Detailed guides and helpful connections that enable you to plan and realize your relocation to Mexico

Mexperience provides in-depth insights and local knowledge with extensive articles, guides, and cross-references and connections to help you discover more of Mexico, consider your lifestyle options, define your intentions, make a plan, and help you to avoid making material mistakes with your Mexico lifestyle plans.

Our guides are written by people who know Mexico intimately, are continually revised and updated—and are free to access.

Mexperience helps you through every step of the journey

Our detailed guides and insights offer you complete information throughout every step of your journey:

• Discovering the benefits and opportunities Mexico offers to live and work or retire.
• Detailed insights that help you to consider whether Mexico is right for you and your partner—and family if relevant.
• When you’ve determined that Mexico is right for you, we offer lots of practical advice to help you plan your lifestyle in Mexico.
• Mexperience also helps you to plan your move, settle-in to Mexico, cultivate your social and community networks and helps you learn how adapt to the country and its culture.
• When you’re settled here, our up to date articles and monthly newsletter help you to cultivate a fruitful home life in Mexico.
• Our homestead articles offer practical advice to help you manage your home in Mexico and its dwelling spaces.
• Our insights and local knowledge also help if you’re living in Mexico now but want to revisit your intentions and need guidance to help you settle, adapt, and reform your plans.

Take the next step: start here

Mexperience offers extensive insights, local knowledge, and connections to help you plan and realize a relocation to Mexico, whether you’re single, a couple, or a family.

Begin your journey

Our Mexico Living & Lifestyles guide connects you to in-depth articles and information about living in Mexico. It’s continually updated, helping you to make considered choices and useful connections.

Help with lifestyle planning

Our regularly-updated section about Lifestyle Planning in Mexico shares insights to help you make informed decisions about your lifestyle choices in Mexico.

Calculate your living costs

Our detailed guide to the cost of living in Mexico helps you calculate a personalized budget based on your life stage and lifestyle choices.

Consider places to live in Mexico

We publish guides to help you consider places to live in Mexico, whether you come to live, work or retire.

Obtain your Mexico residency permit

Our detailed guide to applying for residency in Mexico shows you every step needed to qualify and apply for legal residency in Mexico

Real estate and property rental in Mexico

We publish a detailed guide to real estate in Mexico that shares practical insights when you’re buying, owning, renting, and selling property here.  We recommend you rent a house first before you buy, unless you’re familiar with the area you’re moving to.

Learn how to keep in touch when you’re in Mexico

Our comprehensive guides describe how you can keep in touch when you’re in Mexico.  Our local insights include learning about Mexico cell phone plans, how to dial phones, connecting to internet services including satellite services, and also learn about post and couriers… and the cost of utilities and communications.

Cultivate your home life

When you’ve made the move and you’re living here, our regularly updated articles about cultivating a fruitful home life in Mexico will give you insights, inspiration, and ideas to make the most of your everyday lifestyle.

Manage your money & finances in Mexico

We publish detailed, updated, information about managing your finances in Mexico, including bank accounts, money exchange, and money transfers.

Homestead care and management

Whether you’re renting a home or have purchased a property here, our regularly updated guides help you manage your home and dwelling spaces in Mexico, with tips and local knowledge to keep them well maintained and secure for you and your family.

Learning and improving your Spanish

We encourage you to learn Spanish to help you make the most of your experiences in Mexico.  We connect you to language courses, and our in-depth PinPoint Spanish series helps you to learn about the nuances of language usage in Mexico.

Driving, road trips and running a car in Mexico

Our guides and articles about driving and taking road trips in Mexico help you to prepare your longer road trips as well as dealing with everyday driving matters.

Free Monthly Mexico Newsletter

Sign-up to our free monthly newsletter about Mexico that is filled with inspiration, meaningful knowledge, helpful connections, and tips for better living, lifestyle, and leisure in Mexico.

Discover even more of Mexico

Our Discover Mexico section provides a constantly updated stream of articles and guides that share knowledge and keep you updated about opportunities in Mexico.

