Is Mexico dangerous for a single girl?

To be honest, I was not quite serene in Mexico as the next destination. The country attracted me for its history, its culture, its landscapes, but it also scared me.

The media

It must be said that the overview we can have in the media is not very reassuring. The last time I heard about Mexico was for the mystery surrounding the disappearance of 43 students in September 2014 ... Added to that are the friends who have heard of friends of friends who would have been mugged. Flights, drug trafficking, kidnapping, murders, in short. I went to a country deemed dangerous.
Be ready to change your career

I took advantage of a friend's welcome when I arrived in Mexico D.F. (= Mexico City) to learn more about how to travel safely. I slightly modify the route I had planned to avoid the Veracruz region where a tourist bus was robbed the week before.

The important thing in this country, as everywhere else, is to have the freshest information possible by consulting the press or, better, the embassy site.

Where to go ? To sum up, you will be safe in the tourist areas of Mexico. On the other hand do not venture to the border with the United States and in certain regions (Guerrero, Michoacan ...) where the cartels are very present. In general, the border areas are to be avoided, because they are obviously places of traffic of all kinds. No paranoia that said ... An example: Palenque, I wanted to go to Bacalar and Tulum. The shortest route took me through Chetumal, a border area with Belize. The Embassy site did not say anything specific about this region, but I thought that between Belize and Mexico, there was necessarily traffic and so the city should not be hyper secure. So I told myself that if I found people to accompany me, I would go, otherwise I would go through Merida, a much longer path that would certainly prevent me from seeing everything I wanted. I finally convinced people to accompany me and in the end, I felt rather ridiculous because the city was absolutely not afraid. There is no reason to panic if none of your meetings (travelers and locals) tell you to be suspicious and if the site of the embassy, ​​usually rather alarmist, does not mention anything special.