Safe Towns/Cities on Pacific Coast of Mexico?
 

Hey everyone, doing my first motorbike trip down from Vancouver Canada to South America! Currently in San Fran, just trying to find information on safe towns or cities on the pacific coast of Mexico to stay in. I will be driving through the Arizona border crossing near Tucson, through Hermosillo to the coast and down from there. Haven't been able to find any good info on towns to stay in south of the US border. I'm not really too worried about cartel stuff, more just worried about the bike being stolen while I'm sleeping in some motel. I also have tent and sleeping bag, so camping is an option too. Any info would be very helpful, thanks guys!

Our travel insurance did not cover us for areas that our government advised against travel (it’s worth checking, IMHO), which was a lot of the Pacific coast.

We rode roughly down the middle which was away from the main foreign tourist areas. I’ve not been down either coasts of Mexico but down the middle was fantastic so we don’t feel that we missed out - but we’re not beach people anyway.

Banamichi, Sonora
 

From Agua Prieta/ Douglas head directly south to Hotel Los Arcos in Banamichi, Sonora. Beautiful town with no worries. From there, Tom will direct you south, there's plenty of nice towns along the way. Good entry to the Barrancas del Cobre, too.

West side Mexico
 

Tommy, finding “ safe towns “ along the west coast of Mexico would mean travel along highway Mex 15 and Mex 200 .
Basically you could except Culiacán because of some serious interactions between the police / army forces and the cartel which were pretty heated in recent days. Check out the situation of Culiacán beforehand , with the police if possible , and pass through in daylight. Acapulco is really struggling to recover overall from the hurricane and flooding damage in its south extension. Yet, hotels are open and the city certainly needs any money you can spend there. .

If you were to try staying only in “ safe towns” how could you determine that rating ? It would be a guess at best and you would probably end up picking towns spaced at what you project as being within a day’s travel . Then you would speed past all the intervening places afraid to do any exploration . But if those distance guesses are off you could wind up forcing yourself to ride into night to get to that “ safe “ place.
Of course, never ride at night out on the open roads anywhere anytime .

Every town may be considered as safe. Other than storm damaged roads and towns there should not be much to worry about if as you say you are staying in hotels and motels. There are lots of those so just choose any hotel that you find which offers a secure enclosed parking area.
No hay estacionamiento seguro? Then No staying there.

While using a few hundred m/hotels all over Mexico ( and investigating thousands)I have never experienced any theft off my bike even on two occasions when there was no choice but to leave the bike parked on the sidewalk in front of the hotel reception . Even bungee cords left dangling were not lifted.

I never carry a bike cover which I consider as a pointless weight and a waste of luggage space.
I only take into my room the tank bag and a small bag containing the needs for the night. The main dry bag and the tent are left securely strapped on the bike overnight , they are removed only occasionally to access the contents.

Relax and enjoy your ride .

foto of Hotel Central ,in Jocotepec which had no on site parking . KLR left on sidewalk was unmolested , 18 Oct 2024