Comprehensive and detailed guide to living and cultivating a lifestyle in Mexico, continually revised and updated. Free—no payment or subscription needed.

Complete and detailed guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico that’s continually updated

Our extensive guides and articles offer insights to anyone exploring prospects for living, working, retirement and cultivating your lifestyle in Mexico.

They provide practical insights, incisive local knowledge, and meaningful guidance that helps you to discover opportunities, consider your choices, and make informed decisions.

Discover what lifestyles Mexico offers, identify opportunities of interest to you, weight up the compromises, consider your options, and plot a course based on the things that are important to you.

Guides to lifestyles in Mexico, for all life stages

Our continually-updated guides help you to begin weaving together the key components which create a workable and realistic lifestyle plan in Mexico, whatever planning stage and life stage you are in presently:

• To those considering a move to Mexico, whether you are single, with your partner, or a family with young children, Mexperience helps you to discover the country and evaluate living and lifestyle choices available here.  Our guides also offer thoughtful guidance about setting out your intentions and reshaping your situations.
• To those planning their retirement or seeking a place to retire, Mexperience guides provide specific guidance about matters related to retirement planning and retirement lifestyles, as well as the practicalities of retiring in Mexico.
• When you’re already living in Mexico, our guides and articles provide practical insights that help you to settle-in, adapt, and cultivate your new lifestyle here day-to-day.
• Regardless of your life stage, the information we publish provides meaningful insights about the essential day-to-day practical matters of living in Mexico, adapting to the country, the climates and culture, and more—with extensive cross references and links to further information and helpful contacts who can help you to realize your Mexico plans.

Planning or redefining your lifestyle in Mexico

Obtain practical insights, get incisive local knowledge and meaningful guidance that helps you to consider opportunities, weigh up your choices, and make informed decisions about planning or redefining your lifestyle in Mexico.

Mexico as a place for your retirement

We publish comprehensive information to help you plan a retirement here, whether you’re planning ahead or already retired and considering Mexico as a potential retirement haven.

Exploring locations and finding a place to live in Mexico

Our extensive articles help you to consider key aspects as you explore your options and make choices about your lifestyle and potential location types in Mexico.

Getting your residency permit for Mexico

Mexico’s immigration laws are reasonable and allow non-Mexicans with the financial means or family roots, and/or skills, to live here legally. We publish extensive knowledge to help you, including:

Moving and settling-in to life in Mexico

When you’ve decided to move to Mexico and made key decisions about where and how you’ll live, there’s the move a period of adapting and settling-in.  We publish extensive guides and articles to help you settle.

Learn how to keep in touch when you’re in Mexico

Our guides include detailed information about how to keep in touch when you’re in Mexico: by phone, by internet, as well as using postal and courier services here.  Our local knowledge helps you to choose a mobile phone plan, explore choices for high speed internet in Mexico (even if you live in a remote area) and our cost of living guide includes a section about the cost of communications services.

Detailed insights into the practicalities of living in Mexico day-to-day

Our articles and guides also include comprehensive insights about day to day living in Mexico that help you to plan your lifestyle, settle-in, and make the most of your life and activities in Mexico.

Mexico’s living costs and managing your finances

Financial considerations are an important aspect of any move.  Mexperience helps you to calculate your cost of living in Mexico and offers practical tips for managing your money and finances here.

Mexico as a place for working-age professionals

Working-age professionals, especially those plying a trade in the knowledge economy, are also considering Mexico as a base to live and work.

And more… resources for Living & Lifestyle in Mexico

Mexperience offers you a comprehensive online resource of information and local knowledge to help you discover Mexico, explore choices, find opportunities and plan a new life in Mexico.  Our resources include:

• A regular Mexico Newsletter you can subscribe to for free
• Regularly-updated articles about lifestyle planning  in Mexico
• Insights about day to day living with Mexico Home Life

Factors that influence commitment levels

As we describe in our continually updated guides about living and retirement in Mexico, how much time you spend living in Mexico, and how much commitment you make to cultivating a lifestyle here will depend on many things and is ultimately a personal choice that you will probably have determined when you were defining your intentions and identifying the key factors and other matters that will influence your choices about moving to Mexico.

