Monterrey is the third largest city in Mexico and the capital of the state of Nuevo León. It is the commercial, industrial, educational, and transportation hub of northern Mexico, also third in economic importance after Mexico City and Mexico State. Although it is historically an industrial and commercial city (in fact most foreign visitors come for business purposes), tourists will be surprised at the wealth of cultural and entertainment attractions that the city has to offer.

While it is true that visitors seeking the traditional flavor of colonial Mexico find little to love about Monterrey, the city has emerged as a leading cultural center: it likes cutting edge contemporary architecture (like the visually stunning Puente Atirantado or Puente Viaducto de la Unidad in San Pedro Garza Garcia, the new circular Tec business school in el Valle, or the physics-defying twin leaning bookends look of that shocking white concrete and black glass building that you see as you drive past the ITESM campus). It's also a youthful city that tends to prefer cutting edge rockeros like Plastilina Mosh or Kinky to the cowboy-hat wearing cumbia groups that built the city's music industry in the '70s and '80s. Monterrey is a city where international cuisine finds a welcoming reception, and where high-speed broadband internet connections are actually becoming more commonplace than in many U.S. communities. Monterrey is a progressive, modern city that likes to learn, likes to work, and likes to live for the weekend.