To put it simply, yes,...!

... a vacation in Mazatlan is totally safe.

Safety in Mazatlan

We're glad to say that, despite the negative reports in the media, Mazatlan is actually a very safe place for your vacation. How can that be when there are so many horrible reports on the news and in the papers of drug wars, beheadings, and travel safety warnings? Well, there are actually several reasons that the reports are misleading and do not apply at all to Mazatlan.

The violence only affects those in the drug trade

There is a drug war going on in Mexico because the administration of the current Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, is making a very serious effort to stop the illegal trafficking by the drug cartels. However, the people affected are almost always directly related to the drug trade.

As for tourists in Mexico, you have about a 0.0014% chance of dying while you're here (drowning, accidents, natural death, etc.), and about a 0.0003% chance of being murdered while you're here (based on an excellent article that analyzes the relevant statistics for tourist safety in Mexico). As the article points out, that's better odds than living in most large cities in the U.S.

The main areas of violence are along the border

Mazatlan, located on the beach more than 700 miles south of the U.S. border, is not a hot spot for drug related violence. Apparently, there were some drug lords who used to live in Mazatlan because it's such a beautiful place, but they're long gone now, and while there is a strong police presence to ensure everyone's safety, there have been no incidents of tourists being harmed.

What do tourists and residents in Mazatlan have to say?

The people visiting and living in Mazatlan continue to say that Mazatlan is a beautiful, peaceful, and quiet city. Most feel safer here than they do back home.

Here's some examples:

In the TripAdvisor forum for Mazatlan, Sunfunme made the following comment at the end of a two week vacation:

I have gone all over here. We rented a car and drove outside the city limits. We walk and take the bus. Its very safe. Common sense pervails..just like at home..don't do anything illegal, dont go anywhere that you shouldn't or feel uncomfortable with. Come to Mazatlan, have fun, enjoy and don't worry!

The entire thread, "Travel Advisory," gives great perspective from a lot of different people about safety in Mazatlan.

Here's a quote from Jennifer, who moved to Mazatlan about 2 years ago, in response to a friend from the U.S. who was worried about her:

I told Mark how very safe I am here. I told him that our little city of 450,000 people was just descended upon by 800,000 partiers for Carnaval and the police handled everything very well. I told him that his one U.S. Dollar buys 15 Mexican Pesos, making a trip here a very good value. I told him his daughter was a lot less likely to make an appearance in “Girls Gone Wild” if she came here.

(taken from the blog entry "I'm Fine, Really" on Jennifer's blog, MexScape.)

There's also a website called "The Truth About Mexico" which has a lot of great articles with the perspective of real people in Mexico.