At this time of year, Mexico attracts millions of visitors seeking to escape the cold weather further north. The vast majority of visitors will never experience any problem during their travels in Mexico, but both the US State Department and Canadian government continue to issue regular warnings to those considering travel in Mexico. Some of these warnings are specific to certain stretches of highway; others are broader and focus on cities or regions. Click below for the current US travel warnings related to Mexico.
- Current US Travel Advisory for Mexico
The states left white on the map below all have advisories in effect (as of mid-January 2015) for most or all of the state in question. For the states shaded light green, only small parts of the state have advisories in place, while no advisories are currently in place for those states shaded dark green.
US Travel Advisory Areas, December 2014: All states, other than those colored dark green, have travel advisories in place for at least part of the state
The Canadian government offers its own travel warnings for Mexico:
The Canadian advisories apply to all those states left white on the map below. States shaded dark green have no travel advisory in effect so far as the Canadian government is concerned.
Canadian Travel Advisory, November 2014. No advisory in effect for states colored dark green.
The most obvious difference between the maps is that the US State Department is relatively unconcerned about the states of Jalisco and Nayarit, while the Canadian authorities have included them in a regional advisory.
States shaded dark green on both maps are areas where the US State Department and the Canadian government have no serious concerns about travel safety. These states, where travel is considered safe, include Guanajuato (including the cities of Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende), Querétaro (including Querétaro City), Hidalgo, Puebla (including Puebla City), Oaxaca (Oaxaca City, Puerto Escondido and Huatulco), Chiapas (Tuxtla Gutiérrez and San Cristóbal de las Casas), Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán (Mérida) and Quintana Roo (Cancún, Riviera Maya).
As always, tourists visiting Mexico and traveling within Mexico are advised to be cautious about visiting rural areas (especially in states where travel warnings are in place), to check local sources such as web forums for updates on the latest conditions, and to avoid driving at night.
Safe travels! Enjoy your trip!
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2 Responses to “Which parts of Mexico have travel advisories?”
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what is the reason visiting rural areas is considered potentially unsafe?
There are fewer security forces in rural areas, and they tend to attract more than their fair share of drug- and gang-related activity. Things have quietened down somewhat, but almost all the worst-hit areas in recent years have been at the margins/borders between rival groups.While this makes for some interesting and dynamic geography, these margins are not static, but constantly shifting, reflecting changes in the relative strength of particular violent groups.