Your expert guide on how to visit Xochimilco
I firmly believe that taking a day trip to Xochimilco is one of the best things you can do while you’re in Mexico City. I love the city deeply and spend a lot of time there but there’s definitely something to be said about escaping the bustle and crowds, and finding a moment of peace amongst the ancient floating gardens of Xochimilco*.
*You may laugh at the idea of finding peace in Xochimilco but I assure you it’s possible. You just have to know how and where to go – and you know that’s where I come in. I’m not a fan of crowds or noise, and I 💛 Xochimilco.
In this article you’ll find: an explanation of what Xochimilco is, what you can do there, and how to get there.
➕I will also share information on the very different, but both excellent tours I’ve taken to this fascinating part of Mexico City to aid your decision making as you plan your own trip. Both tours, of course, were peaceful and dare I say it, even serene.
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TLDR/ For those in a hurry
MexicoCassie mostly highly recommended tour: Ecological exploration of the chinampas with Tours Mitote
Or, to go on your own, take a taxi to your choice of embarcadero and simply pick up a boat
MexicoCassie recommended hotel in nearby Coyoacan: Metzli Casa Boutique & Spa
MexicoCassie Mexico City explorer articles
⭐️ 3 day itinerary for Mexico City | ⭐️ 5 day itinerary for Mexico City | ⭐️ Mexico City for the kids | ⭐️ Exploring the Bosque de Chapultepec
What exactly is Xochimilco?
🌇 Xochimilco is officially a district of Mexico City that comprises 18 barrios. Once you’re there, though, you’ll soon see that in reality it’s a very different place from Mexico City proper. You’ll find no big US chains, for example, no Starbucks, no McDonald’s etc. And yes, it is deliberate. The community has chosen.
💛 One of the things I love about Xochimilco, is that here, many of the Indigenous, pre-hispanic local traditions live on and can still be felt all around you.
💜 Tourists know the name Xochimilco for its ancient canal system and for the gorgeous colourful trajineras (long boats) you can ride in.
⭐️ The canals are actually the last remnants of the ancient Aztec lake and canal system that much of the city was built and fed on. Here, artificial islands (chinampas) abound, making for a fascinating time as you are rowed around this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Where to stay in Mexico City for ease of access to Xochimilco
People generally head to Xochimilco as a day trip from Mexico City – indeed, this is what I’ve done each time I’ve visited. There aren’t really any hotels right in Xochimilco.
I recommend basing yourself in Coyoacán as a great location – it’s a gorgeous barrio with plenty to do & see and it’s in the south of Mexico City, meaning public transport and road access to Xochimilco is easy.
🏨 Metzli Casa Boutique & Spa – just 300 m from the Frida Kahlo house, Casa Azul, this gorgeous hotel offers spacious rooms, and a garden where everyone can relax after a busy day exploring.
🏨 Tonalli Casa Boutique – this well located, small hotel offers beautiful suites, a garden, and a comfortable communal area.
🗺 Or, if neither of these appeal to you, use my helpful interactive hotel map to find something that does.
Short history of Xochimilco
🌼 The name Xochimilco means ‘flower fields’ in Nahuatl and when you visit you’ll soon see why the area was named thus, as even today it continues to be a flower-producing region.
🌼 Xochimilco is a pre-columbian town that was founded over 1000 years ago. Thanks to its canal system and fertile lands, it was the area that fed & watered Tenochtitlan, the enormous Aztec island city in the centre of Lake Texcoco. (Tenochtitlan, of course, was the city that the Spanish conquistadors destroyed to make way for their own city, today’s modern Mexico City).
🌼 During the Spanish conquest, Xochimilco was one of the areas they did not destroy as it was so obviously going to be useful in providing food for the newly arrived invaders.
🌼 A serious flood in 1609, though, spurred the Spanish onto draining much of the lake basin. Today we are left with just 170km of canals (down from 750km) and 25 km² remaining chinampas (from 170km²).
🌼 In the 1930s the area’s focus shifted from agriculture as people were no longer able to make a living this way and the idea of watery-tourism appeared.
