Mexico receives more than forty million international visitors a year and the vast majority have no incident whatsoever. At the same time the country has a real problem with organised-crime violence, heavily concentrated geographically and rarely touching tourism. Both things are true, and the usual mistake is believing only one of them.
The rule that covers most of it: risk depends far more on the specific state and municipality than on the country, and far more on the hour than on the place.
The geography of risk
- Established tourist regions — Yucatán, Quintana Roo, central Mexico City, Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Baja California Sur, Mérida — have crime levels comparable to many European cities. Yucatán is among the safest states in all of the Americas
- States under serious travel advisories: Tamaulipas, Colima, Guerrero outside Acapulco and Taxco, Michoacán outside Morelia and Pátzcuaro, Zacatecas and Sinaloa. Check your foreign ministry's current advisory before going, because it changes
- Roads: travel by day and on toll motorways. Free roads are slower and incidents concentrate on specific stretches and at night
In the city
- Taxis: use Uber or DiDi, or a taxi ordered by your hotel. Do not hail a street taxi in Mexico City
- ATMs: inside a bank or a shopping centre, in daylight, never on the street. Cover the keypad
- Money: carry little and leave the rest in the safe. A photocopy of your passport is enough to move around
- At night: don't walk through empty areas or use your phone in the street. In busy central districts there is no issue
- If you are robbed, hand over what is asked without arguing. Violent robberies here are opportunistic and only end badly when there is resistance
- Drinks: don't leave a glass unattended and be wary of invitations from strangers in bar districts, particularly in Cancún and Playa del Carmen
Checkpoints and police
You will pass military or National Guard checkpoints on the highways. They are routine: lower the window, greet them, show documents if asked and say where you are going. It is not cause for alarm.
If a traffic officer asks you for money, ask for the official ticket and their badge number. You are within your rights and that usually ends the conversation.
Health and water
- Never drink tap water, anywhere in the country. Bottled is cheap and universal; in normal restaurants ice and salads are made with purified water and are fine
- Eat where there is a queue and fast turnover. The risk is food that has been standing for hours, not street food itself
- Altitude: Mexico City sits at 2,240 metres and Toluca at 2,660. Take the first day slowly and drink water; alcohol hits considerably harder
- Insect repellent in tropical areas: dengue exists on the coast and in the southeast
- Travel insurance with medical evacuation. Private care is good and is paid for up front
Numbers and paperwork
- 911 for any emergency, nationwide
- 078 is the tourist assistance line, with English
- Save your embassy's number and a digital copy of your passport
- Keep your FMM or entry stamp: it is asked for on departure
What not to do
Do not buy drugs: beyond the legal risk, it is the one tourist activity that puts someone in direct contact with exactly the people to avoid. Do not drive between states at night. Do not let unidentified people "watch" your luggage at terminals. And do not post the real-time location of a hotel or a rental car.
With that, and a sensible choice of destinations, Mexico is a country where tens of millions of people travel every year with nothing worse than sunburn.