It seems I get asked this question a lot. The quick answer is … Yes, it is safe to visit!

Personally, I’ve never felt unsafe when walking around Mexico City, whether with others or by myself, day or night, over many trips there. I believe it’s a popular misconception that the city is dangerous or that you always have to be looking over your shoulder. In my experience, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Granted, I’m primarily talking about the touristy areas, but that’s where most anyone reading this is likely to go, as this covers a great many, many square miles of area, with almost countless things to see and do. (More on the “tourist” areas versus “other” areas below.)

Now, if you’ve read the “Home” or “About” page of this site, you might be thinking that perhaps I only feel safe because I’m usually there with my Mexican wife, so her fluency in Spanish and innate knowledge of the culture is the deciding factor. While it’s certainly true that I’m typically there with her, there have also been times when it was necessary for me to travel to Mexico City alone, and I still felt safe. Likewise, my children, who are young adults now, have also said they always felt safe.

It’s always important to remember, as is true with most any city in the world, that the only times you typically hear about a particular place on the news is when something bad happens, as there’s not much “news” to report when everything is good and no major incident has happened. The only other times you generally hear about it is when the people delivering the news have a particular political slant against a certain region of the world. In both scenarios, misconceptions are easily born. Consequently, I have found that people often get a distorted vision of what a particular city, state, or even an entire country might be like, even if only hearing about some bad incident happening once every few years, whether in Mexico or elsewhere in the world.

To that end, the misconception of Mexico City being dangerous isn’t just held by people outside of Mexico. Ironically, my wife’s family live only about a two-hour drive from CDMX, and several of them have warned me of the dangers of it over the years, despite rarely, if ever, going there themselves. So entrenched was this negative view that several of them refused to go there for a weekend trip years ago even when I offered to pay all the expenses. (Side note: This is not to say that I have a lot of money or could make such an offer to visit other parts of the world. It’s just that it’s certainly possible to have a fun trip to Mexico City for relatively little money, particularly when it’s just a two-hour bus ride away.) Overall, I was just surprised and felt it’s really a shame when such a misconception takes hold, particularly as they were denying themselves a trip to one of the most interesting places to go in all of North America. That said, the story I’m relaying about a few members of her family was from over 20 years ago, and I don’t believe most any of them would turn down such a trip today!

As for me, I feel just as safe in CDMX as I do in my suburban neighborhood in southern California. (Just to be clear, I do not live in some crime-ridden area, nor am I someone who is just numb to violence or has some kind of high tolerance for crime. Instead, my neighborhood is indeed generally very safe!)

Despite my very positive experiences in CDMX, there’s obviously no guarantee that nothing bad could ever happen to someone visiting there. It’s just that, if you were to experience a crime in the popular tourist areas, it would most likely be pickpocketing, not something violent. While I’ve personally never experienced any crimes there, it’s still a very large metropolis, one with a lot of tourists, so you should follow the same rules that apply to any similar city in the world, such as the following:

• • Always try to be aware of your surroundings;

• • Don’t be flashing money around;

• • Take precautions when travelling after dark, such as sticking to well-lit areas when walking around;

• • If you’re not familiar with the city, try to minimize being out alone at night; and

• • Don’t wear or carry expensive-looking items whenever possible.

Obviously, these are just general rules, with the overall rule being “Don’t make yourself a target.”

“Tourist” areas versus “other” areas

Despite all the positive things said above about CDMX, it’s important to remember that Mexico City is huge, and so, while there are certainly many areas that are quite nice and safe, such as Polanco, Roma, Condesa, Juarez, Centro, and Coyoacán, which cover many, many square miles and are the areas where the average tourist goes, there are still some districts outside the tourist areas that are generally best to avoid, at least at night, such as Iztapalapa, Ciudad Neza, Tepito and Doctores, among others.

What do I mean by areas or districts?
Similar to New York City (NYC), London, Los Angeles, or countless other big cities around the world, Mexico City is huge and there are multiple boroughs within it. For instance, in NYC there are five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Further, within just the borough of Manhattan, there are over 60 neighborhoods, such as Soho, Greenwich Village, Times Square, Harlem, etc. Similarly, the city of Los Angeles in California consists of 462 square miles covering dozens of neighborhoods, including Hollywood, Venice, Bel Air, Westwood, San Pedro, etc.

It’s the same type of situation with Mexico City, and as with any large city, it’s always best to be aware of your surroundings and take precautions when travelling after dark. At night, stick to well-lit areas when walking around and try to avoid walking around on your own, and don’t wear or carry expensive-looking items whenever possible. As noted, though, those are the same precautions recommended for any large city.

Just try not to buy in to all the negative misconceptions that are out there.

For instance, recently when telling my gringo family about a trip to Mexico in July 2024, someone asked with concern if we had had any problems with the cartel.

I almost laughed out loud. Let me explain why …

This is essentially like asking someone returning from New York City if they encountered any problems with the Italian mafia. I mean … I certainly believe in the existence of the mafia (Italian, Russian, or what have you), based on what I’ve seen in books, TV shows, movies, and the occasional news report, but is the average person going to run into the mafia during a typical vacation? No, not likely … (unless perhaps that vacation was some sort of cover for racketeering and/or scoring massive amounts of illicit drugs!)

I certainly don’t mean to downplay the dangerousness of a crime syndicate / drug cartel or the violence they can inflict, or to say that there aren’t people who have indeed been horribly affected by such; I only mean to say that the average person visiting Manhattan in New York City on vacation and checking out Times Square, Central Park, SoHo, the Statue of Liberty, etc. isn’t terribly likely to have an encounter with the mafia.

It’s pretty much the same situation with regards to Mexico City.

While I certainly have no doubt that various cartels operate in Mexico, I have thankfully never encountered them, and I’m not just talking about my many visits to Mexico City, but across any of the nine Mexican states to which I have travelled. Further, I have personally driven many hundreds of miles across various states there and, more importantly, had an apartment in the major metropolis of Tijuana where I lived a large portion of the time for close to two years, and yet, despite all this and my countless other visits throughout Mexico over a span of more than 25 years, I’ve just never seen or encountered anyone from the cartel.

Again, though, I’m not saying they don’t exist, as they certainly do, and I’m not saying they’re not dangerous and harmful to society, since they assuredly are. I’m just saying that the average person on vacation isn’t likely to have an encounter with a cartel.

Regardless, I certainly can’t provide a guarantee that as a tourist to Mexico City you’ll never be a victim of a crime, as there’s no way anyone could assure such a thing. I’m just saying that if you take the same precautions as you would to visit any large city in the world, as discussed above, your trip should be fine and safe, and you will very likely have a great time exploring this exciting city and all it has to offer!