Visiting El Fuerte, Sinaloa: everything you need to know

Planning a trip to El Fuerte, Sinaloa? From the best things to do in El Fuerte to where to stay and how to get there, here’s everything you need to know in order to get the most out of your trip to El Fuerte.

Where is El Fuerte, Mexico?

🧭 El Fuerte, is in the northern part of Sinaloa, about 85km from the larger city of Los Mochis and near the border of Sonora. El Fuerte was designated as a pueblo magico in 2019 for its history, architecture, and overall contribution to Mexican culture.

The town is also one of the most popular stops on the Copper Canyon train, which is why we visited.

If you’re familiar with the fictional character El Zorro (aka Don Diego de la Vega), you may already be familiar with El Fuerte, as it is his supposed birthplace.

How to get to El Fuerte, Sinaloa

Many people visit El Fuerte as part of their Copper Canyon adventure, as we did, but many others also visit as a day trip or weekend getaway from the larger city of Los Mochis.

🚂 By train

The El Chepe Express is the scenic train that runs along the Copper Canyon. If you start in Los Mochis, El Fuerte will be the first major stop but you can also travel in the opposite direction, from Chihuahua as we did.

⚠️ One important thing to note when arriving in El Fuerte via train is that the train station is about fifteen minutes out of town. If you are travelling from the direction of Chihuahua, you will arrive after 9 pm.

🚕 Many hotels can arrange transportation to pick you up, though there are also taxis waiting. Note that these are shared taxis, so you’ll be travelling with a group of people. I highly recommend checking with your hotel in advance to find out if they’ll be picking you up. We struggled when we arrived here.

🚌 By bus

Buses run regularly between Los Mochis and El Fuerte. The journey takes about 2 hours and costs about $80 pesos, depending on the bus line.

The two bus lines that run between Los Mochis and El Fuerte are Azules del Noroeste and Autotransportes Norte de Sinaloa.

Buses leave Los Mochis at their respective stations and from El Fuerte at the Benito Juárez market.

There are frequent departures, ranging from every 20 minutes to once an hour, from 5am to 7pm. You can either pay the driver or get your ticket in advance from the ticket counter at the bus station.

→ Check bus timetables in English here

🚕 By taxi

You can also take a taxi between Los Mochis and El Fuerte. We chose to do this when leaving El Fuerte and heading to the Los Mochis airport, mostly because we were feeling lazy. You can usually find taxis on the street or ask your accommodation for a recommendation.

🚗 Rental car

And, of course, you can rent a car and drive yourself around the region

→ Check rental options now

Museo Mirador El Fuerte

🏰 Museo Mirador El Fuerte (sometimes simply referred to as Museo El Fuerte) is one of the top tourist attractions in El Fuerte. It’s up on a small hill just by the main plaza and you won’t struggle to find it, as the town is so small.

The museum houses a collection of artefacts that represent the Indigenous and Mestizo history of El Fuerte, Sinaloa. We all enjoyed exploring its collection but it didn’t feel like a particularly cohesive collection.

For example, you can see a hearse that’s said to carry a ghost and ritual masks used by the Yoreme Mayo people in their deer dance celebration but you’ll also find typewriters and old muskets.

It’s quite a random collection but interesting and one of the best ways to learn about the history of the small town.

And don’t forget to appreciate the views from the roof. They are quite lovely!

Casa de la Cultura – House of Culture

📚 The Casa de la Cultura is a pretty building with an interesting history on the main square in El Fuerte, Mexico. It was built by Don Manuel Vega in the 19th century and used as a municipal jail in the 20th century.

Since the 1980s, it has been designated as El Fuerte’s Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture) and hosts all sorts of cultural events, seminars, and workshops. It’s also where you can find the historical archive and public library.

While most events are geared towards locals, it’s worth checking to see if there are any cool cultural happening while you’re in town.

Rio El Fuerte

🦆 The river itself, I guess, could be a visiting point. We hoped it would be. We nipped down and took a walk along it one late afternoon. I think we went in the wrong direction though as we found nothing at all. There’s a malecon so it’s easy to stroll around.

However, if you turn and head towards the Tirolesa La Galera and the playground area, it’s a very pleasant area to then walk around and explore. If you wanted to have a relaxing afternoon, you could head this way and grab some street food and agua frescas from the food vendors and have a little picnic. You’ll see many local families do this, especially on the weekend.

Bosque Secreto

🌵 The Bosque Secreto (secret forest) is so secret we didn’t actually find it. However, on our way to the airport from El Fuerte, I asked our driver about it and he filled me in. Head down to the river, perhaps putting ‘Tirolesa La Galera’ into google maps to help you get there. Here you’ll find a pleasant play area and zipline activity(closed when we were there). Our driver told us that had we crossed the bridge and then the second bridge onto the island, we’d have found ourselves in the Bosque Secreto. It’s actually marked as ‘Isla De Los Venados’ on the map though.

