Getting there
By air. Monterrey’s airport, General Mariano Escobedo (MTY), sits northeast of the city and is a major domestic hub, with frequent flights to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cancún, Tijuana and the border cities, plus direct US routes to Houston, Dallas and beyond. From the terminal into San Pedro or downtown is roughly 30 to 50 minutes by car (approximate) depending on traffic, and traffic here is real. Use an official airport taxi from the authorized booth or a ride-share; both are straightforward.
By bus. Monterrey is one of the biggest long-haul bus hubs in the north, and the Central de Autobuses sits near the center on Avenida Colón. First-class lines like ETN, Grupo Senda and ADO/OCC run comfortable daytime and overnight services. Rough runs: Saltillo about 1 to 1.5 hours (approximate), Mexico City about 10 to 12 hours overnight, Guadalajara about 10 to 11 hours, the Texas border at Nuevo Laredo about 2.5 to 3 hours. The terminal area is fine by day but worth leaving promptly and not lingering around after dark.
By car. The city sits on major toll highways, and driving in from Saltillo, the Texas border or elsewhere in the north is easy and fast. Fair warning: once you hit the ring roads and the Avenida Constitución corridor, driving turns aggressive and quick, so stay sharp.
Getting around
Monterrey is built for cars and it sprawls, so ride-share apps are your default: cheap, plentiful, and the way most visitors and plenty of locals move. Reach for them over street taxis, which may not run a meter. The Metrorrey light rail (Line 1 east-west, Line 2 north-south, plus the newer lines) is clean and useful for a few direct downtown hops, but it doesn’t reach the places you’ll most want, like San Pedro, Chipinque or the day-trip canyons.
Renting a car makes real sense if you’re doing the sierra and day trips like the Grutas de García, the Huasteca or Santiago, since those get expensive and awkward by ride-share and there’s little public transport out there. In the city center itself, parking and traffic make a car more hassle than help, so many visitors ride-share in town and rent only for the mountain days.
Comfort notes. Distances look short on a map and run long in reality once traffic sets in, especially the eastbound crawl at rush hour and around the malls; pad your timing generously. The mountain roads up to Chipinque and into the canyons are winding and can bother anyone prone to motion sickness, so sit up front and go easy on breakfast. Night driving on the fast ring roads is doable but the pace and lane discipline are stressful for first-timers, so if you can, do your out-of-town driving in daylight. Everything ties back to where you base yourself.