HOW SAFE IS MEXICO CITY FOR U.S. TOURISTS?
Short answer: very, very safe. If you’re looking for trouble– in Mexico City or anywhere else– you can surely find it. But all the hype about Mexico City being a dangerous place for American tourists seemed to me to be completely unfounded. I had a quasi-revelation while I was there about why. There’s a subway stop at the airport. It costs 25 American cents to go anywhere in the city. I took it to my hotel and it was simple and clean and took 25 minutes. A taxi takes between an hour and an hour and forty-five minutes… depending on congestion caused by road building. And taxis cost… well, that’s where the hype comes in. It’s an oft repeated truism in Mexico City that if you take a “street cab” you could be kidnapped and held for ransom. It has happened– only not to tourists. It has happened to rich and upper middle class Mexicans. There appears to be a ring of kidnappers in cahoots with some elements of the police who kidnap rich Mexicans and ransom them. The game doesn’t work on