Petroglyphs at Cerro de la Mascara

🔍 One of the top things to do in El Fuerte Sinaloa is take the short hike to the petroglyphs at Cerro de la Mascara, which is a few kilometres from the centre of town along the river. We actually stumbled across the area by accident, after walking past La Galera park along the river bank.

Cerro de la Mascara is home to over 300 petroglyphs and, like many historical sites, no one really knows how or why. It’s believed that they were left by several different Indigenous groups, including the Mayos, the Yoremes, and the Tehuecos and that the area was used as a sacred site for shamans.

It’s actually considered one of the most important historical sites in Northern Mexico… despite there being 0 signage to get there.

You can find Cerro de la Mascara on Google Maps but the directions won’t be clear. Basically, keep walking with the river on your right, go across a few footbridges and past the Venadario del Fuerte petting zoo, and eventually you’ll get there.

You’ll find a man at a fence, whom you’ll need to pay to enter. Be prepared with small bills.

He will give instructions to reach the two sites. Basically, though they seemed to be a complicated version of ‘follow the path’. We only got as far as the first site as we found the petroglyphs area by mistake so hadn’t come with enough water and our kids were convinced they were going to die if we didn’t get them a drink immediately.

The walk was lovely although I’d consider not wearing flip-flops if I were going to do it again as there were quite a few very large ants scurrying around. We also had to walk through a field of enormous grasshoppers, which was absolutely fascinating and well worth the entrance fee on its own.

Plaza de Armas

🌴 El Fuerte’s Plaza is genuinely gorgeous. It’s shaded by beautiful, tall palm trees and has plenty of benches for people just wanting to sit around and melt a bit (it was extremely hot when we were there in July). Our kids had a wonderful time running around for hours at a time while my husband and I sat and chatted.

El Chepito

🚂 El Chepito is a small tourist train that takes visitors around El Fuerte and seems to be the thing that pretty much everyone does. The train driver is extremely friendly. We waited until our penultimate day to take a ride and he told us he’d been waiting for us as he had seen us every day playing on the square.

Is the train worth it? Well, obviously that’s a personal decision. I don’t think I’d take it again but it seems to be “the thing” everyone does at least once. It’s a bone shaker, for sure. If you want to take it, I would recommend doing so at the beginning of your stay in El Fuerte.

Palacio del Gobierno

🖼 As with most Mexican cities I’ve visited, the Palacio Del Gobierno (Municipal Palace) is free to enter and is covered in murals explaining the region’s history. They’re maybe not as high quality as those in Chihuahua or Merida, say, but it’s still worth sticking your head inside.

And, of course, the city letters are there for all of your Instagram photo needs.

Water park – Alberca Las Palmas

💦 As I said, we were there for four days…with our kids. So, we did what we always do, we found a water park. We paid more in taxi fees than we did to get us all in because the park is about twenty minutes outside of El Fuerte. It was worth every penny though.

Do note that you can buy drinks and snacks on-site but most families were there with full picnics and BBQs.

Fishing, boating, and other outdoor activities

🎣 We didn’t do any of these things but many people come to El Fuerte for these activities. The El Fuerte River, especially around the two dams, El Mahone and El Sabino, is a popular spot for fishing and boating.

There are also some hikes in the area, in addition to Cerro de la Mascara.

Your accommodation should be able to provide you with more information on all of these.

Try local food

🌮 It’s not hard to find good food in El Fuerte, as you’ll see below in the restaurant section. There are so many dishes that Sinaloa is famous for: you’ll find lots of seafood in El Fuerte but keep your eyes out for dishes like machacha and chilorio, as well as zarandeado fish. All are local Sinaloan favourites that you won’t want to miss.

Exploring the Copper Canyon with kids? See more tips and advice in my Guide to the Copper Canyon with Kids!

Where to eat in El Fuerte

🍽 We actually had really good food in El Fuerte and I don’t think it was just because we’d spent a month in the Copper Canyon! I think El Fuerte genuinely has good restaurants. We didn’t have to stray far from the main plaza when searching for food.

Mansion Orrantia

This seafood restaurant located inside Hotel Santa Elena came highly recommended by a few people and they weren’t wrong. We were blown away by the quality of the food and both our kids loved their meals too. We ate there twice and probably could have done it again, had we had time. The free salsa is genuinely some of the best I’ve ever had.

Pizzas Marthita

We had good and cheap pizza in this small, hole-in-the-wall, type restaurant.

Don Rafael

Along one side of the Plaza de Armas is a row of restaurants and cafes, which is where you’ll find Don Rafael. We had breakfast here every day that we were in El Fuerte. It had a couple of tables outside and a tv high up on the wall inside. The food was good and the staff very friendly and kind.