Sinaloa · Mexico
Culiacán travel guide
Culiacán is a city in Sinaloa, Mexico, home to about 808,000 people.
- Nearest airport
- CUL9 km · Bachigualato Federal International Airport
- Currency
- MXNpeso
- Time zone
- America/Hermosillo
- Language
- Nahuatl, Spanish, Yucatec Maya
About
About Culiacán
Culiacán, officially Culiacán Rosales, is the capital and largest city of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico. Located within the Culiacán Municipality, the city was founded on 29 September 1531, by the Spanish conquistadors Lázaro de Cebreros and Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán.
Culiacán sits almost in the geographic center of the state of Sinaloa, about 1450 km (900 miles) south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Its citizens are known as culichis. Almost no guide books on Mexico cover Culiacán, or if they do, they give a very brief one-paragraph description at most. It is rarely visited by tourists. Among Mexicans, however, Culiacán is well known for its distinct sinaloense culture and for producing some of the best known norteño and banda musical groups in Mexico, including Los Buitres de Culiacán, Los Bukanas de Culiacán, Larry Hernandez, and Los Buchones de Culiacán.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Culiacán
See
- Plazuela Alvaro Obregón
- Catedral Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Rosario
- La Lomita
- Capilla de Jesús Malverde
- Malecón
- Museo de Arte de Sinaloa
- DIFOCUR
- Ayuntamiento de Culiacán
- Parque Revolución
- Culiacán Zoo
- Culiacán Botanical Garden
- Tres Ríos Water Park
Do
- Presa Sanalona
- Estadio Tomateros
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
When to go
The best time to visit Culiacán
Culiacán has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. June is the warmest month, with average highs of 38 °C; August is the wettest, with about 224 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Culiacán: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bachigualato Federal International Airport (CUL), about 9.3 km from the city centre in a straight line.
Getting around
The city has a total of nine bridges. Six cross the "Tamazula" river, two the Humaya river and the longest bridge crosses the Culiacán river of the same name as the city. The number of cars per capita in Culiacán is one of the highest in Mexico; traffic is bad most of the time and abominable at peak times. Outside of the city center, it's not easy. Culiacán is a car-oriented city: blocks stretch for long distances while seemingly incessant traffic races along the wide boulevards between them. Culiacán has over 68 urban transport routes, operated by RedPlus.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
CUL · Bachigualato Federal International Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Culiacán
Stay safe
Downtown Culiacán is safe to walk around during the daytime and evenings (before midnight). Traveling around the outskirts ("colonias") of Culiacán at night is not recommended. Mexicans from other states often advise that Culiacán is dangerous to visit due to its reputation for narcotics trafficking and cartel violence. However, most deaths occur only among drug cartels and federal armed forces. If you don't go looking for trouble, you likely won't find any. That said, the city does occasionally explode in cartel violence that could keep you confined to your hotel, so it is worth checking news sources before you arrive.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Culiacán: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Culiacán?
Culiacán has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. June is the warmest month, with average highs of 38 °C; August is the wettest, with about 224 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Culiacán?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Bachigualato Federal International Airport (CUL), about 9.3 km from the city centre in a straight line.
What currency is used in Culiacán?
peso (MXN).
Nearby
Destinations near Culiacán
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.