Copan Ruinas
Copan Ruinas
4.5
About
Copan Ruinas valley of Kings, Sacred Valley of the Red Scarlet Macaw. Copan Ruinas is an ancient city in the Mayan Empire. Located in western Honduras at just under 10 minutes from the border with Guatemala el Florido. More than 138,000 visitors came here in 2017, the lowest in years but with a slight increase in traffic in comparison to 2015. Many agree the bad condition of the road plays an important role to this lack of traffic. Hopefully in 2018 will be better.
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2-3 hours
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  • Sandra Artist
    London, United Kingdom251 contributions
    Magical Mayan ruins like nowhere else
    If you love the Mayan culture, Copán is on your list! It's easily reached from Guatemala with a private car and accomodation is very reasonable in this safe, lovely little town. Get to the archeological site early ,it opens at 8 am and gets quite hot after 10 am. You can stroll on foot, for about one kilometre, see birds and lovely trees on the way,or take a tuktuk. Take water and wear sun protection. The site is huge, take your time to hire a local, knowledgeable guide: today we had the pleasure to have Gladys! Her English was perfect for my husband who doesn't speak Spanish, she has deep professional knowledge of the stelas and pyramids, digging in progress and symbols of this wonderful ancient culture. Take time to savour the views,climb pyramids and understand the Mayan culture. This is a gem! In the middle of a beautiful National park. You will see macaws close, agouti and beautiful wild birds too.
    Visited January 2023
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 25 January 2023
  • PhaseIII
    27 contributions
    Great churros!
    This is our 3rd visit to Copan Ruinas. Si many good places to eat. We discovered Don Churros. Great churros and iced coffee. Give it a try. Located not far from the square.
    Visited February 2023
    Travelled with friends
    Written 4 February 2023
  • Robbert L
    Amsterdam, The Netherlands1,647 contributions
    A marrvellous day
    We ve been in Tikal and various Mayan sites in Mexico. Great Mayan site in Copan. We were there at 800 when the doors opened so we had the first half hour the whole site for ourselves. After that some groups came in but still a low amount of visitors which adds to the peaceful experience. Beautiful ruins. Marvellous day. With rhe same ticket we also visited Las Sepulturas (less beautiful, approximately a 10 to 15 minute walk). The birds (woodpeckers, aracari s, etc) and the many gorgeous red blue yellow ara s added to the experience. A great day. We went in 8.00, we left around 14.30.
    Visited August 2023
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 14 August 2023
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews order informed by descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as cleanliness, atmosphere, general tips and location information.
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Traveller162014
Leeds, UK973 contributions
Aug 2023 • Friends
These ruins have lots of detail. It is really interesting looking at the sort of art they used to produce. There were also lots of animals here, including lots of macaws!
Written 23 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Robbert L
Amsterdam, The Netherlands1,647 contributions
Aug 2023 • Couples
We ve been in Tikal and various Mayan sites in Mexico. Great Mayan site in Copan. We were there at 800 when the doors opened so we had the first half hour the whole site for ourselves. After that some groups came in but still a low amount of visitors which adds to the peaceful experience. Beautiful ruins. Marvellous day. With rhe same ticket we also visited Las Sepulturas (less beautiful, approximately a 10 to 15 minute walk). The birds (woodpeckers, aracari s, etc) and the many gorgeous red blue yellow ara s added to the experience. A great day. We went in 8.00, we left around 14.30.
Written 14 August 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

WHWhite
Portsmouth, UK74 contributions
Apr 2023
Visited Copan from San Salvador on a day tour. Used Salvadorean Tours. This involved a total of 9hrs round trip driving. 4.30am start. Spent 9.15-12 noon at Copan ruins looking around the archaeological site and the associated museum. The monumental architecture is less spectacular than at some other Mayan sites (such as Tikal) but still pretty impressive, but the sculpture and stone carving is more elaborate. Having a guide at the archaeological site is definitely worthwhile to explain the symbolism and meaning of the animals and human figures represented, and to help fully understand the nature of the site. Full marks to 'Gladys' here! The town of Copan Ruinas is also worth a quick look around too. I ate my lunch sitting in the town square, closely eyed by some of the local dogs.

