Xochimilco with kids: planning the canal day

Why Xochimilco with kids works best in the morning

A trajinera is flat-bottomed and painted, pushed along at walking pace by a boatman with a pole, and the middle of it is a long table with benches down both sides. Children sit, eat, draw and lean over to watch the water, and nobody has to organise entertainment: food arrives by canoe, musicians pull alongside and play for whoever wants them.

Daylight sets the shape of the day. With children the dark is a hard constraint, and the channels carry no lighting at all, which is why the boats keep to roughly 8:00 to 17:00 while several landings stay open far later; have the family aboard before 15:00. Push off by 9:00 and you get flat, quiet water, cooler air and everyone back on land before the heat of the afternoon.

Weekend afternoons are the version of Xochimilco to avoid with small children. The two biggest fleets, about 220 boats at Nuevo Nativitas and about 215 at Caltongo, are all out on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, hulls sit close together and every boat has the operator's speakers going. Even the permitted allowance, one bottle of spirits per boat or three beers per adult, turns into a lot of volume when a three-year-old is sitting two metres away. Steer clear of the boats hired as parties and of anything sold as a drinking trip.

Which dock to choose with children

Each landing has its own fleet, its own hours and its own routes, and the one you pick shapes the day more than the hour you turn up does. All ten authorised embarcaderos work 365 days a year, though only three publish hours on the official city portal, so treat the rest as something to confirm on the day.

For the calmest water, go to Salitre: it opened in 1921, is the oldest and smallest of the landings with about 51 boats, and draws fewer crowds. Birds and open water mean one of the ecological launches, Fernando Celada, Cuemanco or Puente de Urrutia, whose routes run through the protected zone where migratory and endemic species are part of the point. Arriving by light rail with a toddler and no car, pick Fernando Celada or Belem, each about ten minutes on foot from the station, which keeps the walk short at both ends.

The Nativitas cluster, meaning Nativitas, Zacapa and Las Flores Nativitas, is the opposite trade: more boats and more noise, with large facilities on land. Nuevo Nativitas has parking, a big crafts market and small restaurants, and that matters when one child needs the toilet and another needs feeding before anyone gets on a boat. On a weekday morning it is a reasonable family choice. On a Sunday afternoon, go elsewhere.

The rules that matter when you have children aboard

The canal regulations are published and they are applied, so reading them before you board saves an argument at the water's edge. Families trip over the capacity rule more than any other.

Life jackets are the other point to settle in advance. Anyone who declines one has to sign a release letter with the operator or authorised staff; with a small child aboard, keep the jacket on and skip the paperwork. Whether child-sized jackets are stocked at the landings is not published anywhere official, so ask as you board.

• A trajinera takes a maximum of 18 passengers, the limit is enforced strictly, and children under four count towards it.
• Once you set off, nobody can be handed or walked across to a neighbouring boat, and climbing or jumping between hulls is banned outright.
• Children stay seated for the whole ride, with hands and feet kept inside the boat.
• Your own loud music equipment is not allowed; only the operator's public-address system and speakers.
• Toilets may be used only at authorised stops, so plan the timing around that with children.
• Rubbish stays on the boat until the operator says where it goes, worth explaining to a four-year-old before the first snack wrapper.
• Visibly intoxicated passengers are reported to the tourism desk, another reason to keep clear of the drinking boats.

Xochimilco with toddlers: naps, strollers and ride length

Two to three hours on the water is the normal booking and the right length with young children; four hours is common among adults and tends to be an hour too many with a toddler. Set the ride against the nap. A push-off around 9:00 means the boat is turning for home at the point a small child usually fades, and the rocking often finishes the job. Ecological routes from Belem run four to five hours, so leave those for another trip.

Pushchairs cause more trouble than they solve at the landings. You step over the side of a boat onto benches, the ground by the water is often wet and muddy, and once afloat there is nowhere to park a buggy. A carrier is easier. If you drive to the Nativitas cluster, leave the pushchair in the car.

Sun is the thing people underestimate on open water. Bring hats, sunscreen and water for each child, and work out where everyone sits so the smallest are not in full sun for the whole ride. Food and drink come alongside by canoe, but do not count on finding exactly what a fussy eater wants mid-canal.

On land: park, museum garden and market stalls

Space to run is what the Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco adds to a family day: some 165 hectares of protected canals, chinampas and axolotl habitat at Periférico Oriente #1, Col. Ciénega Grande. It makes a good second half of a family day: walking paths, water on both sides and no requirement to stay seated. Its current hours and entry arrangements are not published in one official place, so confirm before you build the afternoon around it.

Over in La Noria, at Av. México 5843, the Museo Dolores Olmedo admits visitors Tuesday to Sunday between 10:00 and 18:00 and lets nobody in after 17:30. It sits away from the canal landings, and most children spend the visit in the gardens, among the peacocks and the hairless xoloitzcuintle dogs, rather than in front of the paintings. A morning boat ride still leaves a usable hour or two inside.

Feeding a family is simplest at the Mercado de Xochimilco on Av. Nuevo León, where roughly 450 vendors work two buildings from 8:00 to 20:00 every day and a plate of comida corrida, the set-price midday meal, reaches the table quickly. Plant markets fill the gaps: Madreselva sits inside the Bosque de Nativitas, 0.28 km from Embarcadero Nuevo Nativitas, and the Cuemanco plant and flower market, open daily 8:00 to 16:00 with about 600 traders, stands directly across the road from the ecological park.

Which tour on this site works with a family

A private vehicle takes out most of the friction, since the transfer south is the part that goes wrong with children. Private City Tour in Frida Kahlo, Coyoacan, and Xochimilco gives a family 4-6 hours with Frida Kahlo Museum entry, an air-conditioned vehicle, bottled water and a Mexican snack handed round during the boat ride, from $195 and rated 4.8 ★ (702 reviews). The boat carries only your party, which settles the 18-passenger question and the noise question together.

For a shorter day, Guacamole a Tasty Adventure Through Xochimilco Markets and Canals fills 3.5 hours, from 1,900 pesos, and is rated 5.0 ★ (12 reviews). Children start with coffee or tea and sweet bread or a tamal, take a bicitaxi from the markets down to the pier, walk a traditional chinampa and an axolotl sanctuary, then get the ingredients for a taco placero and hibiscus flower water to deal with aboard. Standing on the farmland and meeting an axolotl usually lands better with a seven-year-old than a long sit.

Nine hours, from $40 and rated 4.6 ★ (8447 reviews), buys Xochimilco, Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo with Optional Lunch: pickup from central meeting points, a professional certified guide, a ride in a colourful trajinera, and lunch at a local restaurant if you select that option. Nine hours door to door is a long stretch for a toddler. It suits families with older children, or with children who sleep in a vehicle.

On the private tour to the Isla de las Muñecas, a canal-side chinampa reached by boat, the inclusions are a bilingual English guide, the round trajinera transfer, entrance to the island, Mexican snacks, a music speaker and tequila and beer or beer and pulque. Those inclusions are aimed at adults; keep that one for a trip without the children.

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