As noted in our guides referenced above, the key factors that influence these choices include:

• social and family ties you have in your home country;
• the attachment (or otherwise) you feel to your home country;
• the physical distance between Mexico and your home country;
• your financial resources and personal energy levels required to move twice a year; and
• your offspring’s perceptions if you have children.

These factors are addressed in detail in our guide to living and retirement in Mexico, and although they are not the only influencers, they are the principal ones which most foreign residents face as they make their choices regarding a move.

Practical matters to consider as you prepare to return to Mexico

If you are one of many foreign residents that shuttles between your home country and Mexico each year —or if you intend to do this as part of your planned lifestyle— there are several practical matters to consider as you prepare for your re-arrival to Mexico.

Your visitor or residency permit

If you use a visitor permit to reside in Mexico part-time, note that border officials appear to no longer be giving 180 days stay by default.  They can still give 180 days maximum (by law) but in many cases people are begin given fewer days—sometimes as few as 10.

If you reside in Mexico even for a few months a year, we recommend you consider applying for a residency permit that will make your border crossing smoother and prevent you from having to leave the country if your visitor permit is not issued for the length of time you intend to overwinter in Mexico.

Renewing your temporary residency

If you hold temporary residency in Mexico and you intend to keep your residency status in Mexico, you will need to renew it before its expiry date.  Residency card renewals must be done in person, in Mexico—they cannot be filed by proxy.

Your arrival in Mexico is an ideal moment to check the expiry date on your residency card(s) and file your renewal (or exchange to permanent residency) as appropriate.  If you need assistance with your renewal process or exchange to permanent, our associate can help.

Vehicles you might bring

If you intend to drive your US or Canadian plated vehicle to Mexico, consider whether you will need a Temporary Import Permit (TIP), and whether you need a TIP or not, you’ll need to purchase a vehicle insurance policy that covers your vehicle while its in Mexico.  Read our guides to driving and road trips in Mexico for insight and advice about driving here.

House and home

If you own a home in Mexico, you’ll need to talk to your local contact or agent about ‘reopening’ the property for your return if it has been left vacant in your absence.

As we remark in our guides to home maintenance and security, it’s not advisable to leave your property unattended for months.  If it has been rented out, you’ll need to liaise with your agent or the tenants to organize the checkout and hand-back, review of the property’s condition, and return of the deposit, etc.

If you rent a home while you’re in Mexico, you’ll need to liaise with the owner or the owner’s agent you are dealing with about arrangements for you to take possession of the property during the lease period.  And it’s also important to know who is renting your home while you’re away.

Health matters

If you plan to be in Mexico for a defined period up to 90-days then a short-term trip protection insurance could work well for your stay.

If your stay in Mexico will be for longer than 90 days and less than 180 days, then an extended stay emergency and medical expense coverage will help to mitigate the cost of unexpected medical emergencies, and also includes medical evacuation to your home country in severe circumstances.

Language skills

Being able to speak at least some Spanish will materially improve your lifestyle experiences while you’re in Mexico, even if you’re only living here part of the year.  There are sensible reasons for investing time and effort to learn (or improve) your Spanish, and there are courses online and in classrooms that can help you to do this.

Travel and leisure opportunities

Part-time residents in Mexico may opt to take advantage of their presence in Mexico and consider some travel and leisure opportunities that are close-by.  You can browse custom leisure tours offered by travel experts that know Mexico intimately here on Mexperience.

Miscellaneous practicalities

The guide to living and retirement sets out the plethora of practical matters and details which need to be considered as you move from one place to another. Many of these matters are relevant whether you move to Mexico full-time or part-time—the principal difference is that if you are living here only part time, you’ll effectively be managing lifestyles in at least two different locations simultaneously.

