There’s not a ton of useful information out there when it comes to researching a trip to Los Mochis. The city is largely overlooked as far as Mexican cities go and for a lot of people, the only reason that you’d ever really come here is to use the city as a jumping off point for the El Chepe train.
While Los Mochis is no great beauty, it does boast a lot of cultural and foodie highlights that are quite unlike what you will find in other parts of Mexico. I am fortunate to have spent a lot of time in Northern Sinaloa because my partner is Sinaloanse, born and raised in Los Mochis.
We tend to go back every Christmas to celebrate the holidays with his mum and extended family, so I have had the privilege of experiencing the area “like a local”. In this post, I’ll share some of our highlights.
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16 Best Things to do in Los Mochis, Sinaloa in 2024
Los Mochis is a great base for a wider exploration around the Ahome region of Sinaloa. From here you can travel onwards to the pueblo magico of El Fuerte, the beach towns of Topolobampo and El Maviri, and even cross the border into Chihuahua state.
There are enough highlights to keep you occupied in the city for a couple of days at least, and doing so provides an interesting glimpse into life in a typical non gentrified, non touristic part of Mexico.
Hike up to Cerro de la Memoria
The Cerro de la Memoria is a panoramic hilltop and viewpoint in the center of Los Mochis. After ascending the steep stone stairs to the top, you will be greeted with an impressive towering 11 meter statue of the Virgin Mary.
There are usually only a couple of other people up here, so you can sit on the wall with a couple of cervezas or a light picnic and chat as you enjoy the view. Los Mochis is mostly made up of small, single story houses so it doesn’t have the most impressive skyline in the world, but the view extends for miles – with lucious green farmlands and the waters of the Gulf of California in the distance.
There are also a couple of parks located at the halfway point, where you can stop and enjoy an alternative viewpoint.
Sample the street food
The street food was one of one of our major highlights of exploring Los Mochis. You will find a lot of delicacies here that you won’t find outside of Sinaloa and some of the best eats are found at random tianguis and street food carts in residential areas.
In particular, look out for the hotdogs embarazada (pregnant hot dogs). These are made by stuffing a huge red “asada” sausage with a smaller hot dog sausage, wrapping the entire thing in bacon, and then piling the hotdog bun up with tomatoes, onion and cilantro, three types of cheese (manchego, queso ranchero and cheese whizz), guacamole, and an array of salsa.
Another highlight are the tacos al vapor. These Sinaloan tacos are often enjoyed at breakfast time and are made by filling corn or maize tortillas with potatoes, adobo and beans, and then drowning the entire thing in more beans.
The most famous spot to try these is at “Tacos El Chavo” – a local insitituiton with a couple of branches scattered around town.
Visit the village of San Miguel Zapotitlan
San Miguel Zapotitlan is a cute and humble village that you can stop at on the road from Los Mochis to El Fuerte. Locals like to walk from here to swim and hang out on the banks of the Rio Fuerte and there are a couple of interesting stores and street food stands.
In particular, look out for the vendors selling agua de cebada – a delicious barley drink that’s very popular on hot Sinaloan days. San Miguel Zapotitlan is worth a stop at any time of year but the best time to come here is during Semana Santa (Easter) when the streets are filled with traditional “judios” dancers.
These indigenous Yoreme Mayo dancers take to the streets wearing animal masks and dancing with maracas. Each dancer traditionally makes their own mask by hand, but if you are fortunate enough to know a local, you may find someone willing to make one for you for a fee. My partner is of Yoreme Mayo origin, so it’s something special to see.
Enjoy a day at the beach at Topolobampo
Topolobampo is a small coastal town that sits just 22km away from Los Mochis, on the Gulf of California. It’s a nice place to visit for an afternoon during your time in Mochis and if you don’t have access to a car, you can easily take a bus here.
Like Los Mochis, Topolobampo was founded by an American. It was an engineer named Albert Kimsey that decided that the region would make a great spot for an industrial port to strengthen trade routes between Northern Mexico and the world.
Today, its little houses have been painted in vibrant colors and cascade down the hilltops in every color of the rainbow, making a great backdrop for photos.
