Safety | Hurricanes | Sharks

Safety & crime

Los Muertos Beach, Romantic Zone, Puerto Vallarta

Los Muertos Beach, Romantic Zone, Puerto Vallarta

It’d be foolish and false to say that there is no crime In Puerto Vallarta, there is, as there is in any other city of its size, but violent crime is rare and involving tourists it’s even rarer. The scary news you hear from Mexico is related to drug gangs and is centered mostly in border states with USA and cities like Ciudad Juárez, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo, more than a thousand miles away from Puerto Vallarta. Read our specific article on the subject.

If we are to give you any recommendations while you are in the city, it’d be the normal, common sense ones you use in your own country:

  • don’t wave money around
  • don’t wear all your gold and diamonds
  • don’t act the ugly American
  • keep your eyes open, be aware of your surroundings, and
  • try not to behave like a fool, for example getting drunk passing out on the street (easy victim).

Others would be:

  • don’t do drugs
  • don’t get involved with drugs and
  • follow the law, this includes while driving and on the street

… that’s the best way to be sure nothing will happen anywhere in the world.

Most visitors and regulars state they feel safer in the streets of PV than in their own hometowns, even at night.

So, despite what you may have read or seen on the TV and the warnings you may receive from well-meaning but ill-informed friends and family, the odds are that Puerto Vallarta is actually safer than the place you are traveling from, so just relax and enjoy your stay in the city!

Read more on safety and crime.

Hurricanes

hurricanes

Even though Puerto Vallarta is mostly free from hurricanes, it does not mean it’s completely free from them, but they are rare events, something like once every 30 years or more. For details read more in our hurricane-specific article.

Sharks

sharks

During the 1930s and ’40s sharks were part of an economic boom in the bay area, it was good for the pockets of the local businessmen that sold shark fins to Chinese restaurants around the world, not so good for the sharks that were all but extinguished. Furthermore, the area is not known for dangerous species. There are no records of attacks in many decades, no one remembers any either.

Read more in our sharks and Vallarta article.

Last Updated on 05/02/2021 by Puerto Vallarta Net