Practical matters as you prepare to leave Mexico

If you intend to leave Mexico for a defined period each year and return months later (or next season/year), the key matters for you to consider prior to your planned departure date from Mexico will likely include:

• ensuring your Mexico visitor permit has not expired if you don’t have a residency card (you’ll need to pay a fine when you leave, if you overstay your visitor permit date);
• if you have a residency permit, you need to ‘check out’ at the airport or other port of exit when you leave Mexico;
• if you own a house here, ensuring that your Mexican home is properly cared for in your absence, or if you plan to rent it out, ensure that you know who’s renting your home;
• if you drove a foreign-plated vehicle to Mexico outside of one of the defined Free Zones (and thus have a Temporary Import Permit—TIP), make sure you stop at the Banjercito border offices and cancel your TIP.
• if your insurance policies are not annual, be mindful of the policy expiry dates and create a reminder for yourself to restart them for your next return to Mexico.

Resources for Living & Lifestyle in Mexico

Mexperience offers you a comprehensive online resource of information and local knowledge to help you discover Mexico, explore choices, find opportunities and plan a new life in Mexico.  Our resources include:

• Detailed guides to living and retirement in Mexico that are continually updated
• Insightful articles about living and lifestyle in Mexico
• If you’re planning your initial relocation to Mexico, browse article on our Lifestyle Planning section
• Our Mexico Home Life section contains a wealth of local knowledge to help you settle-in and make the most of your lifestyle in Mexico.
• Our section about Home Stewardship is packed with practical advice for managing your home and dwelling spaces in Mexico.
• A regular Mexico Newsletter you can subscribe to for free

The things you need to live well, to live comfortably, and to live simply are here.  They probably aren’t in the shapes and forms that you’re used to seeing; and how they manifest themselves might be different and, at first, alien to your customs.  This journey of discovery is one that you’ll have to undertake consciously if you intend to create a new lifestyle for yourself in Mexico.

Full adoption of any foreign country requires compromise, acceptance, and understanding.  Moving to Mexico will oblige you to change habits, surrender certain whims, and accept life situations here for what they are, not what you wish  or demand them to be.  In return, Mexico could gift new dimensions to your life, for example, by encouraging you to see beyond your current horizon, and connecting you to friends of the kind you never thought possible.

You will witness the kindnesses and wickedness of human nature as the well-documented contrasts present themselves regularly. Situations here will at times cause frustration or annoyance; sometimes they will appear to tease you for no apparent reason.

Mexico can also fill you with an energy and joy that will remain in you always. It’s this spontaneous tapestry that creates the almost mystical allure that has brought foreigners to live here, and live out their lives here, for better and for worse, for centuries.  And when —or more precisely, if— you can find peace with all that Mexico is and all that Mexico is not, you will begin to find your place in these lands. If you don’t or discover that you can’t tread that testing path and adapt, Mexico will surely break your endeavors and send you back whence you came.

You might choose a big city, a home in the mountains, or perhaps you’ll find a tranquil place to live beside the ocean, or in the Mexican countryside.  The topographical diversity here offers ample choice of locations.

Whatever location you choose, your true place, when you find it in Mexico, will be anchored in the spaces that you will come to adore but which you cannot easily define, and in the feelings you hold for them which cannot be easily expressed.

It has been said that Mexico deposits a certain dust on visitors’ shoes that will cause them to return for good, or never again. The allegory fits well with the contrasts so often cited in lore, but it would be foolhardy to encapsulate that thing, that indefinable attendance which attracts and repels so many to these complex and absorbing lands, in such black-and-white terms.  To adapt, you’ll need to turn up with an open mind, with courage and tenacity, and be prepared to craft your own story here—on Mexico’s terms.

If what you’re seeing on the news keeps you away from Mexico, your perceptions have been hijacked before you allowed yourself an opportunity to better understand these lands, and see what others here see: a country in transition, a country which is, by and large, less violent than those places where stones are so readily thrown from glass houses.

Finding your place in Mexico requires due course.  There are no shortcuts, no tricks or cheats to download, no instant answers. And as you embark on this journey, you’ll never quite understand how irrelevant all your preconceptions may become as Mexico simultaneously encourages and obliges you to find your peace amidst its contrasts and eccentricities.