While in town, you can stroll along the beachfront malecon, drinking micheladas and cocktails in the waterfront bars and cafes. There are many stalls here selling fresh oysters sourced from nearby waters that same morning that you can douse with hot sauce, or “crazy cocos” – chopped coconuts topped with hot sauce, nuts, chamoy, and a plethora of candies and potato chips.
Take a boat tour in search of El Pechocho
From Topolobampo, you can take a boat tour out across the Gulf of California to explore the caves and coastline and go in search of El Pechocho. El Pechocho is Northern Sinaloa’s famous resident dolphin that has called this warm waters home for decades.
He isn’t in captivity – he just prefers it here and is super friendly with locals and tourists, often seen swimming alongside the boats, jumping as you go. From the Malecon in Topolobampo, you can pay for one of the local fishing boats to take you out on a tour for a couple of hundred pesos.
Admire unusual plants from across the world at the Jardin Botanico
The 40-acre Los Mochis botanical garden was created by Benjamin Francis Johnson, the American founder of the city, as a gift to his wife in the 19th century. Within it, he planted the seeds of many weird and wonderful plants that he found on his travels around the world.
You will find all manner of beautiful and obscure plants, trees and flowers here that are not native to the region – from banyan trees to bamboo forests. The park provides a nice green oasis in the heart of the concrete jungle, and boasts a lake and walking trails for visitors to enjoy.
On the outskirts of the park, you’ll find a couple of great coffee places where you can stop for a cafecito before heading back into town.
Grab a coffee and hang out in Plazuela 27 de Septiembre
There are a couple of notable parks and plazas scattered around central Los Mochis but the Plazuela 27 de Septiembre is arguably the most important. The square is flanked by the beautiful Parroquia El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús church which is still used for baptisms and weddings today.
It is a popular rendezvous-point for locals during the day, who stop by to chat and catch up with their neighbors and friends on the plazuela benches, while by night, it really comes to life with street food stands. We love stopping by here at Christmas especially, since there’s a festive market for most of December and January where you can buy everything from books to artisanal goods.
Explore central Los Mochis and its mercados
Part of the fun of experiencing Los Mochis is simply found in taking the time to get lost among its streets and markets. For a traditional mercado, check out Mercadito 30, where the vendors sell all manner of clothing, accessories, bags and cosmetics, or Mercado Independencia which is a local choice for buying fresh fruits and vegetables and meat.
Calle Independencia and Avenida Ignacio Zaragoza are two of the main streets in downtown Mochis lined with all manner of interesting independent stores and boutiques.
Go for nachos at Los Nachos 1987
Sampling the loaded nachos at Los Nachos 1987 is something of a rite of passage for anyone visiting Los Mochis. Seriously, if you ask any Mochis native where you should grab nachos in town, they will all respond with the same thing: Los Nachos 1987.
My boyfriend often recalls how much he loves and misses them and how the nachos you find in the Yucatan (where we live) don’t compare. The plates here consist of a pile of crunchy nachos made and fried in house, topped with melted yellow cheese, jalapeños, beans and grated cheese, with the addition of ground beef meat if you desire it.
Drink your weight in agua de horchata y coco
Another Los Mochis foodie highlight is the “agua de horchata y coco” that you will find an abundance of street food stalls selling.
Sure, you can get agua de horchata all over Mexico, but the addition of coconut milk, huge chopped chunks of fresh coconut, condensed and evaporated milk makes for a super indulgent, creamy beverage. I loved it so much, I was drinking liters and liters of it daily and fortunately I didn’t find out until later that it was filled with so much condensed/evaporated milk and super calorific. (If, like me, you can’t just enjoy it in moderation!)
The very best stall that we found and kept going back to because it was where my partner would go when he lived in Sinaloa, was on the Boulevard Colegio Militar, just outside the Club Deportivo El Debate, northeast of the city.
Stop by the Museo Regional del Valle del Fuerte
Even if you’re not a huge museum person, it’s worth stopping by Los Mochis’ Museo Regional del Valle del Fuerte if you want to get a quick understanding of the city’s past. Sinaloa is known as the “breadbasket of Mexico” because it is a huge agricultural hub with so many residents working in farming.