🌼 In the early days the trajineras were covered in flowers (logical since it remained a flower growing region) but people would charge more for rides on the more flowery boats, leading to discrepancies, arguments and less fun for everyone. The authorities stepped in, banned the use of fresh flowers, leaving us with the brightly painted happy boats of today and an official set price for your canal adventure.
🌼 The number of boats allowed on the canals is controlled by the authorities. Boats are passed down through families (always through the maternal line ✊🏾) but they can not be sold.
Useful Xochimilco vocabulary – you’ll see these words bandied about all over the place
Trajinera – this is the name of the long boats used to traverse the Xochimilco canals. There are hundreds of these red & yellow boats, each with beautifully decorated & named
Trajinero/Trajinador(a)/Remero(a) – the person steering the boat
Chinampa – a floating garden or artificial island (these are ancient human-made islands)
Embarcadero – the point where your trajinera ride begins. See below for a list
What can you do in Xochimilco?
Go boating along the canals
Depending on when and where you hit the canals, your experience may be peaceful and serene or it may be fairly hectic and loud. By the time you’ve finished this article you should be able to figure out what you want and how to make it happen for you. For example, it’s well known that Friday night is something of a party night for local students.
⚠️ Please do remember though that this is not a place for tourists to show up and get drunk. By all means, have a beer, bring your picnic and your friends, and absolutely hire a mariachi band to play for you, but don’t behave like you’re on a stag weekend in Prague (in fact, don’t do that in Prague, either, please 😉). This is mostly still a place of tradition and family time. Please respect that.
Useful Xochimilco details
Embarcaderos options
Xochimilco is a big place and there are many options for picking up your trajinera – how you pick pretty much depends on how you’re arriving into the area, if you’ve booked a tour, and what you want to see
Nativas – at this spot you’ll find three embarcaderos, Nuevo Nativas/Flores/Zacapa. This is a fairly busy area with souvenir and restaurant stalls as well as toilets at the dock. Visits to the Isla de las Muñecas generally start from here
Cuemanco – this dock is with in the second largest park in Mexico City (after Chapultepec). Much of this area is dedicated to the chinampas so from here you’ll find peaceful ecological tours and visits
Belem & Belem de los flores – two of the easiest to reach if you arrive by train. Explore along the old Cuemanco Canal from here
Salitre – this was the first of the embarcaderos to be officially opened (in the 1920s). It’s old, small and discrete – your tour from here will be through street lined canals
Caltongo – busy waterways but a good way to get a feel for the neighbourhoods
Xochimilco Ecological Park – one of the quietest places to start from
Michmani Chinampa Eco-Park – As well as the regular boat trips, here you will find kayak tours, cabins for rent, and moonlight tours. If you’re coming with small kids, this is a fun spot as there’s also an area with a playground and inflatable slides
Lago de los reyes aztecas – this embarcadero is in a different area so although it’s built up, it can be quieter at the weekends. It borders the Tláhuac Wetlands Reserve, which is great for bird lovers
Urrutia – this is the most rural of all the options. Here you’ll find ecological tours taking your into the least crowded canals
I’ve personally taken tours from Nativitas and from Cuemanco, two of the big and most developed embarcaderos. My experience at both sites has been extremely pleasant – the families who own the trajineras have decided together that that there will be no harassing of visitors to get them on boats or sell them anything. People ask once, and if you say no they leave you alone. It’s a very peaceful experience.
💰 Prices are clearly marked and because they are set by the authorities, you neither need to worry that you’re being given a tourist price, nor do you need to bargain/haggle for your experience. There is a set price per hour per boat, which is clearly displayed. You can either join a shared boat or hire one just for you and your group. Tours into the ecological reserve last longer and cost more.
Do be sure to show up with enough small change to ensure you don’t miss out on the fun of buying snacks, music or souvenirs while you’re on the water.
🛟 It feels very safe on the barges. You don’t need to wear life jackets although they are available. You can always see other boats and both banks. No more than 18 people are allowed on one boat.
