November 1, 2008
Is it safe for a tourist who knows no Spanish to travel to Monterrey, Mexico?
According to news stories and the official U.S. Internet travel site, Monterrey, Mexico has become a haven for drug gangs and petty thieves with little to no law enforcement.
Are these Internet stories true?
How safe is it to travel to Monterrey, Mexico?
If you have any specific comments or suggestions or stories, I would be interested in hearing them.
Thanks.
Thanks for the comments. All are appreciated. Reading the official U.S. government travel site to Mexico, it repeatedly mentions Monterrey as a problem area unlike most other larger cities in Mexico because of the many petty criminals who get away with crimes only because of the larger drug gang violence which has made burglaries, robberies, kidnapping (to empty out a bank account using an ATM card), kidnappings just to get a few thousand dollars from relatives, etc… which are all are being reported on the official U.S. government travel site. But, I was just wondering how accurate this informtion is.
For example, I know a person working in law enforcement in Laredo who says violence is significantly down in 2007 in Nuevo Laredo compared to 2006 while the official U.S. government travel site to Mexico states the opposite. I was just trying to get a better picture of things. Thanks again.
Filed under Other - Mexico by Administrator
Comments on Is it safe for a tourist who knows no Spanish to travel to Monterrey, Mexico?
Well, I am an American living in the state of Veracruz and find it perfectly safe. It is just like in the United States…in New York, or L. A. or even Co. Spgs where I am from…there are drug dealers and gangs. If you are not involved in that kind of activity and stay out of the less desirerable parts of town you never see any of it. I live just half an hr from the huge city of Xalapa…I am sure there are drug dealers there. I go to Xalapa all thee tiime and have no problems at all.
Since Monterrey is close to the US border, English is widely spoken. Now, it’s true that there have been a lot of problems lately related to drug gangs, but I don’t think you’ll have problems. People are usually nice.
Yes, completely, it is safe.
Monterrey is very safe, easy to move around, and more people tend to speak English in MTY than in many other cities around the country.
It is true that violent acts have risen lately in Monterrey, but because of drug delears and so on. What does this mean? That it is highly concentrated among people related to that “industry”. It’s like in Houston, Detroit or LA, in the meantime you are not related to anything like that, everything’s cool.
It is very unlikely that in Monterrey you will have someone stealing from you, taking your bags, stealing your wallet, or anything like that. So you can go around very safely, with the standard caution you take when you go to any other city in the world.
Monterrey is like going to San Antonio, Texas. Medium sized-city, with enough entertainment to keep you busy for 4 to 7 days, very safe, quite, but also good night life and restaurants, and so on.
If you come, apply the basics:
- Make sure you take secure taxi cabs
- Don’t give your PIN number to anyone
- Don’t walk in dark alleys
If you come to Monterrey, what you should worry about is the weather: It is ALWAYS terrible. Very likely to reach above 110ºF, or to have big electrical storms. Now that is something to worry about!
Hope this was useful.
I think that the gangs are only killing their rivals, not people at random. You would probably be safe, unless you’re involved in drug trafficking, are you?
yeah , its very safe ,
many of the population of monterrey know english
you dont anything to worry about
As safe as playing against the dirty spurs.
Its safe. Don’t worry. I live in Tula, Hidalgo, and I didn’t speak any spanish when I moved here. I learned quickly, but Monterrey has a small population of americans because of its industry. Just be careful of who you talk to. Have a good time!
The news media tends to exagerate, it used to be a very very very safe city, even at almost 6 million inhabitants, but in the last couple of years people have needed to lock their house doors and cars.
They are still complaining about this, you could leave your door open and if someone needed something, they would knock first.
True, there have been many killings, but unless you are a druglord you have nothing to worry about. It is hard to control this, since basically the police, the government and the druglords work for the same team. People are really quite tired and you will see something soon.
And almost everyone in Monterrey speaks English, some even shop at MacAllen and vacation in South Padre Island.
I lived in Monterrey in 1999 - and it was a big, relatively safe city. I think you need to take the same precautions you would take in Monterrey as you would any other large metropolis. You will definitely find a lot of English speakers there - as the city caters to American and international businessmen.
The other poster was right about the weather - it gets very very hot in the spring/summer.