The museum shows picture of the city and its surrounding through the decades, and tells you about its agricultural past and the sugar cane production in the region. Glancing across the road from here, you can see what remains of the old Mochis sugar mill which was founded by Benjamin Francis.
Catch a Cañeros de Los Mochis baseball game
Baseball is one of the most important sports in Mexico and it’s always pretty interesting to catch a game if you happen to be travelling during the baseball season. For me coming from the UK, we don’t even have baseball in our country so it’s always a fun experience.
Two of the most important Mexican baseball teams can be found in Sinaloa – the Cañeros in Los Mochis and the Tomateros de Culiacán.
Ride the El Chepe train
As I mentioned, the raison d’etre that a lot of people even come to Los Mochis in the first place is to ride the El Chepe train to Chihuahua. If your schedule permits, you could embark on a weeklong itinerary hopping on and off the train at different villages and points of interest.
If you’re tight on time, you could at least take the train up to El Fuerte, a pueblo magico in the northern part of the state famous for being the home of fictional zorro. You can hike through a national park to check out mysterious indigenous carvings at the “Cerro de la Mascaras”, admire the central square and the beautiful Parroquia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus church, and check out the city history museum in the old fortress.
Have a picnic and kayak off the coast at El Maviri
El Maviri is a golden sandy beach that sits just 10km southwest of Topolobampo. It is actually a little islet in the Sea of Cortez that is connected to mainland Mexico by a series of bridges.
The sea was a deep, shimmering shade of blue and the golden sands were pristine and undisturbed. At weekends and during semana santa, locals come here with crates of beers to grill meat and have picnics but during the week its pretty quiet.
You can rent kayaks at some of the businesses nearby, and you should also look out for the Cueva de los Murciélagos (cave of bats) just off the road, which is home to tens and thousands of bats which fly out and fill up the sky every night.
Catch a show at the Teatro Ingenio
The Teatro Ingenio is a contemporary modern arts theater in Los Mochis that hosts a plethora of different events – from symphonic classical orchestras, to ballets and theatrical performances. The building itself is stunning and worthy of admiration, and it’s worth checking to see what’s going on during your travel dates to see if you can catch some sort of show.
Grab breakfast at Maria Bonita restaurant
My honest opinion is that nobody does breakfasts as good as Mexico, and going out for breakfast or brunch is a great way to start a day’s itinerary in Los Mochis. My boyfriend’s family (and now I) love the Maria Bonita restaurant.
It’s a buffet breakfast restaurant named after María Félix, one of the most beloved actresses and singers in old Mexican cinema. The walls and ceilings of the eatery are decorated with all manner of weird and wonderful decor items – from “Day of the Dead” calavera skeletons and skulls, to papier mache shapes, papel picado flags, and cute statues.
The buffet concept is great since it enables you to try several different Mexican breakfast dishes at once. Be sure to try the chilaquiles, some pan dulces (Mexican sweet breads) and the cafe de olla. (Mexican cinnamon coffee).
Final thoughts on things to do in Los Mochis Mexico
I hope that this article helped provide you with some inspiration of wonderful things to do during your time in Los Mochis. I’ll be heading back again for Christmas in December 2024, and no doubt I’ll find more interesting highlights to add to this post.
Do you have any further questions or concerns? I live in Merida, Mexico and I’m always happy to chat and help out where I can.
I know that safety is a big concern for people travelling to Sinaloa but personally I have never had any issues or worries in Los Mochis and the surrounding area.
Safe travels and enjoy Mexico! Melissa xo
Melissa Douglas
Melissa Douglas is a British Travel Writer based in Merida, Mexico and the Editor-in-Chief of Mexico Travel Secrets. She has over seven years worth of experience in working in travel media and has travelled to 57 countries, mostly solo. Throughout her career, Melissa has produced written content for several high-profile publications across the globe - including Forbes Travel Guide, the Huffington Post, Rough Guides, and Matador Network.
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