42.35° N · 3.52° W
How to visit the Atapuerca sites with the official booking, the Museo de la Evolución Humana in Burgos and the CAREX: hours, prices and how to get there.
What to do
Each plan says how long it takes, who it's for and whether you can book.
The Railway Trench with the Gran Dolina, the Sima del Elefante and Galería, on a compulsory guided visit with official booking · 1 h 45 · €8
The original Atapuerca fossils, the Sima de los Huesos and human evolution told over four floors, beside the Arlanzón · 2 h · €6
How fire was made, stone was knapped and hunting was done in Prehistory, at the experimental archaeology centre in the village of Atapuerca · 1 h 30 · €7
Itineraries
Days and weekends already planned out, with how to get between each stop and who to book with.
Plan the trip
Each choice narrows the next: the season shapes how best to travel, and how you travel decides where you stay and where you eat.
When to go
From April to October there are more departures and mild weather in the Trench. In winter it is cold and visits are mornings only; in January there are no visits to the sites.
How you travel
Choose how you're travelling and we'll tell you where to stay, how to get around, where to eat and which services you'll need. We only show the ways of travelling that make sense here.
Atapuerca is best visited by car: the centres are spread across four villages and you cannot drive a private car up to the Trinchera, so you leave it at the CAYAC in Ibeas de Juarros or at the CAREX in Atapuerca, and the guided visit sets off from there. From Burgos, Ibeas is about 14 km along the N-120 towards Logroño; Atapuerca and Olmos are along the N-I towards Vitoria and the BU-701 turn-off. The budget covers shared rural accommodation, two meals and the tickets.
Who you're with
A trip with a toddler is not the same as one with a teenager. Pick yours to see what works and what to bear in mind.
Atapuerca is one of the few World Heritage sites that children understand on their own: real bones in the museum, a trench where you can watch excavation and a centre where fire is lit as it was 400,000 years ago. Under-8s do not pay at any of the three centres.
Where to stay
We show you what suits the way you travel.Change how you travel
Why we like it: Whole-house rural rental in Ibeas de Juarros, 10 km from Burgos and minutes from the sites, with six bedrooms, a pool, a barbecue and a 1,000 m² garden.
Why we like it: Stone farmhouse in the village of Atapuerca itself, refurbished in 2008 and let as a whole: five double rooms, a living room with a fireplace and a grill.
Why we like it: Rooms with breakfast and dinners on request in a stone house in Fresno de Rodilla, a village of 30 residents a few kilometres from Atapuerca.
Services for this trip
Where to eat
From set lunch menus to Michelin stars. We mark the price level and what to order at each place.
What to order: the olla podrida with Ibeas red beans and all the trimmings (€24), to share, and Burgos morcilla to start.
What to order: bravas the Ventana way (€3.50) and a fried Burgos morcilla bocadillo (€6), or a portion of morcilla to share.
What to order: whatever is in season that day; ask which dishes are gluten-free, because a good part are.
Nearby
The closest places, whichever country they are in.
Tips
Without a booking there is no visit to the sites. Call 947 421 000: Monday to Saturday until 17:00, Sunday until 14:00, and in November and December every day until 14:00.
The sites and the museum do not charge admission on Wednesdays, but the visit to the Trench still needs a booking.
The Museo de la Evolución Humana closes on Sunday at 15:00.
Comfortable shoes, a coat in winter and a cap in summer: the Trench is an hour and three quarters on your feet.
The Sierra de Atapuerca is a limestone hill 15 km east of Burgos. At the end of the 19th century, a mining company cut a trench for a railway and exposed caves filled with sediment and bones. What has come out of them has changed the history of human evolution in Europe: the remains of Homo antecessor in the Gran Dolina and levels more than a million years old in the Sima del Elefante. It has been a World Heritage Site since 2000. Visiting it means three things: the Trench with a guide, the Museo de la Evolución Humana in Burgos and, if you come with children, the CAREX in the village of Atapuerca.
