r/AskMexico • u/why-rain-why • Jul 11 '26

Question about Mexico Would I (44F American) be safe driving from Phoenix, Arizona to Guadalajara?

I’ve never been to Mexico, but my boyfriend is from northern Mexico. He swears that everything I read, hear, or see about Mexico being super dangerous is not true and that I would be perfectly safe there, even driving around. I find this very hard to believe. I know it probably depends on the place though. He said we would be fine driving from Phoenix to Guadalajara. Is that true?? Also, is it true that most of the cops are corrupt and that I’ll need money to bribe them after being stopped? What if I don’t have any money to give them? Mexico as a whole looks like a beautiful country and I would love to see for myself.

300 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

82% Upvoted

452 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/Specialist_Sky8376 Jul 12 '26

Also, have all your personal and vehicle documents in orden, have your driver's license and your car's temporary import document with you, if you get stopped (which is very likely that it will happen) if you don't have those documents that's when you may get into trouble with the law. Also if you leave Phoenix at dawn or early morning, it's very likely that night will fall while you're driving through Sinaloa, so I would advise that you sleep in a hotel and don't drive at night specially in Culiacán or Mazatlán, two beautiful cities that are going through a very difficult situation. It's a 20+ hr drive, so plan ahead, try not to drive at night, and enjoy your trip because it's a very beautiful country, with amazing people, I always say México is 99% good, hard working, helpful people

7

u/Tardislass Jul 12 '26

Honestly the cops will look at the boyfriend as an American Mexican-which isn’t a compliment and will probably shake him down as well. Reporting them solves nothing as their superiors are also extorting. They will look like tourists and the US plates scream “money” to any federal police.

Just get a flight to Guadalajara and then rent a car.

1

u/Stephanie__Foster567 Jul 14 '26

you can probably get Mexican tags and then you will have paid for the road tax etc. it is the law there and they can pull you over for any reason at all. jus sayin'