Is it safe?

The short answer

Yes, the tourist parts of Mexico City are fine to walk day and night if you use normal big-city sense. The cartel headlines are about other states and about parts of this city you have zero reason to visit. Your real risk in Roma, Condesa, or the Centro is not violence. It is losing a phone or a wallet to a fast hand in a crowd. Handle that and you will have an easy trip.

The zones, day and night

• Roma Norte and Condesa. The neighbourhoods most visitors stay in, and comfortable on foot around the clock. People are out at restaurants and mezcal bars in these until late; you will feel fine walking home along Avenida Álvaro Obregón or around Parque México.
• Juárez and Polanco. Calm and safe day and night. Polanco is quiet after dark in a wealthy-residential way, not an empty-and-sketchy way.
• Centro Histórico. Excellent by day and busy around the Zócalo and Madero. But it empties fast a few blocks off the main drags after the shops close, so take a rideshare back to your colonia rather than wandering the side streets at night.
• Coyoacán. Relaxed and family-filled by day, quieter at night but fine around the plazas.
• Garibaldi (the mariachi square). Fun early evening, but the surrounding blocks get rough late. See it, then cab door to door.
• Tepito, Doctores, La Merced fringes, and Iztapalapa. No tourist reason to be there. Doctores sits right next to Roma but changes character; do not drift into it on foot at night.

The real risks and the counter-move

• Pickpocketing and phone-snatching on packed Metro cars, at Metro transfers, and in market crowds like La Merced. Counter-move: bag zipped and worn in front, phone in a front pocket, nothing in a back pocket. Ride the women-and-children cars at the front of Metro trains at rush hour if that suits you.
• Taxi scams and “express kidnappings” from street-hailed cabs. Do not flag cabs on the street. Use Uber or DiDi, which are cheap and leave a record of the driver and route.
• Distraction thefts: someone spills something on you, or a “helpful” stranger crowds you at an ATM. Counter-move: use ATMs inside banks or malls in daylight, and keep walking when strangers get handsy.
• The “your card was declined, try this machine” scam at bars near Garibaldi and some tourist-strip clubs. Watch your card, pay cash where you can.

Solo and women travellers

Roma, Condesa, Juárez, and Polanco are common bases for solo women and generally comfortable, including for eating and drinking alone in the evening. The usual moves apply: share your rideshare trip, keep a hand on your drink, and prefer the front women-only Metro cars at peak hours. Catcalling exists; it is rarely more than that in the central colonias.

Who to call

The city runs a tourist police presence (POLITUR) around the Centro Histórico and Chapultepec, recognisable by their vests, and they are used to helping visitors. The national emergency number is 911, which works for police and medical. For lost property or a theft report you will want a police record for insurance; ridesharing to a station in a central colonia is the calm way to do it.

What a friend who lives here would tell you: nobody is going to bother you, but somebody will happily lift the phone you left face-up on a café table. Keep it in your pocket and this city is one of the easiest big trips you will take.