🤩 Axolotls are found only in Xochimilco (and 1 other nearby lake). You can visit with some while you’re touring the canals.
Xochimilco timings
⏰ These vary by embarcadero but you can pretty much assume 8 am – 7 pm (except the weekend) although the last boats tend to go out around 6 pm during the week
Mon – Fri day time: during the week it is generally deliciously calm and quiet on the water as long as it isn’t a Mexican holiday
Fri evening: Friday evenings are known for being for the students so the atmosphere is decidedly more party-time than family fun
Sat – Sun: at the weekend, it can be very busy as families from the city arrive for a day of fun.
Trajinera tour options
Here, I include four different options for exploring the Xochimilco canals – they range from the simplest to what I personally consider to be the very best option, the opportunity to get into the chinampas and learn something of the history of the area.
‘Regular’ boat ride
A ‘regular’ boar ride on the main canal generally lasts around an hour but you can, of course, pay for more if you choose to hire out a whole trajinera for yourself.
You’ll be able to buy snacks, drinks and even hire your mariachi band for a song or six as you float around.
Your trajinador is not a guide, if you speak Spanish you can probably ask the odd question but their job is not actually to guide or answer questions. If you want to learn, you’ll need to take a proper tour.
You can just show up and pick up a boat, there will never be a shortage.
Simple tour of the canals & chinampas
You will generally be taken to one of the chinampas (artificial islands) to admire a nursery and check out a small animal rehabilitation centre during your time on the water.
MexicoCassie simple tour options
⭐️ The first time my family went to Xochimilco, we took a private full-day guided tour with Insolitours because we had a very specific plan for our day. We wanted to visit Xochimilco & Cuicuilco (see below for more info about this cool site). We were on the water for a couple of hours.
⭐️ 10 hour full day trip: Xochimilco trajinera boat ride, explore Coyoacán, visit Frida’s House & even see the astounding murals on the UNAM university campus
→ Reserve your group spot now or reserve a private tour
🍻 Xochimilco boat trip, meal & unlimited drinks – Visit Xochimilco on a traditional boat tour with food and unlimited drinks. Listen to a guided explanation, enjoy a delicious Mexican meal on one of the floating islands island, and party during a cocktail workshop. Note this tour does not include transport from CDMX.
Visiting La Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls)
🎎 This is said to be the creepiest place in all of Mexico. This odd place is located in the Laguna de Tequila. On it you will find numerous dolls hanging from the trees. The owner (now dead) of the island began hanging dolls here in the mid-20th century. It was opened to tourists in 2001 and since then has been something of a ‘dark tourism’ spot. Some people claim that the dolls move, or even whisper to you.
In 1943, it was used as the location of the film Maria Candelaria, and I recently learned that Lady Gaga, in September 2025, filmed a music video here.
MexicoCassie Isla de las Muñecas tour recommendation
🎎 Isla de las Muñecas tour – this tour begins in Xochimilco so you’ll need to meet your guide there to tour 2 canals – the party canal, where you’ll find mariachi bands and have a few drinks, and the more peaceful, commune with nature, canal, where you’ll relax. Enjoy a traditional meal and drinks on one of the islands before heading to the Island of Dolls to learn about its sad & creepy origins.
Ecological/Chinampas tours
Roberto from Tours Mitote explaining the crops and their uses. Heirloom/Ancestral corns grown on the chinampa
If you’re after a more ecological tour then you will probably need to allocate 4-6 hours.
I was lucky enough to be invited to take a tour of this caliber with the amazing Roberto from Tours Mitote in late September this year. I’ve never met anyone more passionate about the chinampas and their preservation than he. Our group was taken on a canoa/small trajinera, through the canals, to visit a chinampa.
♻️ We learned about the history of the area, tracing it from its heyday, through its decline, to the modern today and the movement working towards the restoration of the chinampas. We were even able to examine some very cool archaeological finds from the land.
