Mexico travel tips

Is Mexico safe?

30 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.

4.0 average across 30 guides · Safe
Mexico City, MexicoOaxaca, MexicoCancun, MexicoTulum, MexicoLos Cabos, MexicoPlaya del Carmen, MexicoIsla Mujeres, MexicoCozumel, MexicoMérida, MexicoSan Miguel de Allende, MexicoPuerto Vallarta, MexicoIsla Holbox, MexicoBacalar, MexicoValladolid, MexicoPalenque, MexicoSan Cristóbal de las Casas, MexicoPuerto Escondido, MexicoPuebla, MexicoGuanajuato, MexicoGuadalajara, MexicoSayulita, MexicoMazatlán, MexicoLa Paz, Baja California, MexicoCampeche, MexicoHuatulco, MexicoTaxco, MexicoQuerétaro, MexicoMorelia, MexicoTequila, MexicoTodos Santos, Mexico

Mérida Very safe

One of the safest cities in Mexico and it feels it — the centro is walked at any hour and families are out until midnight. The heat is the hazard, and the driving: the grid has no stop signs at many corners and the rule is whoever arrived first.

Comfortable: the centro · Paseo de Montejo · Santa Ana and Santiago

  • the corners without stop signs — the rule is whoever got there first, and nobody agrees
  • the middle of the day in spring — 37°C, and the city itself waits until evening

San Miguel de Allende Very safe

Very comfortable and one of the safest towns in the country. The cobbles are ankle-turning and the pavements are narrow enough that people walk in the road. Prices are the other hazard: this is the most expensive small town in Mexico.

Comfortable: the centro · Guadalupe · the Jardín

  • the cobbles — ankle-turning, and the pavements push you into the road

Campeche Very safe

Very comfortable and one of the quietest cities in Mexico; the walled centre is walked at any hour. The malecón is unlit in stretches and the norte winds in winter bring a heavy swell. Nothing else.

Comfortable: the walled centre · the malecón in daylight

  • the malecón late — long unlit stretches
  • the sea in a norte — a heavy winter swell

Querétaro Very safe

Very comfortable and one of the safest cities in Mexico; the centro is walked at any hour. The usual care with taxis off the app. Nothing else.

Comfortable: the centro histórico · the aqueduct quarter

  • taxis off the app — the usual overcharging

Isla Mujeres Safe

Very comfortable, and the town is walked at any hour. The golf carts are the main injury here — people drive them like toys, and the island road has blind corners. The current on the eastern side is strong and there is no lifeguard; Playa Norte is the calm one.

Comfortable: the north end and Playa Norte · the town · Punta Sur

  • the golf carts — driven like toys, on a road with blind corners
  • the eastern shore — a strong current and no lifeguard

Cozumel Safe

Very comfortable, one of the safest places in Mexico. The diving is the risk that matters: the currents on the walls are strong and drift dives need a boat that knows them. The east coast has no lifeguards, a heavy shore break and no phone signal in places.

Comfortable: San Miguel · the western shore · Punta Sur

  • the east coast surf — a heavy shore break, no lifeguard and patchy signal
  • drift dives without a good boat — the currents on the walls are strong

Isla Holbox Safe

Very comfortable and tiny. There is one cash machine and it runs out, so bring pesos. The mosquitoes in the wet months are ferocious and carry dengue; repellent is not optional. The sea is shallow and calm, which is the island’s whole character.

Comfortable: the village · the beach

  • the mosquitoes in the wet months — dengue is present; repellent all day
  • the single cash machine — it empties; bring pesos from the mainland

Valladolid Safe

Very comfortable, and the plaza is busy until late. The cenote steps are wet limestone and slick; the Chichén Itzá road has coach traffic from seven in the morning; the heat in spring is the thing that actually spoils days.

Comfortable: the centre and the plaza · the Calzada de los Frailes

  • the cenote steps — wet limestone, and no rail worth the name
  • the middle of the day in spring — 36°C with no shade at the ruins

Guanajuato Safe

Comfortable and busy with students until late. The alleys are steep, uneven and unlit in places; the tunnels are for cars and are genuinely dangerous to walk in. The callejoneadas are a drinking tradition and the crowd is cheerful rather than trouble.

