Costa Maya, Bacalar & Chetumal
Chetumal Museum of Maya Culture & Bacalar's San Felipe fort
Maya cosmology in Chetumal's Museum of Maya Culture, then the 18th-century fort built to guard Bacalar from pirates.
Chetumal's Museum of Maya Culture, opened in 1994, is built around a sacred ceiba tree, with a jungle rising diagonally through its three levels. Its eight permanent galleries run from settlement and daily life to architecture, cosmology, astronomy and mathematics, and on to the Spanish conquest.
In Bacalar, the Fort of San Felipe was built between 1725 and 1733 because pirates kept raiding the town. One of its bastions houses a museum with Maya pieces, colonial weapons and objects, historical maps and a mural of the region's history.
Pickup at your hotel in Chetumal or Bacalar.
Photos: holachetumal, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Philipp Ramseier, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Duration
- About 5 hours
- Guide language
- English · Spanish
- Pickup
- At your hotel in Costa Maya, Bacalar & Chetumal (other areas on request)
What's included
- Private transport with hotel pickup
- Guide
Not included
- Entrance fees, meals, equipment and boat: to be confirmed when we reply to your request
Sample itinerary
- 1Pickup at your hotel
- 2Museum of Maya Culture, Chetumal
- 3Drive to Bacalar
- 4Fort of San Felipe and its museum
- 5Return to your hotel
Good to know
Which days can I go?
According to Mexico's Culture Ministry information system (checked September 2026), both museums are closed on Mondays. The Museum of Maya Culture opens Tuesday to Saturday 09:00–17:00 and Sunday 09:00–16:00; the fort museum opens Tuesday to Sunday 09:00–19:00. We confirm hours when we reply to your request.
Who runs the museums?
Both are run by the Quintana Roo Institute of Culture and the Arts (ICA).
