Monterrey
 

Hello,

I'm a person who is generally not afraid to travel ANYWHERE. But recently I've had some qualms about an upcoming destination.

I went to Monterrey, Mexico in December of 2009 and had a wonderful time. I made plans very early on this year to return. Now I've purchased my plane tickets and I'll be visiting friends in the neighboring suburb of Apodaca.

But with all the recent concert cancellations and gang violence, am I making a fool hearty decision? Is anyone on earth travelling to Monterrey? If you have been in say, the last six months, what have you experienced. Thanks!

My husband went on business in May. I loved Monterrey too, but while he was there he was told of mass killings and how horribly the gangs have taken over this once very safe and progressive city. It's so sad and I hope and pray the government can get a grip on this and soon!

Thanks ss for your reply. It is sad.

Meadow_zephyr, did you end up going? I loved Monterrey too when I went on two different occasions (2004 & 2005) and I'm very curious to hear first-hand reports.

Any further recent updates on this ??

My husband has been twice on business trips in the last year. After the first time when he was told not to leave the hotel he swore he wouldn't go again but after a job change he needed to revisit Monterrey in June.

This trip he was even more conscious of the security issues. A couple of local colleagues insisted they would meet him at the airport (they emailed photos so he would recognise them) and they took a taxi to the hotel together.
They warned him not to take a taxi on his own and recounted a horror story another colleague who took a taxi to the airport and was dropped several miles from the city. The taxi driver stole all his belongings at gunpoint.
Computer, passport, all his money, cell phone, suitcase, etc were all stolen but he survived and walked back to town.

The whole time my husband was in Monterrey he didn't leave the hotel apart attending a dinner function nearby and he took a taxi with other local colleagues.
Even though he had to leave for the airport just before 4am the same colleagues came to the hotel to pick him up in a taxi and traveled with him to the airport again.

The day he left the was a shooting in a nearby street next to a school and several people were killed.

My husband does not recommend visiting Monterrey as a tourist at this time!

Hello All,

I did end up going on that trip and went back again in July 2011. On both occasions we were warned about the violence, but we were able to avoid it completely and had a wonderful time. We spent some time in downtown near the Paseo de Santa Lucia and again Apodaca.

However, I would feel a little irresponsible recommending a visit there unreservedly because I was with locals the entire time that was there, locals who have lived there years and years, so they were constantly with us and telling us where to go etc. We did spend a lot of time in neighboring Apodaca and took a day trip to the awe inspiring Grutas de Garcia, all without incident.

But to an American with absolutely no local contacts (not that they are targeting Americans, I'm more referring to the lack of knowledge), you may have a different experience. But if you research, stay out of trouble areas and connect with locals and don't get off the beaten path, you may share my positive experience. But just setting out on your own is not something I would recommend.

Thank you for the update meadow_zephyr! It's good to know one can still have a wonderful time (with precautions) in the city that served as the introduction for me to Mexico & Latin America, so has a special place in my heart.

Best wishes, Daniel_Williams

My husband was asked to go to a conference in Monterrey again late last year (Nov 2011) but this time his local colleagues advised against it for the first time as they felt that they could not guarantee his safety.
He took their advice.

meadow_zephyr, glad to hear that you had a wonderful time without incident but you added that you were with locals the entire time.
How did you connect with them? Did you know them beforehand?

You mentioned that someone with 'absolutely no local contacts' might have a different experience. I think it would be wise for any prospective tourists to check the current situation with their local contacts before considering a trip to Monterrey.

I travel all over Mexico (except nowhere near the borders in the last several yrs.) including Michoacan recently, and have always felt safe, w/one exception (after my stay). I stayed in the Holiday Inn downtown in Monterrey two yrs. ago this month, just before it got overtaken by the narcos in a very organized attack at 3 a.m. on 4/21/10 and several guests and the desk clerk were abducted.

That scared the hell out of me, having narcos come into a Holiday Inn hotel, bc what if you had been in the lobby when they came in, or come out of your room and screamed as they were abducting the desk clerk and the 3 Mexican businessmen and 1 MX businesswoman guests they took. There were 50 gunmen surrounding the hotel in SUVs so that the police could not get near the hotel. They searched the rooms. It was a targeted attack, the apparently went into rm. 517 thinking one of the men they wanted was in there, but it was an Asian tourist instead and they left him in his rm. But still, attacking a Holiday Inn hotel is very different than other types of drug violence, which I usully feel like I can avoid getting anywhere near.

I talk to a lot of the locals in Mexico when I go, and on my last two trips, to Michoacan in Nov. and to the Puebla/Tlaxcala areas in Feb., locals told me they don't consider Monterrey safe now.

I love Mexico, own a condo there, and travel there frequently, and I am the 1st to say that generally the places you will go as a tourist are safe as long as you stay savvy and don't do something stupid. But I would not say that about Monterrey and Neuvo Leon now. Neuco Leon has superceeded Chihuahua state for numbers of narco-related deaths in recent months.
http://blog.chron.com/narcoconfident...death-capital/

Voters in MX will be choosing a new president on July 1. It will be interesting to see what happens after Calderon's 6 yrs. of drug wars. Topping the polls is Enrique Nieto, a PRI party candidate. The PRI party ruled MX for 71 yrs prior to being toppled by Calderon's Natl. Action Party.

emd3,
Thanks for your comments.
My husband was there just after you in May 2010 and did not feel comfortable even at his hotel as he did hear gun shots at night.
When he reluctantly returned in June 2011 he was chaperoned throughout his 3 night stay as his local colleagues felt it was warranted for his safety.
We were very relieved when he was advised by locals not to make a third trip last November!

We too love Mexico and have been to the Yucatan five or six times in the last 10 years. My husband has also worked in Oaxaca.
I hope the election of a new president will mark the end of the drug wars in Mexico.

sassycat, regarding your last sentence-- boy, so do I. It's a war that can't be won, IMO. And the U.S. provides the demand for drugs.

sassy_cat I went the first time attending an international convention called "Keep on the Watch." I made so many friends and they asked me to return. I did. On the trip that I inquired about at the start of this thread I started dating my fiance and we are getting married this Saturday. Life is a crazy adventure.

No stateside, he has told me many stories about the violence in MTY. But since his family lives there, it will now be a permanent part of my life. But my recommendation above, at least for the time being still stands. I hope that things will improve in the near future.

That should read "now stateside."