Comfortable: the centre · the Jardín de la Unión · the university quarter

  • walking in the road tunnels — they are for cars, with no pavement worth the name
  • the alleys late — steep, uneven and unlit in stretches

Sayulita Safe

Comfortable and cheerful. The beach has a rip at the northern end and the surf school knows where it is; the river mouth after rain carries whatever the hills did, which is why swimming there is not a good idea for a day or two. Prices are high for Mexico.

Comfortable: the village · the main beach

  • the rip at the north end of the beach — the surf school knows where it is; ask
  • the river mouth after rain — it carries what the hills carried

La Paz, Baja California Safe

Very comfortable and one of the calmest cities in Mexico. Balandra has a visitor cap and closes when it is full, which is worth knowing before driving out. The sea is calm; the sun is not, and there is no shade on those beaches.

Comfortable: the malecón · the centre · Balandra

  • the beaches at midday — no shade at all, and it is Baja
  • unlicensed whale-shark boats — the bay has a permit system for a reason

Huatulco Safe

Very comfortable, and the most orderly resort on this coast. The bays are calm and the swimming is easy; the currents are at the open beaches rather than in them. The sun at this latitude is fierce and the afternoon storms in the wet months arrive fast.

Comfortable: La Crucecita · Santa Cruz · the hotel bays

  • the open beaches outside the bays — a current, and no lifeguard
  • the afternoon storms in the wet months — they arrive in minutes, at sea as well as on land

Todos Santos Safe

Very comfortable. The Pacific beaches here have a shore break and a rip that kill people most years — Punta Lobos and La Poza are for watching, and Los Cerritos is the one to swim at, at the southern end. No lifeguards anywhere.

Comfortable: the town · Los Cerritos at the south end

  • swimming at Punta Lobos or La Poza — a shore break and a rip that kill people most years
  • any beach here without a lifeguard — there are no lifeguards here

Oaxaca Safe

One of the calmer states in Mexico and the historic centre is comfortable to walk at night. Ordinary precautions with taxis and bags apply. The altitude is 1,550m and catches people out on the first day. Teachers’ union protests periodically block roads and occasionally the airport road — they are announced and peaceful, but they will cost you a day if you have a flight.

Comfortable: the Centro Histórico · Santo Domingo · Jalatlaco · Xochimilco · the mercados by day

  • the streets around the Central de Abastos — crowded, disorienting and the commonest place for bag-snatching
  • the roads into the Sierra Norte at night — unlit, unbarriered and with livestock on them
  • protest blockades on the highways — a normal part of Oaxacan politics; they close roads for hours and are best waited out, not driven around
  • mezcal poured freely — it is stronger than it tastes and the palenques are generous

Los Cabos Safe

Los Cabos is among the safer parts of Mexico for visitors and the resort corridor is routine. The sea is the real danger and it is badly underestimated: the Pacific beaches around Cabo San Lucas, Solmar and Divorce Beach among them, have lethal undertow and are not swimmable at all — the red flags there are permanent, not seasonal. Swim at Médano or Chileno. Hurricane season peaks in September.

Comfortable: the Cabo San Lucas marina · the San José del Cabo art district · the Corridor hotels · the Todos Santos road

  • swimming at Playa Solmar and the Pacific-facing beaches — the surf breaks directly onto the sand and drowns strong swimmers; the safe beaches are signed and few
  • time-share touts at the airport and the marina — they intercept you before the taxi and the hour costs you the morning
  • the unlit roads outside the resort strip late at night
  • drug buying — again the one thing that connects visitors to the violence in the state

Puerto Vallarta Safe

Comfortable, and one of the easier Mexican cities to be a visitor in. Timeshare touts at the airport and on the malecón are the daily nuisance — they are relentless and start with a free breakfast. The bay is calm; the beaches south of town have a shore break.

Comfortable: the Zona Romántica · the malecón · the old town

  • timeshare touts — relentless, and the free breakfast costs a morning
  • the beaches south of town — a shore break, and no lifeguard

Bacalar Safe

Comfortable and quiet. The stromatolites along the shore are living rock and are killed by being stood on or by sun cream — the town asks visitors not to wear it in the water, which is the one rule that matters here. Boats and swimmers share the lagoon.

