Central America guarantees beautiful beaches, impressive nature, beautiful hiking trails, bounty islands, overwhelming cities and picturesque villages, numerous sights, and an intriguing culture. Besides the Aztecs and Incas, the Maya culture is one of the most fascinating civilizations of this region. In Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador in particular and a few regions in Mexico, including Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Chiapas, you can still see an incredible number of monuments, temples and pyramids from the Maya era. Whether touring in your own rental car or traveling in a group, the options to visit multiple Mayan sites are plentiful and will be one of the highlights of your vacation.
Guatemala
One of the most impressive Maya complexes – more than 3000 monuments – can be found in Tikal, in the department of El Peten in northern Guatemala. Tikal was the largest and one of the most important Mayan cities with some temples dating back to the 4th century B.C. Tikal is of course a must-see attraction but there are other Mayan complexes that are also worth a visit, including Uaxactun, Yaxha-Nahum- Naranjo in the Peten region, Iximche in Chimaltenango, Quirigua, Tak´alik AbÁj and Zaculeu in Huehuetenango. La Danta is the name of the highest pyramid (70 meters) in the El Mirador complex.
Honduras
What Tikal is to Guatemala, Copan is to Honduras. This temple complex near the city of Copan Ruinas on the border with Guatemala. The Ruta Maya runs past these ruins, which were recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1980. Impressive is the 'Escalinata de los jeroglificos' - the hieroglyphic staircase with more than 2000 hieroglyphs.
Belize
When it comes to the amount and variety of Mayan ruins, Belize comes first and can be seen as the epicenter of the Mayan culture. Among the gems are Xunantunich, Caracol, Lamanai, Cahel Pech, Altun Ha and Lubaantun. Caracol in the Cayo district was the largest Mayan city in Belize and one of the highlights there is Cana, a 42-meter high pyramid.
El Salvador
An advantage of a tour of Mayan sites in El Salvador is that they are all fairly close to each other in this relatively small country. Joya de Cerén – nicknamed 'the Pompeii of America' – was also buried under volcanic ash gives a wonderful impression of life in a farming village at the time of the Maya while Tazumal, 60km west of the capital San Salvador in Chalchuapa, is widely regarded as the finest ruins in El Salvador. The third site of interest is San Andres in the Zapotitán valley. These ruins were also partly covered by a volcanic eruption in 1658, but after excavations a lot has been uncovered, including the Acrópolis complex with pyramids and houses.