If you come to truly embrace Mexico, as its closest friends who are foreign-born to these lands do, it will most likely be through a baptism of fire that will test your character, your mettle, and your heart; through a journey of discovery that brings each new day with a knowing that here is where your life belongs.

Resources for Living & Lifestyle in Mexico

Mexperience offers you a comprehensive online resource of information and local knowledge to help you discover Mexico, explore choices, find opportunities and plan a new life in Mexico.  Our resources include:

• Helpful articles to help you plan your Mexico lifestyle
• Insights and tips for settling-in and cultivating a life here
• Detailed information about seeking residency in Mexico
• Detailed guides to cultivating your life and lifestyle in Mexico
• A regular Mexico Newsletter you can subscribe to for free

There are lots of good, sensible reasons for moving to Mexico, but it takes consideration, research, and a plan to make your move a success.

When you’re seeking a change of lifestyle in Mexico you’ll find a wealth of knowledge here on Mexperience to help you consider your choices along with helpful connections that can assist to make your plans a reality.

Research and plan your move to Mexico

Stories of foreign residents who have moved to Mexico successfully are most often characterized by people who made an effort to research and make considered choices.

For those willing to make a plan and see-through the ‘sales pitch’ promises of pipe-dream lifestyles abroad, the benefits of meaningful residency in Mexico are real and tangible. Mexperience living and lifestyle guides and articles show you how.

Mexico lifestyle planning

Mexperience can help when you’re exploring prospects for living and working or retirement in Mexico.  Our extensive resources help you discover practical insights, incisive local knowledge, and meaningful guidance that helps you to consider opportunities, weigh up your choices, and make informed decisions.  Start by reading these key articles, and connect to our free and comprehensive guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico for more detailed insights…

• Motivations for moving to and living in Mexico
• Approaches to choosing or changing your lifestyle
• Living costs in Mexico
• The journey to finding your place in Mexico

Free Guide: Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico 

When you plan to retire in Mexico

Mexico continues to be one of the most popular countries in the world for American and Canadian retirees, and there is an increase in people from other parts of the world considering Mexico fore retirement too.  We publish comprehensive information to help you plan a retirement here, including:

• How to know if Mexico is right for your retirement
• Key benefits Mexico offers retirees
• Approaches for retirement lifestyles in Mexico
• How much money you need to retire in Mexico
• Regularly updated articles about retirement in Mexico

Free Guide: Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico includes sections about planning and realizing your retirement in Mexico.

When you plan to work in Mexico

Working-age professionals, especially those plying a trade in the knowledge economy, are also considering Mexico as a base to live and work.

Free Guide: Read our guides and articles about Working & Self-employment in Mexico

Mexico visas and residency permits

Mexico’s immigration laws are reasonable and allow non-Mexicans with the financial means or family roots, and/or skills, to live here legally. We publish extensive knowledge to help you, including:

• A detailed summary about how to apply for residency in Mexico.
• Learn about routes to obtaining legal residency in Mexico
• Regularly updated articles and insights about obtaining and maintaining your residency status in Mexico.

Free Guide: Guide to Immigrating to Mexico

Finding a place to live in Mexico

When you move here, you’ll need somewhere to live. Whether you plan to rent or buy a home here, Mexperience offers a wealth of helpful insights and practical local knowledge.

Our extensive articles help you to consider key aspects as you explore your options and make choices about your lifestyle and potential location types in Mexico.  Key articles to read about this include:

• Influencing factors as you search for a place to live in Mexico
• Matching your location with your lifestyle needs
• The charms & compromises of living in the Mexican countryside
• Discover places for living, working or retirement in Mexico

Free Guide: Our Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico includes sections about short-listing locations, guides to places for living in Mexico, and helpful insights to help you choose your location based on your life stage and lifestyle needs.

Free Guide: Our extensive Guide to Real Estate in Mexico includes insights about buying, renting, selling, and managing your residential home in Mexico.

