A boat tour on a ‘trajinera’ (big colourful boat) around the canals, or ‘floating gardens’ of Xochimilco is, in my opinion, a must do in your trip to Mexico City. (Check out my blog post on Mexico City here!) Some go as far as to call the place the Venice of Mexico (which is a bit of a stretch but I can see where they’re coming from). The colourful gondola like boats tour around the canals between artificially made islands called chinampas. It’s extremely popular amongst Mexican and forgeign tourists alike, particularly on the weekends. The boats hold about 15 people and honestly the atmosphere is just electric, loads of colourful boats floating along full of people drinking and dancing.
There are of course lots of pre organised tours you can take, but these end up being quite expensive, so here’s my recommendations on how to do it on a budget. You can bring your own food and drinks on board, and there’s also floats that go around and sell everything from food and drinks to flower crowns and even mariachi bands that board your boat for a song. My best advice is to find a group to go with in your hostel or even before you board, not only for money saving (you pay per hour per boat) but also it makes for way more fun!
How to get there
Getting to Xochimilco by Train
If you are really on a budget you can get the train there. It takes about an hour and a half. You have to take two trains, and it is super cheap (10 pesos or €0.5 in total), but definitely a little more laborious.
From wherever you are starting in the city, you need to first get the blue line 2 all the way to the last stop to Tasqueña. From there there’s a train called the Tren Ligero directly from Tasqueña to Xochimilco. To use the Tren Ligero you’ll have to get a rechargeable card which you can just get where you get your tickets, and top it up by 5 pesos. The train drops you off in the heart of Xochimilco, or about 20-30 minutes walking to all the main embarcaderos.
Getting to Xochimilco by Uber:
I would recommend getting an Uber there if you can afford the extra few euros. It takes about 50 minutes from downtown, and it cost us less than 200 pesos (€8). MAKE SURE YOUR UBER DRIVER BRINGS YOU TO THE EMBARCADERO NUEVO NATIVAS . Our Uber driver was approached by a guy on a bike who told us that the road was closed to the main one and said to go to his one instead, and so we just went with it because we didn’t know any better.
This turned out not to be true and our friends had been dropped to Embarcadero Nuevo Nativas, where all the action was, and we were dropped instead to Antigua Embarcadero (way quieter). This was super annoying as they were a 30 minute walk from each other, but we got a guy to bring us by rickshaw for 50 pesos (€2) to where our friends were.
What prices to expect at Xochimilco:
A Xochimilco Boat tour has a set price of 500 pesos (€21) per boat per hour. If they try to charge you per person then just move along to the next one – there are literally hundreds.
We ended up bargaining the boat to 800 pesos for two hours (thanks to a friend who was with us with fluent Spanish). We also rented a huge speaker off them for 200 pesos, which brought the total to 1000 pesos (€34). In the end, by the time everyone invited some friends, we had 14 people on our boat, which meant the total was 72 pesos or €3 each for two hours on the boat.
When to go to Xochimilco:
The weekends, in particular Sundays, are the busiest day for trajineras. In fact, the majority of the boats were filled with Mexican groups, not tourists, and the canal was jam-packed. It was a real party atmosphere. However, if you’re looking to actually see some of the lakes it may be better to go during the week when it’s a bit quieter. Any time of day is fine to go between 9 and 6. We went at around 3:30 and the sky was really beautiful by the time we were returning.
Island of the Dolls/ Isla de Las Muñecas
The most famous of the Chimanpas, the island is supposedly haunted. It belonged to a local man called Don Julián Santa Barrera. The legand has it that Santa Barrera discovered a young girl drowning, and by the time he got to her she was already dead. He found the doll floating, and presuming it was hers, he hung it from a tree as a sign of respect. After this he began to hear whispers at night, even though his hut was completely isolated. Terrified, he spent the next fifty years hanging more dolls trying to please what he believed was the young girl’s spirit. He passed away in 2001 and his body was supposedly found in the same spot he found the girl’s body half a century before. The area is now a famous tourist attraction, and tourists now bring and add more dolls. It’s pretty creepy.
Food and Drink at Xochimilco
You can bring your own food and drink onboard the boat, so if you’re on a budget then I definitely recommend getting some snacks and a few beers in the shop beforehand! We got some micheladas (a Mexican drink made with beer, lime juice, sauces, spices, tomato juice, and chili peppers. Ours was served with a sweet sticky mix on the rim.) before we took off for 80 pesos ( I didn’t love it but it’s all part of the experience!)
There are also boats going by that sell food from snacks to tacos and corn on the cob (I got delicious corn on the cob for 20 pesos (€0.85).
Top Tips
- My number one tip would be to try and find some friends to share this experience with. This should be pretty easy if you’re staying in a hostel, but you could even ask some people at the Embarcadero!
- Go from Embarcadero Nuevo Nativas! Make sure your Uber driver brings you here and do not fall form the same scam we did.
- Bring some food and drinks.
- Bring a speaker! (This will save you paying 200-250 pesos to rent one.)
[…] XOCHIMICLO: My favourite thing we did in Mexico City. Go to Xochimilco and go on a trajinera (boat) trip around the canals. Try to go with a group to make it as budget friendly as possible. I have a full blog post in detail of how to get there and breakdown of prices here. […]