Comfortable: the town · the Costera

  • the stromatolites — living rock; not to be stood on, and no sun cream in the water
  • swimming in the boat channel — the sailing traffic does not expect you

San Cristóbal de las Casas Safe

Comfortable in town and walked at night. San Juan Chamula is a different matter of respect rather than danger: photographing people or the inside of the church is forbidden and taken seriously, and a camera has been taken from more than one visitor. The altitude makes the nights cold and the first day slow.

Comfortable: the centre · Real de Guadalupe · the Santo Domingo market

  • a camera in San Juan Chamula — photography is forbidden and enforced by the community
  • the first night at 2,200 m — cold, and the altitude slows people down

Puebla Safe

Comfortable, and the centro is busy until late. Pickpockets around the cathedral and the markets; the area near the CAPU bus station is not somewhere to wander at night. The volcano Popocatépetl smokes and occasionally dusts the city with ash, which is monitored and not a danger to visitors.

Comfortable: the centro histórico · the Zona Esmeralda · Cholula

  • around the CAPU bus station at night — not a place to wander
  • the cathedral crowds — pickpockets

Tequila Safe

Comfortable and geared to visitors. The obvious hazard is the obvious one: tasting flights are generous and the road back is a mountain road. Come by train or tour rather than driving.

Comfortable: the plaza and the distilleries

  • driving after a tasting — the tours are generous and the road is a mountain one

Playa del Carmen Reasonably safe

Comfortable in the tourist strip and walked late, and honest about the rest: the cartel violence that makes the news is between groups and not aimed at visitors, but it is why the state keeps a police presence on the beach. The daily risks are pickpockets on the Quinta, drink prices that change between the menu and the bill, and the sea when the red flag is up.

Comfortable: Quinta Avenida · Playacar · the beach clubs at Mamitas

  • the streets west of Avenida 30 late — unlit and not where the town watches
  • the Quinta crowds — pickpockets, and bar bills that grow
  • the sea under a red flag — it is flown for a reason

Palenque Reasonably safe

Comfortable at the ruins and in the town. The road to San Cristóbal passes through communities that sometimes block it over local disputes, and the blockade rather than the crime is what strands people; ask before setting out. The jungle is hot, humid and full of mosquitoes, and the temple stairs are steep and wet.

Comfortable: the archaeological site · El Panchán · the town centre

  • the San Cristóbal road — community blockades happen; ask locally before setting out
  • the temple stairs in rain — steep, wet stone and no handrail

Puerto Escondido Reasonably safe

Comfortable, with one serious caveat: Zicatela’s shore break drowns strong swimmers every year and the rip is constant — that beach is for watching unless you surf well. Carrizalillo and Puerto Angelito are the swimming ones. The coast road at night has no lighting and livestock on it.

Comfortable: La Punta · Carrizalillo · the Adoquín in the evening

  • swimming at Zicatela — a shore break and a rip that drown strong swimmers every year
  • the coast road at night — no lighting, and animals on it

Guadalajara Reasonably safe

Comfortable in the areas visitors use, and a big city with the ordinary care that implies: pickpockets in the markets, taxis by app rather than off the street, and the centro quieter and emptier after about ten. Jalisco has a serious cartel presence and it is not aimed at visitors.

Comfortable: the centro in daylight · Chapultepec · Providencia · Tlaquepaque

  • the centro late — it empties, and the streets around the Mercado Libertad more so
  • street taxis — use the app; it is the standing advice in the big cities

Mazatlán Reasonably safe

The tourist areas — the old town, the malecón, the Zona Dorada — are comfortable and busy. Sinaloa is the state the cartel is named for, and that is a fact about the state rather than about a visitor’s week here; the standing advice is not to drive between towns at night. Pulmonías have no doors and the drivers are quick.

Comfortable: the Centro Histórico · the malecón · the Zona Dorada

  • driving between towns after dark — the standing advice in this state
  • the pulmonías — no doors, and the drivers are quick

Taxco Reasonably safe

Comfortable in the town, which is small and busy. The streets are the hazard: cobbled, one car wide, forty-five degrees in places, and slick in rain. Guerrero state has a reputation, and the road to Acapulco is the part of it that visitors are advised to avoid; the Mexico City road is the one people use.