We spent time learning about the plants grown on these ancient floating islands and ate a lunch I’m still dreaming about to this day (also with local ingredients). We also got a good introduction to the most emblematic of all Mexican fauna, the axolotl. Don Perdo, the man behind the chinampa we visited is working hard not only to restore the chinampas to their former glory, but also to repopulate the axolotls, which are native to Xochimilco.
MexicoCassie ecological tour recommendation
Tours Mitote has a variety of tours on offer depending on how much time you have. I can guarantee you that whichever you choose, you’ll come away wishing you’d had more time with them (I certainly did). You’ll learn plenty and you’ll find so much respect for the ancient Mexicans who developed this place, and for the modern Mexicans who are working hard to restore and protect their heritage.
→ Check the Tours Mitote website and find your ideal ecological and ethical Xochimilco tour
Día de Muertos Tour
👻 If you’re in CDMX between October and December then you have the added option of being able to experience a Día de Muertos evening performance on the Xochimilco canals. The show is called La Llorona en Xochimilco and tickets are $500 pesos per person. If you don’t want to queue for tickets and prefer to take a tour, this is also possible.
Eating & drinking in Xochimilco
🌮 You are welcome to take your own food and drinks on your day trip to Xochimilco, which is what many Mexican families and groups choose to do. For me though, part of the fun is the buying of snacks and drinks as you float around.
There are many food stalls before you even reach your boat and once you’re on the water, one of the really fun things to do is check out all the market boats that come alongside your boat selling corn, soft drinks, beers, tacos, and all the other Mexican street snacks too.
→ The MexicoCassie guides to Mexican drinks (soft and alcoholic), street snacks and Mexican candy will all come in useful.
What else is there to do around Xochimilco?
Xochimilco is more than its canals, chinampas and fascinating history. It’s also a region of 18 historic barrios each with their own culture & history. You can visit the area’s archaeological museum, the Mercado de Xochimilco, the food market, any one of the 4 flower markets and you can even check out the Bosque Nativas. I personally love the centre of Xochimilco and think it’s a great place to just wander and feel another part of Mexico.
How to get to Xochimilco from CDMX
Public transportation
🚈 In CDMX, get yourself to Tasqueña metro station. From here, there is a train called the Tren Ligero (a light rail train) which starts in Tasqueña and finishes in Xochimilco. This takes about an hour.
Taxi
🚕 It’s of course possible to take a taxi to Xochimilco. Depending on where you’re coming from in CDMX and the traffic, it can take anywhere between 30 minutes – 2 hours. You’ll need to decide which embarcadero you want to go to in advance if you book a cab.
Added bonus: Archaeological site of Cuilcuilco
When we visited Xochimilco, we stopped off at the archaeological site of Cuicuilco to fulfil my dreams. I’m not kidding. I’d been asking my family to visit Cuicuilco with me for five years before we finally went. There hadn’t been actual resistance because we do all love a good ruin, it’s more like there’s been slight apathy because, well, we lived in Yucatán, and we do visit archaeological sites including Chichen Itza ALL the time.
Reasons to visit Cuicuilco
✅ It’s free so really, why wouldn’t you go?
✅ It’s a ruin in Mexico City that’s far older than anything Aztec you’ll see. Thus far only the pyramid itself has been excavated but the thinking is that there is an entire buried city under there. One day maybe it’ll be excavated too but until then, relatively little is known about the people who lived here.
✅ The site was buried by a volcano eruption 2000 years ago. The town’s inhabitants are thought to have moved to Teotihuacan where their culture was subsumed and lost to history.
✅ The pyramid is one of just two circular pyramids in Mexico. The other is Gauchimontones in Jalisco.
🎈 If you want to visit Teotihuacan, remember to consider taking a hot air balloon ride over the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon because there is little more perfect than sailing over fascinating monuments in this way.
1 Comment
Will · 13/02/2022 at 2:23 pm
I always read your posts cause I enjoy your approach to tourism. I’m going to link this post on FB so you will get more exposure. Thank you!! (my wife and I have been to various pars of Mexico over the years, and I was surprised at how much I got out of MexCity. Will happily go again.)
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