The practicalities of living in Mexico

Our articles and guides also include comprehensive insights about day to day living in Mexico, including:

• Renting, buying, owning and selling a home in Mexico
• Driving and bringing foreign plated cars to Mexico
• Moving your personal goods to Mexico
• Living with pets in Mexico
• Learning or improving your Spanish
• Managing your health and well-being
• Getting essential insurance coverages

Home Life: Regularly updated articles in our Mexico Home Life section offer tips and insights about day-to-day living here.

Home Stewardship: Articles and guides in our Home Stewardship section help you manage your house, home, and dwelling spaces in Mexico.

Free Guide: House Maintenance and Security in Mexico

Free Guide: Driving & Road Trips in Mexico

Managing your finances and living costs

Financial considerations are an important aspect of any move.

• We don’t recommend you plan a lifestyle here solely based on living costs, but they are a key factor to consider and our guide to the cost of living in Mexico will help you to map-out a detailed budget based on your individual life situation.
• Learn about Mexico’s currency.
• Browse our regularly-updated articles about money, banking and finances in Mexico to get practical insights into managing your money.

Free Guide: Money, Finances and Banking Services in Mexico

Free Guide: Learn about Living Costs in Mexico

Mexico is an ideal place to spend your leisure time

When you’re living here, you’ll enjoy direct access to the enormous choice of leisure opportunities Mexico offers.

• Our guides and articles about travel experiences in Mexico provide inspiration and advice for spending your leisure time.
• Our travel partners can help you arrange custom travel tours, with itineraries created by people who know Mexico intimately.

Mexico Assistance Services bridge the gap

To help you take the next steps and bridge the gap between your planning and making those plans happen, we also offer a selection of Mexico Assistance Services that connect you to service providers and local professionals that can facilitate your endeavors and help you to realize your plans.

Resources for Living & Lifestyle in Mexico

Mexperience offers you a comprehensive online resource of information and local knowledge to help you discover Mexico, explore choices, find opportunities and plan a new life in Mexico.  Our resources include:

• Regularly-updated articles about lifestyle planning  in Mexico
• A regular Mexico Newsletter you can subscribe to for free

The annual survey is a barometer of current perceptions as expressed by Internations’ members who are primarily foreign expats situated across the world, including those in Mexico.

Measure twice, cut once

These surveys help to raise awareness about certain places and offer some helpful snapshots concerning the current mood among those seeking or living lifestyles abroad, and the criteria measured for selecting the best destinations —quality of life, ease of settlement, and cost of living, etc. —are valid and universal attractions of living anywhere.

Moving overseas is a significant commitment of yours and your family’s time, resources, energy, and emotions, and your reasons for moving to any place abroad ought to be considered with careful deliberations founded on your core lifestyle intentions.

Consider what you’re seeking from a lifestyle in Mexico

Mexico offers genuine substance and value to foreign residents, and to figure out what you’re seeking from a new lifestyle here, it’s helpful to define your intentions and consider whether Mexico is right for you—and your partner and family, if relevant.

To achieve this, you need to step back from the idealistic portrayals often espoused by those ‘living the dream’ narratives so often seen published and:

• take a mindful pause and define your lifestyle intentions;
• consider what matters are important to you and those close to you;
• overlay those things with what Mexico offers for living and lifestyle; and
• consider how you’ll navigate the compromises you’ll inevitably have to make when you come and live here.

Lifestyle planning requires focus and support

You can never plan for every potential outcome, but having a clear idea about your core intentions will give you an anchor that you can return to through the inevitable periods of uncertainty and doubt that will arise as you move and settle-in to a new and different life situation in Mexico.

The matter of considering and defining your lifestyle intentions, and how Mexico does or does not fit well with those, is an important and substantial subject that is covered in-depth in our detailed articles about living and retirement in Mexico—see links below to get started.

A wealth of local knowledge, resources, and connections

When you’re exploring the possibilities that Mexico offers, Mexperience provides a comprehensive online resource that enables you to discover opportunities and temper the unbridled enthusiasm that’s sometimes painted by idealistic notions of living abroad.

The information we publish and share helps you to make considered choices, formulate a plan, and shows how you can realize that plan through constructive and sustainable changes in lifestyle.

