Are The Floating Gardens Of Xochimilco Worth Visiting In Mexico City?

Planning Your Trip To Mexico City But Wondering Whether Or Not The Famous Floating Gardens Of Xochimilco Are Worth Checking Out?

Mexico City is one of my favorite places to visit and I’ve done just about everything you can possibly do here, including visiting the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, and while there are numerous downsides to this very touristy area (more details below), I enjoyed my time here and would suggest that it’s worth visiting at least once if you have the time during your CDMX trip.

❌ Downsides Of The Mexico City Floating Gardens Of Xochimilco

If you do a quick search on the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, you’ll see that it’s one of the most popular things to do in Mexico City, but a lot of reviews are pretty negative about these colorful boat rides on the canal.

In my personal experience of the Xochimilco Floating Gardens and that of others, these are the typical downsides to this Mexico City attraction:

These canals are not quite like how they used to be 100 years ago or so, but they're still worth visiting at least once.

Very Touristy

Boat rides at Xochimilco aren’t a very nice, authentic, eco-friendly, sustainable kind of tourist attraction in Mexico City. It’s gotten very touristy here over the years (it didn’t used to be like this) and you can tell people typically don’t really care about the environment or the quality of your experience anymore.

Overpriced

Especially when they know you’re a foreigner, boat tour vendors ask for ridiculous amounts, and although it’s relatively cheap in US dollars, it’s frustrating to have untrustworthy people taking advantage of your unfamiliarity with a city/currency.

Very Pushy

The most annoying thing about the boat rides at the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico City is how incredibly pushy the boat vendors are (to the point of following you around).

Luckily I found a way to get on a boat without dealing with them (I’ll explain more about this later), but they’re some of the worst car-salesman-like tour operators I’ve ever come across.

Not A Nice/Safe Area

The area around Xochimilco is not a very safe part of Mexico City and it’s actually kind of dirty and trashy. It’s definitely not an area you want to stay overnight or be out walking at night.

✅ Pros Of Doing A Xochimilco Trajinera (boat) Ride

Despite all the downsides of visiting the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco listed above, I still think that it’s a Mexico City site worth visiting at least once for a few reasons:

It’s A Historic Place

The Mexico City Xochimilco canals became known as the Floating Gardens because of the flowers that used to grow along the water.

Just about all of present day Mexico City was built on top of a lake by the Spanish in the 1500s, but Xochimilco is the one remaining canal area where you can still get a feel for what it was like before the Spanish arrived and when locals used trajineras (boats) to get around.

More recently in the 1900s, Mexico City high society members used to frequent Xochimilco because it was a romantic place with beautiful flowers growing along the canals, which led to them nicknaming it the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco.

It Can Be Fun

These boat rides are more fun with a large group of people.

Because there were only two of us visiting Xochimilco when I went, getting a huge boat all to ourselves didn’t seem worth it for the price, so we walked around and ended up finding a group of women from Mexico City that let us join them.

This was perfect because we avoided the pushy boat vendor that followed us around for a while.

If you’re able to join another group, you already have a large group, or you go on a guided group tour, the boat rides at Xochimilco can be pretty fun despite the touristy-ness of the area.

It’s Pretty Famous

The Island of the Dolls is one of the most famous sections of the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico City.

Xochimilco is one of Mexico City’s most famous sites and it’s even been in a few movies and tv shows (particularly the spooky Xochimilco Island of the Dolls, pictured above). Most famous places get turned into cheesy tourist sites, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth seeing at least once.

It’s A Cultural Experience

These boat rides can be a nice way to experience Mexican culture.

As I mentioned before, when I went to Xochimilco I was able to join a group of ladies from Mexico City that were just getting together to hang out on a boat here. Although tourists are all over this place, it’s still a spot many locals get together to have a little fun.

There’s also boats riding around selling Mexican food, mariachi bands waiting to play for you, and even special events like the La Llorona show during the Dia de Muertos holiday.

🛶 How To Get To Xochimilco From Mexico City

Xochimilco is located in the southern section of the greater Mexico City area, so it’s very easy to get to from wherever you’re staying in CDMX. I always suggest avoiding taxis and public transportation in Mexico City, but Uber rides are typically safe and cheap, even all the way down to the canals.

You can also make things even easier and more convenient by going on a guided tour down to Xochimilco, which helps you avoid the annoyance of the boat vendors and often includes other Mexico City sites.

🔁 Sum Up: Floating Gardens Of Xochimilco In Mexico City

Despite having some serious downsides to the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, I still think it’s worth visiting and taking a colorful boat ride on the canals at least once if it’s convenient to your Mexico City itinerary. I suggest a guided tour to avoid the very pushy boat vendors, unless you’re visiting with a large group and it’ll be easy to split the price amongst yourselves.