Doing this site as a day trip from San Salvador makes for a long day with a lot of driving and multiple border crossings. But for me it was well worth it in order to visit one of the world's great archaeological sites. Salvadorean Tours were excellent in all respects.
Written 29 April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jackie M
3 contributions
Mar 2023 • Couples
Loved our 4 days in copan. The Mayan ruins , macaw mountain reserve, canopy zip line ( amazing .. a must do even though I could find few reviews about the copan ruinas one on tripadviser) , hot springs , friendly people. Amazing coffee and cake cafes.
Written 2 March 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Sylk1111
Chicago, IL131 contributions
Feb 2023 • Couples
We drove across the country of Honduras to get to Copan. It was so worth it. Virgilio, our tour guide was so extensively knowledgeable on the Mayan history. He explained every little detail. It was a wonderful experience.
Written 19 February 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

PhaseIII
Pacific Nw27 contributions
Feb 2023 • Friends
This is our 3rd visit to Copan Ruinas. Si many good places to eat. We discovered Don Churros. Great churros and iced coffee. Give it a try. Located not far from the square.
Written 4 February 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Sandra Artist
London, UK251 contributions
Jan 2023 • Couples
If you love the Mayan culture, Copán is on your list! It's easily reached from Guatemala with a private car and accomodation is very reasonable in this safe, lovely little town.
Get to the archeological site early ,it opens at 8 am and gets quite hot after 10 am.
You can stroll on foot, for about one kilometre, see birds and lovely trees on the way,or take a tuktuk. Take water and wear sun protection.
The site is huge, take your time to hire a local, knowledgeable guide: today we had the pleasure to have Gladys! Her English was perfect for my husband who doesn't speak Spanish, she has deep professional knowledge of the stelas and pyramids, digging in progress and symbols of this wonderful ancient culture.
Take time to savour the views,climb pyramids and understand the Mayan culture.
This is a gem! In the middle of a beautiful National park. You will see macaws close, agouti and beautiful wild birds too.
Written 25 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jeff K
Pittsburgh, PA1,897 contributions
Jan 2023 • Couples
We toured the Copan ruins and museum with Yobani Peraza. We had a great time a learned a lot. Yobani is an excellent tour guide and is also a great birder. He pointed out a number of bird species as we toured. It was like getting two tours in one.

I highly recommend touring the ruins and museum with Yobani.
Written 21 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Chan Roberts
Copan Ruinas, Honduras716 contributions
Dec 2022
It was great to be able to take this stroll through ancient Mayan history. Seeing the steles (there are many of them here, as well as one on a trail a short walk down and across the highway from the site), Mayan "pyramids", the Mayan ball court (which seems narrower than I imagined), the stairway of hieroglyphs, various temples and altars, and a residential area, was a remarkable experience. While I was there, I got to see some guys doing restoration work on some of the structures. There's a building a short distance from the entrance where there is an ancient Mayan temple and various statuary inside. There's also a larger souvenir shop and a restaurant on the other side of the site from the entrance.

Outside the site near the entrance, there are people selling small souvenirs such as stone carvings (or less expensive replicas made of cement); and a short distance down and across the highway there's a stone carver I enjoyed meeting (he is not connected with the ruins site). I personally recommend giving them your business.

Too bad TripAdvisor won't let me add photos (they say the photos are too large; this is the freaking 21st century: that issue should have been resolved long ago).
Written 17 December 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Michael W
Redding, CT1,112 contributions
Nov 2022 • Friends
I didn’t know about this site prior to our tour of Central America but it was pretty impressive. It would be very interesting to se it when much more excavation and restoration has been carried out as approx 75% of the ruins are still buried. The carved staircase is a real highlight and we were told is the biggest stone carving in the world.
Written 16 November 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Copan Ruinas

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