Comfortable: the centre and the plaza · the silver markets

  • the streets in rain — cobbles at forty-five degrees, and they run with water
  • the road south towards Acapulco — the route visitors are advised against; the Mexico City road is the one to use

Cancun Reasonably safe

Hotel zone is very safe. Downtown is fine during the day. Don’t buy drugs — ever. Avoid driving at night outside the city.

Comfortable: Cancún Hotel Zone · Puerto Morelos · Downtown Cancún

  • Downtown Cancún — late at night away from the main avenues
  • Buying drugs, which is where visitor violence here almost always starts
  • Rip currents and the red-flag system, which is not decorative

Tulum Reasonably safe

The beach and the ruins are routine. Two real cautions, both specific: cartel violence in Quintana Roo has produced incidents in nightlife venues, so bars in the small hours are the situation to avoid rather than the streets; and card skimming at standalone ATMs is common enough that using a machine inside a bank is the rule. Sargassum seaweed can bury the beach from April to August, which no forecast predicts well. Cenotes have no lifeguards.

Comfortable: the beach road by day · the hotel zone · the Pueblo centre · the archaeological site

  • the beach road at night on foot or by bike — unlit, no pavement, and the traffic is fast
  • cenotes without a guide when diving — the cavern lines are there for a reason and open-water training does not cover them
  • the undertow on the open beach — no lifeguards anywhere along it
  • drug buying — the violence that reaches the Riviera Maya is connected to it and almost never to anything else

Morelia Reasonably safe

The centro is comfortable and busy until late, and Michoacán’s reputation comes from parts of the state that visitors do not go to. The city, Pátzcuaro and the butterfly reserves are the routes people use; the Tierra Caliente to the south is not. Read your government’s advice, which names the state.

Comfortable: the centro histórico · the Calzada Fray Antonio · Pátzcuaro

  • the roads south into the Tierra Caliente — not a visitor’s route, and your government’s advice says so
  • driving between towns after dark — the standing advice in this state

Mexico City Stay alert

Central neighbourhoods (Roma, Condesa, Polanco, Coyoacán) are comfortable, but this is a huge city with real crime outside them. Use Uber rather than hailing taxis, avoid displaying phones and jewellery, and the altitude of 2,240m will tire you on day one — go easy and drink water.

Comfortable: Roma Norte · Condesa · Polanco · Coyoacán · Centro Histórico

  • Tepito — and Doctores
  • Centro Histórico — after dark
  • Street-hailed taxis — use Uber or a sitio
  • Express kidnapping via ATMs at night, which is why cash is drawn inside banks and malls

The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.

