The tallest pyramid on the peninsula reopened its steps
For five years, climbing Nohoch Mul was off limits. Cobá's great pyramid — 42 metres, the tallest in the Yucatán peninsula — closed to climbers in 2020, and most visitors assumed that was permanent.
In late 2025 that changed. INAH installed a wooden stairway over the original stone and reopened the climb. The structure protects the ancient steps, worn down by decades of rubber soles, and lets people go up again without damaging the monument.
Right now this is the single best reason to put Cobá on your itinerary, and it is worth explaining why.
Why this matters more than it sounds
At Chichén Itzá you cannot climb El Castillo, and you have not been able to for years. The same is true at most Maya sites open to the public: you walk around them, you admire them from below.
Cobá is the exception. You climb, and from the top you see jungle to the horizon in every direction, the Cobá lagoons below, and not a single modern building in sight. It is the only way to grasp the real scale of a Maya city swallowed by forest.
If your trip includes one archaeological site besides Chichén Itzá, this is the argument for making it Cobá.
What we can tell you, and what you should confirm
The climb is open. That part is solid. The operational detail — how many people go up per group, when the stairway closes, what footwear they require — is handled on site and can change without notice, exactly as the 2020 closure did.
So we publish no capacity figures or exact times here: any number you read in a blog post may be stale by the time you arrive. We run this route every week. Ask us and we will tell you how the site is operating today.
What always applies: the climb is suspended in rain or strong wind, and it is not advisable if you have vertigo, heart trouble or bad knees. These are 42 metres of steep steps, not a building staircase.
What Cobá is actually like
Cobá is nothing like Chichén Itzá. There is no central plaza with everything in view: it is a dispersed city inside the jungle, its structures separated by kilometres of path.
So you cover it three ways: on foot, by rented bicycle, or in a pedicab with a driver. Bikes are rented at the entrance; the pedicab is the comfortable option with kids, with older travellers, or if you would rather not arrive at the pyramid drenched in sweat.
The other thing that sets Cobá apart are the sacbés, raised white limestone causeways that linked the city to other settlements. The longest one known in the Maya world starts here and runs over 100 kilometres. You walk along them without realising you are on a thousand-year-old road.
What to bring
Cobá is rarely visited on its own
It sits about 45 minutes inland from Tulum, so the natural pairing is Cobá in the morning, Tulum after: jungle and pyramid first, while the heat is still manageable, then the clifftop ruins over the sea.
Cancun Bay runs that route year-round, plus the extended version adding a cenote and Playa del Carmen in the same day, with coordinated pickups from hotels in Cancún and the Riviera Maya.
If you want help structuring your day — and a current answer on how the Nohoch Mul climb is operating this week — message us on WhatsApp through our contact page.
