The Xochimilco Canals – an awesome day trip to the south of Mexico City
Mexico City is a wonderfully enormous city with so much to see and do. The parks are astounding, some of the best restaurants in the world are here and the sheer wealth of art galleries and museums is outstanding. There are also some absolutely epic day trips available to visitors to Mexico City including this one, a trip to visit the Xochimilco canals, or floating gardens.
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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 is Xochimilco
Xochimilco is a district of Mexico City made up of 18 barrrios. It is best known for its ancient canal system and for the gorgeous colorful trajineras (long boats) you can ride in. The canal system is actually remnants of the ancient Aztec lake and canal system that much of the city was built 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
MexicoCassie recommended hotels in Coyoacán
I recommend Coyoacán as a great location to stay because 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 where everyone can relax and 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’s 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 (and a whole lot of political and violent wrangling, of course) it was the place that fed Tenochtitlan, the precursor to 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 of tourism, 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 can be passed down through families 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 and with their own name
Chinampa – a floating garden or artificial island (yes, these are ancient human-made islands)
Embarcadero – the point where your trajinera ride begins. There are 8 of these.
What can you do in Xochimilco?
Boating along the canals
Visitors generally want to take a slow boat ride on a trajinera through the canals of Xochimilco. While some people want a slow and peaceful ride, relaxing and taking in the views, others might enjoy calling over the floating mariachi bands to hear a traditional song or two. In fact, 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. While it’s true it’s possible to drink and have a fun time here, it is still a place of tradition and family time. Please respect that.
Useful Xochimilco details
🛶 There are eight embarcaderos or embarkation points, all with their own differing ‘personalities’. We were taken to Nativitas for our boat ride. The tour guide told us that although it isn’t the closest to the city it is both very traditional and it’s one where they have taken a collective decision to not harass tourists (my words not his). There’s no fighting to get you on a boat, to extract money from you, to sell you snacks or souvenirs or mariachi music. People ask, and if you say no they leave.
💰 Prices are clearly marked that a boat costs $600 pesos per hour per boat, NOT per person. If you want to just join a shared ride, it’s currently around $90 pesos per person per hour. If you want a longer tour that takes in the ecological reserve, you’ll have to pay more – around $1800 – $2000 pesos for 4 – 5 hours on the boat.
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.
🛟 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 (above) are found only in Xochimilco (and 1 other nearby lake). You can visit with some while you’re touring the canals.
Xochimilco timings
⏰ 8 am – 7 pm (except the weekend) although the last boats tend to go out around 6 pm during the week.
⏰ Boat rides on the main canal generally last around an hour. You will generally be taken to one of the chinampas (artificial islands) to admire a nursery and check out a small animal rehabilitation centre.
Mon – Fri day time: during the week it is deliciously calm and quiet on the water.
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.
Eating & drinking in Xochimilco
🌮 You are welcome to bring your own food and drink on your day trip to Xochimilco but I don’t really know why you would. 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.
🌮 Some of the organised tours, like this one, actually include a meal on a chinampa and even all you can drink alcohol.
Visiting La Isla de las Muñecas (Island of the Dolls)
🎎 This is said to be the creepiest place in all of Mexico. It is a chinampa, a small island, 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. In 1943, it was used as the location of the film Maria Candelaria. 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.
→ book a tour of Xochimilco that includes a trip to the Isla de las Muñecas
What else is there to do?
Xochimilco though is not just its canals, it’s also a region of 18 historic barrios with their own culture & history. You can visit the area’s archaeological museum, Mercado de Xochimilco, the food market, any one of the 4 flower markets and you can even check out the Bosque Nativas.
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.
Once you arrive in Xochimilco you’ll be greeted by a throng of people all trying to get you to take a boat ride with them. You can either choose one at random (because, really, the boats are much of a muchness) or you can ignore them all and follow your map to the embarcadero of your choice where you’ll pay and be given a boat.
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.
Book a tour
👣 My recommendation is to take a group tour or a private tour for a day trip like this as it’ll remove all the stress of the unknown. This is one of the few tours I have done in Mexico City and it made our day so easy and fun.
Xochimilco tour options
⭐️ We took a private 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).
⭐️ 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.
🎎 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.
🌳 Urban eco-reserve tour of Xochimilco – the day begins at a community cafe in CDMX before taking a private bus to Xochimilco where you will visit the market for a traditional breakfast before heading off on a traditional trajinera to the Chinampas (artificial islands) and meet the farmers working them. As you glide through the canals you’ll learn about the products grown in this part of the country, and even get to try them.
👻 If you’re in CDMX between October and December then you have the added option of being able to experience a Día de los 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.
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. 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.
🎈 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.
✅ The pyramid is one of just two circular pyramids in Mexico. The other is Gauchimontones in Jalisco.
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.)