The invention discloses a method for preparing 2,3,6-trimethylphenol, and the 2,3,6-trimethylphenol is an important intermediate of vitamin E. The method comprises the following steps of: enabling a mixture of metacresol, methanol and water to pass a fixed bed reactor containing an o-position methylation catalyst in a liquid space velocity of 0.4-10 h<-1>, and preparing the 2,3,6-trimethylphenol by carrying out a gas solid phase catalytic reaction under a temperature of 280-450 DEG C and a pressure of 0-10 MPa, wherein the o-position methylation catalyst consists of iron oxide, silicon dioxide and alkali metal oxide, and in the oxides, the metal ion molar ratio of iron, silicon, aluminum and alkali metal is equal to 100:(0.1-10):(0.2-5):(0-1). According to a catalyst for synthesizing the 2,3,6-trimethylphenol and a preparation method thereof, the conversion rate of the metacresol for compounding the 2,3,6-trimethylphenol is 100%, the yield of the 2,3,6-trimethylphenol is above 99.9%, and the service life of the catalyst is longer than 3000 hours.