The guides in Mexico

people walking on sidewalk near brown concrete building during daytimeMexico CityMexicoAztec ruins, world-class museums, and the best street food anywherea large building with a dome and a courtyard with people walking aroundOaxacaMexicoThe best food in Mexico, seven kinds of mole, mezcal from the village that made it, and the Day of the Deadaerial photo of white buildingsCancunMexicoCaribbean turquoise meets Mayan historyaerial photography of beach shore during daytimeTulumMexicoMaya ruins on a cliff above the Caribbean, cenotes in the jungle behind, and a beach road that got expensivebrown rock formation on sea under blue sky during daytimeLos CabosMexicoDesert running into the Pacific at the tip of Baja, with grey whales in the bay every winterLoungers and a thatched parasol on the white sand at Playa del CarmenPlaya del CarmenMexicoA beach town that became a city: a pedestrian avenue of bars and dive shops, white sand either side of it, and the ferry to Cozumel from the middleBoats and sunshades on the shallow turquoise water at Playa Norte, Isla MujeresIsla MujeresMexicoAn island eight kilometres long with the best beach in the Mexican Caribbean at one end, golf carts instead of cars, and Cancún twenty minutes across the waterThe Cozumel shore from the air, houses along a line of white sand and reefCozumelMexicoThe best wall diving in the western hemisphere, an island that empties the moment the cruise ships leave, and a wild eastern shore with nothing on itDancers in white under the red arcades of a colonial building in MéridaMéridaMexicoThe Yucatán’s white city: a colonial grid of courtyards, the best food on the peninsula, free concerts most nights and cenotes an hour in every directionA street of ochre and red buildings in San Miguel de AllendeSan Miguel de AllendeMexicoA colonial town of pink stone and bougainvillea, kept perfectly by the people who moved here for it, with a neo-Gothic church that looks like a fairy taleThe beach and palms curving towards the town at Puerto VallartaPuerto VallartaMexicoA cobbled old town on a bay with jungle mountains behind it, the most welcoming gay scene in Latin America, and beaches reachable only by boatThatched wooden cabanas among the palms on Isla HolboxIsla HolboxMexicoA sandbar island with no cars, no pavements and no bank: golf carts through the sand, flamingos on the lagoon, and whale sharks offshore in summerThe Bacalar lagoon from above, its blues running from turquoise to deep greenBacalarMexicoA freshwater lagoon of seven blues over a white limestone floor, with cenotes dropping out of the middle of it and a pirate fort on the shoreThe white twin-towered church of San Servacio on the plaza in ValladolidValladolidMexicoA colonial town of painted houses with a cenote in the middle of it, an hour from Chichén Itzá and nothing like the coastThe Maya palace at Palenque standing among the jungle treesPalenqueMexicoA Maya city half-swallowed by jungle, with howler monkeys in the canopy above the temples and waterfalls an hour down the roadTiled roofs of San Cristóbal with the highland mountains behindSan Cristóbal de las CasasMexicoA highland colonial town at 2,200 metres, cold at night and full of Tzotzil markets, with the strangest church in Mexico half an hour awayPalms above a rocky bay on the Pacific at Puerto EscondidoPuerto EscondidoMexicoA surf town on the Oaxacan coast with one of the heaviest beach breaks in the world at one end and a calm swimming bay at the otherA street of coloured colonial facades with tables outside, PueblaPueblaMexicoA city of tiled facades under two volcanoes, where mole poblano was invented and the biggest pyramid on earth sits under a churchGuanajuato packed into its ravine, the houses stacked up both sidesGuanajuatoMexicoA silver city crammed into a ravine, with its traffic running through tunnels under it, painted houses stacked up both sides and a student population that sings in the streetsThe lit cathedral towers over the plaza at dusk in GuadalajaraGuadalajaraMexicoThe city that invented mariachi, tequila and the charreada, with murals by Orozco under a dome and the best food in western MexicoSayulita from the air, pools and roofs among the jungle above the baySayulitaMexicoA surf village of bunting and bare feet north of Vallarta, small enough to cross in ten minutes and busy enough to feel like a festivalThe yellow towers of the cathedral against a blue sky in MazatlánMazatlánMexicoA working Pacific port with the longest seafront promenade in Latin America, a restored old town of opera and ironwork, and a carnival that fills FebruaryA bare desert mountain rising straight out of the Sea of Cortez near La PazLa Paz, Baja CaliforniaMexicoA quiet Baja capital on the Sea of Cortez, with whale sharks in the bay in winter and the emptiest turquoise beaches in Mexico up the roadA street of painted colonial houses inside the walls of CampecheCampecheMexicoA walled city painted in sherbet colours on the Gulf, with pirate forts at either end and almost nobody in itOne of the Huatulco bays, a curve of sand between headlandsHuatulcoMexicoNine bays and thirty-six beaches on a coast that was planned rather than grown, with a national park behind it and boats the only way to half of itThe pink towers of Santa Prisca above the white houses of TaxcoTaxcoMexicoA silver town poured down a mountainside: white houses, red roofs, streets too steep for anything but a Volkswagen Beetle, and silversmiths in every doorwayA cobbled street of colonial houses in the centre of QuerétaroQuerétaroMexicoA colonial centre of aqueducts and shaded plazas that most visitors drive past, with the country’s newest wine region an hour up the roadA wet alley of pink stone reflecting the sky in MoreliaMoreliaMexicoA city built entirely of pink stone, with an aqueduct running into the middle of it and the monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains two hours awayA field of blue agave with the mountains of Jalisco behindTequilaMexicoThe town the drink is named for, in a valley of blue agave that is a World Heritage site, with distilleries you can walk into and a train that brings youTwo figures in Day of the Dead costume on a street in Todos SantosTodos SantosMexicoA desert oasis town of galleries and palm groves an hour from Cabo, with a wild Pacific beach that is not for swimming and whales going past it