Begin exploring your choices for a new and different life in Mexico:

• Key factors to consider as you plan your lifestyle in Mexico
• Latest articles and insights about Mexico lifestyle planning
• Key resources for planning a new lifestyle in Mexico
• Exploring potential locations to live in Mexico
• Learn about acquiring legal residency in Mexico
• Our Home Life section shares detailed practical insights about day-to-day living matters in Mexico

Obtaining assistance

Our associates provide helpful assistance services which provide key support for your Mexico lifestyle plans.  These include:

• Immigration assistance when you need help with your with your residency permits.
• Insurance services – mitigate the effects of unforeseen events with coverages for your vehicle, home, health and travel.
• Professional services – when you need counsel or advice about property, commercial or legal matters in Mexico.
• Real estate assistance – when you need help finding a property in Mexico.
• Spanish language study – obtain help when you want to learn or improve your Spanish.
• Leisure time – with Mexico on your doorstep, our travel associates can help you see more of it with carefully crafted custom tours that help you to make the most of your leisure time.

Creating a realistic and workable lifestyle plan

Mexperience offers comprehensive local knowledge to guide you through every stage of your relocation to Mexico, and continues to help after you make the move and settle-in to Mexico.  We also connect you to helpful contacts who can facilitate your plans.

This article outlines key factors to consider as you think about a move to Mexico—whether you’re moving alone, with your partner, or with your family.

The factors summarized in this article are an integral part of our continually-updated and free guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico.

Our guides, articles, and monthly newsletter are written by people who know Mexico intimately, are continually revised and updated—and are free to access.

Foundation work for your Mexico lifestyle planning

Some people move to Mexico on a whim (with varying results); however, when you look under the hood of the stories about people who have made a beneficial move to Mexico, they tend to be underpinned by the presence of a lifestyle plan.

When you’re considering a move to Mexico it makes sense to take a step back and:

• consider your approach to a lifestyle in Mexico;
• define your intentions and know what’s motivating you to move here;
• be mindful about where in Mexico to live, taking care to match your true needs with the locations you consider;
• consider the requirements for legal residency;
• plan to deal with essential matters related to settling-in and adapting to a new culture and lifestyle in Mexico: by yourself, or with your partner or family.

Free Guide: Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico

Retirement planning in Mexico

If you plan to move to Mexico to retire (or to eventually retire here), you ought to consider matters related specifically to retirement planning and retirement lifestyles in Mexico.

Although retired people don’t carry the challenges and stresses of a working life —holding down a job, raising children, and keeping wolves from the door— retirement does bring other challenges.

Becoming informed by using practical guidance to help you make constructive plans, identifying and mitigating the risks associated with retirement abroad, and learning about key elements which often underpin a fruitful and abundant retirement lifestyle in Mexico can help you to make better choices.

Free Guide: Our Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico contains sections specifically about planning and realizing a retirement in Mexico.

Discovering places to live in Mexico

The place where you decide to live is a personal choice; it’s also subjective, and important.

Where you choose to live in Mexico can make or break your lifestyle plans and aspirations, so taking time to pause and consider your needs in relation to a place is sensible and preferable to making an impulsive decision based on assumptions which are often conceived in haste and based on limited knowledge and experience of a location and its attributes.

Matching your needs with your location is one of the cornerstone choices you will make as you plan a move to Mexico, and Mexperience offers insights and local knowledge to help you make considered choices.

Free Guide: Our Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico contains insights to help you consider your choices about location and accommodations when you relocate to Mexico.

Practical essentials for everyday living in Mexico

When you have committed to the move and find yourself in Mexico, you will face an entire raft of practical matters which are relevant to everyday living here, regardless of your life stage and other circumstances.

These include things like finding a property to rent or buy, adapting to local climates, keeping healthy and well, engaging with the language, keeping in touch, getting around using transport options, caring for your pets, as well as wide assortment of everyday practical matters like tipping and bargaining, and the water supply—to name a few.

Free Guide: Our extensive Guide to Real Estate in Mexico includes insights about buying, renting, selling, and managing your residential home in Mexico.

