic centre, an architectural signature unique in Mexico that earned the town Pueblo Magico status in 2010.
Where: Palizada
Admission: Free
Museums
Curated collections that tell Campeche's story.
Museo de Arqueologia Maya, Fuerte de San Miguel
The state's flagship archaeology collection occupies the casemates of the 1801 Fuerte de San Miguel and traces Maya civilisation in Campeche from the Preclassic to the Spanish conquest. Its centrepieces are the jade mosaic funerary masks recovered from royal tombs at Calakmul and the modelled ceramic figurines from the island necropolis of Jaina, alongside stelae, stucco masks and burial goods from Edzna and the Rio Bec cities.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:00AM-5:00PM; closed Monday
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); video permit MXN 63 (~USD 4); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Museo de Arquitectura Maya, Baluarte de la Soledad
Housed in the largest bastion of the city wall, this museum is devoted to how the Maya built rather than what they buried. Five galleries set out the regional architectural styles of the Yucatan peninsula, Peten, Rio Bec, Chenes, Puuc and Costa Oriental, using carved lintels, column drums, roof-comb fragments and a fine collection of stelae drawn from sites across Campeche.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:00AM-5:00PM; closed Monday
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); video permit MXN 63 (~USD 4); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Museo de Arqueologia Subacuatica, Fuerte de San Jose el Alto
The only underwater archaeology museum in the region displays cannon, anchors, astrolabes, ceramics and coin from wrecks on the Campeche Bank, the shallow shelf that claimed many ships of the Spanish treasure fleets. Galleries in the 1792 fort explain salvage techniques, colonial shipping routes and the pirate raids that made Campeche fortify itself, ending on gun platforms above the coast.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:00AM-5:00PM; closed Monday
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); video permit MXN 63 (~USD 4); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Museo Arqueologico del Camino Real, Hecelchakan
Set in a colonial building on the arcaded plaza of Hecelchakan, this INAH museum holds the finest public collection of figurines from Jaina, the island necropolis off the Campeche coast where the Maya elite were buried with modelled clay portraits of warriors, weavers, ballplayers and dignitaries. Further rooms cover the archaeology of the Camino Real corridor between Campeche and Merida.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:00AM-5:00PM; closed Monday
Admission: MXN 80 for Mexican nationals and residents / MXN 145 for foreign visitors (~USD 5 / ~USD 9); video permit MXN 63 (~USD 4); free for Mexicans and residents on Sundays
Museo de la Ciudad, Baluarte de San Carlos
The city museum occupies the oldest bastion in the wall circuit and explains how Campeche came to be fortified. A large scale model reconstructs the complete 17th-century enceinte with all eight bastions and both gates, supported by weapons, ship models, maps, colonial documents and displays on the pirate raids of Diego el Mulato and Laurens de Graaf; the vaulted underground chamber below is part of the original tunnel network.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 8:00AM-8:00PM; closed Monday
Admission: MXN 20 (~USD 1)
Casa Seis Centro Cultural
A 17th-century mansion on the main square restored and furnished to show how a prosperous Campechano family lived in the late 19th century, with Cuban floor tiles, period furniture, a colonnaded patio and a Moorish-arched facade. Rooms are presented as parlour, bedroom and dining room, and the building also serves as the city cultural centre, tourist information point and a venue for rotating exhibitions.
Hours: Daily 9:00AM-9:00PM
Admission: Free; voluntary donation appreciated
Historical tours
Guided experiences that bring history to life.
Walking tours
Guided walking circuits of the walled city depart from Casa Seis on the Plaza de la Independencia and from the state tourism module beside the cathedral, typically covering Calle 59, the cathedral, the Ex Templo de San Jose and two bastions in about two hours for around MXN 200-350 per person (~USD 12-21). The open-sided Tranvia de la Ciudad trams leave from the same square on a fixed loop of the historic centre for about MXN 150 (~USD 9), with a separate route climbing to the Fuerte de San Miguel.
Day tours
Full-day trips from Campeche city to Edzna run about MXN 900-1,400 per person (~USD 53-82) including transport and the INAH ticket. Calakmul day trips from Xpujil, which take twelve hours or more with the 120 km round trip on the access road, cost roughly MXN 2,000-3,000 per person (~USD 118-176) including all three entry fees. Chenes route trips taking in Hochob and Santa Rosa Xtampak, and Rio Bec circuits combining Becan, Chicanna and Xpuhil, are priced similarly.
Private tours
Licensed private guides accredited by the Secretaria de Turismo del Estado de Campeche charge from about MXN 1,200 for a half day in the walled city (~USD 71) and from MXN 2,500 for a full day at Edzna or the Rio Bec sites (~USD 147), with English-speaking guides at the higher end. Community cooperatives at Isla Arena, Isla Aguada and Miguel Colorado supply their own boatmen and monitors as part of the trip price.