Only with the official booking and on a compulsory guided itinerary. You cannot drive your own car up to the Trench: you leave the car at the CAYAC, the access centre at Ibeas de Juarros, or at the CAREX, in Atapuerca, and the visit sets out from there, lasting between an hour and a half and an hour and three quarters. You book by phone, on 947 421 000, or by email, at [email protected]; there are no online sales for the sites and the CAREX. Admission costs €8, reduced €7, and is free for under-8s and for everyone on Wednesdays, always with a booking.
Departures change by season. In November and December, except Christmas, there are visits from the CAYAC Tuesday to Friday at 10:00 and 11:00, and on Saturday and Sunday at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00 and 13:00. From April to June and in October, Saturday adds afternoon departures; in July and August there are afternoon departures Tuesday to Saturday. In January there are no visits. On Monday there are none.
A deep cut in the rock with the caves exposed. The Sima del Elefante, the oldest site being excavated on the peninsula, with levels more than a million years old. The Galería complex, a vertical shaft that trapped animals some 400,000 years ago. And the Gran Dolina, a cave more than 16 metres high with eleven levels; in the one called TD6 the remains of Homo antecessor appeared. The Sima de los Huesos and the Cueva Mayor are not visited: access is difficult and dangerous. In summer you can see the excavation teams at work.
It is in Burgos, beside the river and five minutes' walk from the cathedral, and holds the original fossils. Visiting it before the Trench helps you understand what you are about to see; afterwards, it helps you put it in order. It opens Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 14:30 and from 16:30 to 20:00, Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00 and Sunday only from 10:00 to 15:00. It costs €6 and is free on Wednesdays. Allow two hours.
From Burgos, on the N-120 towards Logroño: Ibeas de Juarros is about 14 km away and the village of Atapuerca about 20, in a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. From Palencia or Logroño, around an hour and a half; from Vitoria, a little more; from Valladolid, about two hours. The village of Atapuerca is on the French Way of the Camino de Santiago, between San Juan de Ortega and Burgos, and you will see it full of pilgrims in spring and autumn.
A day: the Trench in the morning and the museum in the afternoon, or the other way round on Sunday, because the museum closes at 15:00. With children, add the CAREX or Paleolítico Vivo, a reserve with bison and Przewalski's horses at Salgüero de Juarros. If you are going to sleep, the logical base is Burgos, half an hour away; in Ibeas, the Casa Rural Camino Blanco can be rented whole for groups.
From April to October there are more departures and the weather is pleasant: the visit is outdoors and there is no shade in the Trench. July and August are the excavation months, with more people. In winter it is cold and windy in the sierra, but the morning visits continue from February to December. Book several days ahead for long weekends and weekends.
In Ibeas de Juarros, next to the CAYAC, Los Claveles has been cooking olla podrida with Ibeas red beans since 1962, and its cafeteria, La Ventana, sorts you out with sandwiches and sharing plates. In the village of Atapuerca, near the CAREX, Comosapiens cooks daily dishes in a former hayloft, with many gluten-free options. None of the three publishes opening hours, so call beforehand.
To sleep, besides Camino Blanco, in Ibeas, El Pesebre de Atapuerca is a farmers' house for ten in the same village, and El Brocal, in Fresno de Rodilla, rents rooms with breakfast. Both houses offer to book the visits for you.
Questions
No. Only with a guided visit and official booking, leaving from the CAYAC at Ibeas de Juarros or from the CAREX at Atapuerca.
€8, reduced €7. It is free for under-8s and for everyone on Wednesdays, with a booking.
By phone, on 947 421 000, or by email, at [email protected]. There are no online sales for the sites.
Between an hour and a half and an hour and three quarters.
At the Museo de la Evolución Humana in Burgos, about 15 km from the sites.
Not to the sites: in January there are no visits. The museum does open, Tuesday to Sunday.
Geocaliahttps://www.geocalia.com/en/spain/castile-and-leon/atapuerca
