Monterrey
	MedToGo Related Articles: Driving in Mexico Insurance Information Making Phone Calls Pharmacies & Prescription Drugs Sunburn & Sun Safety

If you’re a new traveler crossing the border into Monterrey from Texas, you might have trouble believing you have entered the developing world. Booming Monterrey, capital of Nuevo León, is Mexico’s third largest city and its second largest industrial center. It hosts colossal manufacturing plants of some of the world’s leading businesses, and it has more colleges, universities, and institutes of technology per capita than any other city in the country. Additionally, Monterrey was the site of the first iron and steel works in Latin America, which yielded an exceptionally wealthy community that thrives to this day.

Monterrey’s metropolitan area contains nearly four million people, yet it is noticeably more orderly and friendly than other large Mexican cities. Regiomontanos (or Regios, as locals are called for short) tend to be punctual, straight-talking and at ease with their northern neighbors, making this a welcoming and accessible city for outsiders.

Regios also have a reputation for being conservative. Family dynasties, pockets of wealth, religion and politics, and a significant tradition of philanthropy make up Monterrey life. The effect is an efficient, safe, modern environment where English is widely spoken and people live well and plan for the future.

Because of distances and car culture, Monterrey is not a city for walking. The only exception would be taking a stroll around the vast Macroplaza, which is the main square where visitors will find the MACO Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museo de Historia Mexicana, the Metropolitan Museum, and the town hall. Monterrey has a modern, safe metro system, but visitors are better off using their own vehicles, hiring a car, or catching taxis. These are not as cheap here as in other Mexican towns, but neither are they rip-offs, as in some beach resorts.

Monterrey is subject to extreme temperatures, surprisingly cold (occasionally as low as 50º F) at night in the winter, and uncomfortably hot (113º F in the shade) in the summer, when you will spend your time peeling off clothes outside, and then piling them back on so that the air-conditioning—which is always turned up to frigid levels—doesn’t make you sick.

Although Hurricane Gilbert caused damage and loss of life in 1988, climactic disasters are rare.