Given its sunny beaches, rich culinary and cultural traditions, vibrant cities, historic villages, and ancient ruins, Mexico is always an appealing notion for travelers from the United States. And it doesn’t hurt, for the sake of convenience, that the two countries are neighbors.
But is Mexico safe?
Recent reports have suggested a rise in violent crime—much of it cartel-related—and some high-profile incidents have involved tourists in Cancún on the Caribbean coast and the state of Baja California on the Pacific side.
While the risks shouldn’t be ignored, it’s important to remember that Mexico is large and varied, that the highest crime rates are outside of tourist zones, and that the dangers facing beachgoers in most resort areas remain fairly low.
The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory for Mexico in autumn 2024. To account for the wide range of safety levels throughout the country, the U.S. federal agency supplies an individual assessment for each of Mexico’s 31 states.
Those advisories should be a helpful tool for U.S. travelers considering Mexico vacations in 2025.
(Edzná, a Maya archaeological site in Campeche, Mexico | Credit: Genna88 / Shutterstock)
The Safest Parts of Mexico, According to the U.S. State Department
The State Department gives its mildest safety advice—”Exercise normal precautions”—for travelers headed to two states bordering the Gulf of Mexico: Campeche (the city of the same name is pictured at the top of this page) and Yucatán. The latter gets more tourists; it’s home to Chichén Itzá and the Spanish colonial city of Mérida.
Seventeen Mexican states have received the U.S. government’s next lowest threat assessment and a warning for travelers to “exercise increased caution” due to crime in those regions. To help put things in perspective, the advisory for these states corresponds to the level-2 warning issued by the State Department for travel to France, Italy, the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom.
Mexican states with popular tourism destinations that fall under this second-safest category include Baja California Sur (where Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo are), Mexico City, Nayarit (where Sayulita is), Oaxaca (where Oaxaca City and Puerto Escondido are), and Quintana Roo (where Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Isla Mujeres, and Cozumel are).
Also on the increased-caution list are the states of Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Durango, Hidalgo, Mexico State, Nuevo León, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz.
The Most Dangerous Parts of Mexico, According to the U.S. State Department
Mexican states where the U.S. government currently recommends that tourists “reconsider travel” due to crime rates are Baja California (where Tijuana and Ensenada are), Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guanajuato (where San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato City are), Jalisco (where Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit are), Morelos, and Sonora.
Six states—Colima, Guerrero (where Acapulco is), Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas—have been given a flat “do not travel” warning because of the risks of crime and kidnapping, according to the State Department.
Safety Tips for Traveling to Mexico
No matter where you’re headed internationally, there are smart steps you can take to reduce risks.
Be careful about going to bars and other nightspots, especially if you’re alone.
Make sure to keep your loved ones up to date about your plans and, if you do set off on your own, remember to text somebody you trust with stuff like your GPS location and photos of the license plates of taxis you enter. (Here are some safety apps geared specifically toward women traveling solo.)
Do not display signs of wealth, such as expensive jewelry or the wad of cash you just got from the ATM.
Look over the State Department’s Traveler’s Checklist and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive alerts and to be reachable in case of an emergency.
And review the CDC’s travel website, too, to see if there are any health-related issues you should know about.
You may also like: the safest countries in the Caribbean and South America
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