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The Best Place to Live in Mexico

By Suzan Haskins and Dan Prescher

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Summary: The best place to live in Mexico might be Ajijic in Lake Chapala or San Miguel de Allende. Each town has a lot to offer expats.

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About the Author

AS International Living MexicoInternational Living's: Mexico: The Owner's Manual

International Living's Mexico: Owner's Manual is your guide to buying in Mexico. Mexico is one of the world's last great ground-floor retirement opportunities. Here, you can afford a maid, a gardener, a cook... Plus, you can still buy breathtaking beachfront property for as little as $40,000. But not for long...

Click here for more details or to order Mexico: Owner's Manual.

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Comments

guest
Aug 12, 2010 22:08

The authors do a good job of capturing the difference between these two colonial retirement havens. They resist stating which they prefer saying each is equal in its own way. Which town is best depends on your needs and perspective. I respect their view, but have trouble maintaining their impartial analysis. So, I’ll expand on some of their points and give you my opinion on which Gringo Village is best. “Gringo Village” was a term I picked up from a US Customs Agent as I was returning from a visit to Torreon, Mexico some years ago. He wanted to know if Torreon had one. I told him no. Since then I sometimes find it convenient to think of Mexico in this way. A Mexican city with a Gringo Village has a significant foreign population (not all gringos) resident primarily, in winter months most of whom do not speak Spanish well, if at all, along with housing prices primarily stated in dollars. This isn’t exact, but those are the major two points. We have visited San Miguel with the intent to live there, but ended up buying in Ajijic. Lower housing prices and the proximity of Ajijic to Patricia’s family in Guadalajara were the telling factors. We agree San Miguel has more energy and better nightlife. Some bars in Ajijic may be closed by 10:30 pm on a Saturday night. They are just getting started at that hour in San Miguel. In part, we attribute this difference to a “younger” crowd. We have no science to back this up; it’s just our impression from a three week’s stay there. Also, San Miguel seems to have tourists that come and go. Ajijic has older people that come to roost for the duration of a gringo winter or more. To give you the flavor, the Ajijic gringo club sponsors sessions on preparing to die, dealing with difficult adult children, doing a Mexican will, etc. There is no bar or any parties at the club. It is a beautiful place, but lacks joie de vivre. San Miguel has a more expensive feel to it. It reminds me a bit of my home town, Santa Fe, New Mexico. As I grew up, my father used to say, Santa Fe is arrogant, pompous and expensive. This is seemed to be driven by Santa Fe’s belief it was a center of the arts and a tourist Mecca. Santa Fe is still the same and I can see its elements in the make-up of San Miguel’s character. If we were to revisit our choice today it would be different notwithstanding San Miguel’s higher costs. We would choose San Miguel’s sophistication and more upbeat atmosphere. That is, if we were seeking a Gringo Village. But that is another story.

guest
Jun 19, 2011 20:06

I was in San Miguel a couple of years ago (2008) for two months and liked the upbeat pace. There is a great community of expats who live there permanently. As for prices in San Miguel versus Chapala, from the real estate ads I have seen, there isn't a whole lot of difference anymore (2011). Nice comfortable houses in Los Frailes (a predominantly Mexican upperclass area), a few minutes outside San Miguel, can easily be bought for prices that are competitive with what I have seen in the ads for the Lakeside area. No lake view but... OK, if you want to be in the center of San Miguel, it will cost you. However, it can be pretty noisy there during festivals with fireworks, etc, so the center is not my first choice anyway. Some expats in Mexico who don't live in SMA have trashed the expat community there for whatever reason. I actually think they seem to blend in quite well. I would like to go back to stay for a few months but when it comes to living anywhere permanently, I am holding onto my house in Europe, where I have built up a lot of equity over the years and where prices are remaining quite stable. I wouldn't want to sink my money into any place where the real estate prices appear to be directly related to the influx of expats, primarily Americans and Canadians, coming into the area. Expensive and a bit risky, especially nowadays. Renting for a few months is easier. After that I can head off to a few months someplace else.

lindarose
Sep 27, 2011 12:04

I´ve lived in other areas of Mexico, i.e., Oaxaca and the Yucatan and have been living lakeside for 17 yrs. now. Since I´m a Mexican citizen, I prefer to relocate to another area of Mexico, altho I´ve traveled thruout C.A. and recently spent 2 mos. in Ecuador. I ´chase the weather´and this part of Mexico seems to have the best. I live on the west side of Ajijic where we call ourselves The Westenders....BTW, if anyone is interested, my house is currently for saleñ only so I can do more exploring, downsizing. If you´re looking for an area with expats and many things to keep you occupied, you´re looking at the Lake Chapala area.

William Russell
William Russell

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