I visited this WHS in Spring 2024 as a day trip from Antigua Guatemala. The day before my visit I was lucky to spot some original stone sculptures on display at the second floor of the National Museum of Guatemalan Art or MUNAG in Antigua Guatemala. It is best to leave very early as the mostly one lane roads to Tak'alik Ab'aj can see quite a lot of heavy traffic, mostly due to the banana plantation trucks and workers. Make sure not to visit on Mondays as otherwise the excellent Museo Caracol del Tiempo with most original stelae and sculptures will be closed. Spanish-speaking guides offer their services for a tip both at the museum and at the archaeological park.

The site is located over a series of 5 ascending terraces. You will enter at terrace 3 and if you take a photo of the numbered map with all the different sites to see, a solo unguided visit of all the sites under your own steam is easy to do. This pre-Columbian WHS has a very nice setting in the Guatemalan jungle (decent birdwatching too) and it is still being actively excavated, so you will see a lot of digs and cleaning going on during your visit. Tak'alik Abaj is still a religious center for the local Mayans. Visiting quite early just after sunrise, I was lucky to experience a few Shamans making offerings on the ancient altars around the site. The site was an important trade town from 800 BC to 900 AD and has been influenced mostly by the Olmecs and Mayans. There's also a small zoo in the center of the park. Several stelae, altars and stone sculptures (crocodiles, frogs, etc.) are replicas and the originals can be appreciated in the Museo Caracol del Tiempo which truly complements the visit to the site. The UNESCO WHS jade on wood plaque is currently inside the archaeological park although sometimes it is taken to the museum.