Mexico is a wonderful, convivial country that millions of foreign tourists visit annually. Rancho La Puerta is barely across the border in Tecate, a town in the mountains east of San Diego. We've been in the same location since 1940, although now we have grown to be an immense, self-contained property of 3,000 acres.

Getting to the Ranch is simple: take a plane to San Diego, hop on one of our buses or vans throughout Saturday, and whisk...you're at the Ranch in about 1.5 hours, all but 3.3 miles of the trip on U.S. roads.

Any questions of safety were never even thought of until a few years ago, but because they have garnered the attention of the U.S. media (often unfairly, in our opinion), we feel they should be addressed:

Safety Update

We can assure you that throughout the last four years of the Mexican government’s focus on organized crime and cartel-related violence, 100-125 guests from the United States (95%), Canada, UK, and other countries have enjoyed their stay at Rancho La Puerta every week in complete safety, without a single incident.

If you’d like to talk with any former guest at Rancho La Puerta to verify this, be our guest. We will happily give you the names and telephone numbers of recent Rancho La Puerta guests who happen to live near you. Give them a call!

Or just look at our weekly Activities calendar to discover that many of America’s top authors, thinkers, scientists, entertainers, media, and others choose to vacation at Rancho La Puerta every week—and they are vacationers just like you.

Consider, also, our location. We are only 3.3 miles from the U.S. We transport our guests from the San Diego Airport to Rancho La Puerta entirely over U.S. roads in San Diego, except for the last 3.3 miles.

We do not drive through Tijuana or anywhere near it. We live in a time of heightened media focus on the challenges Mexico faces. Even the United States Department of State, in our opinion, has issued Travel Warnings in the past about Mexico with too broad a brush.

Recently our co-founder, Deborah Szekely, wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton requesting that any U.S. Department of State travel warnings be much more specific about exactly where in Mexico a travel advisory is truly warranted. In this way, travelers would fully understand that Rancho La Puerta and our guests are far from being in any “hot spots.” In fact, most of Mexico’s hot spots are over 1,000 miles away.

We received a letter, November 16, 2011, from Hugo F. Rodriguez, Chief of Western Hemisphere Affairs Division, U.S. Dept. of State, stating in part, "we...note that most resort areas do not see the types of incidents we are warning about, such as organized crime or cartel-related violence."

All travel is inherently an adventure, but we assure you that Mexico and Rancho La Puerta will welcome you with the utmost care and conviviality, as we have all our guests since 1940.