Taking this pathway to adaptation is necessary and, although at times it may be challenging and confusing to you, it will form an essential part of your overall experience and provide a foundation from which you will learn to cultivate a fruitful lifestyle here.

Free Guide: Our Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico includes sections about settling-in to Mexico, adapting to your new environment and lifestyle, and finding balance and purpose.

When you’re settled, there are always day-to-day matters to contend with, that will form part of your new lifestyles and life experiences.   Mexperience offers ample insights to help you navigate these stages of change and transformation in your lifestyle.

Home Life: Regularly updated articles in our Mexico Home Life section offer tips and insights about day-to-day living here.

Home Stewardship: Articles and guides in our Home Stewardship section help you manage your house, home, and dwelling spaces in Mexico.

Connect to additional resources to help you plan and realize your relocation to Mexico

Knowledge, resources, and helpful contacts will play a defining role in your lifestyle planning and move to Mexico.  Mexperience helps you on your journey to discovering opportunities, making informed choices, and turning your lifestyle plans into reality.

• Our Mexico Lifestyle Planning section contains articles and guides to help you plan a new lifestyle, or consider how to reform an existing lifestyle here
• Discover Places to Live in Mexico helps you find and compare key locations across Mexico—from the most popular, to new emerging areas as well as places off the beaten track
• The Mexico Home Life section provides practical insights that help you to cultivate your lifestyle in Mexico every day
• Register for our free monthly newsletter about Mexico

Free Guide: Our Guide to Living & Lifestyles in Mexico is comprehensive and continually-updated.  It contains detailed knowledge and insights to help you consider your choices and form a plan based on your intentions and individual circumstances.

Obtaining assistance

Our associates provide helpful assistance services which provide key support for your Mexico lifestyle plans.  These include:

• Immigration assistance when you need help with your with your residency permits.
• Insurance services – mitigate the effects of unforeseen events with coverages for your vehicle, home, health and travel.
• Professional services – when you need counsel or advice about property, commercial or legal matters in Mexico.
• Spanish language study – obtain help when you want to learn or improve your Spanish.
• Leisure time – with Mexico on your doorstep, our travel associates can help you see more of it with carefully crafted custom tours that help you to make the most of your leisure time.

We regularly talk with foreign residents who have made their home here and, while all gardens can never be rosy all of the time, we’ve gathered together the key reasons cited by people who have settled here and say they are staying for the long-term.

“We’re enjoying a better quality of life.”

It’s no secret that the cost of living is rising across most of the world—that is, homestead, food and utilities are costing more, taxes are rising, and incomes are falling when compared to real inflation.

Retirees on fixed incomes are particularly affected by this.  People are moving to places like Mexico where their fixed incomes stretch further because they’re not paying as much for the basic necessities and their incomes are not being hit by rising costs that they cannot avoid, especially property taxes.

“We’re eating better food and paying less for it.”

There is an abundance of fresh, wholesome, food available in Mexico at affordable prices.  Fresh foods are available in many countries that don’t have the climates to grow them all year long, but at a premium price in comparison to highly processed and non-fresh foods.  In Mexico, you don’t have to spend the whole paycheck eating wholesomely.  Learn more about enjoying food in Mexico, as well as markets and shopping.

“Our home living costs are lower in Mexico.”

The fees and taxes home-owners have to pay in places like the US, Canada, and Western Europe have climbed steadily over the last decade—to the point where these are now a significant line-item on personal budgets.

Rises in house and community taxes have out-stripped inflation, and maintenance costs are steep: in summary, home ownership is becoming an expensive pastime and putting a lot of pressure on people with fixed incomes, or with wages that are failing to keep up with price rises.

In Mexico, home owners enjoy low property taxes as well as lower maintenance costs due to lower material prices and labor fees for house maintenance services.

“We enjoy an extraordinary climate.”

In terms of climate, Mexico is a land of three lands.

If you enjoy a year-round temperate climate, the central highland areas are ideal; if you need to be where it’s warmer/hot beside the ocean, there’s plenty of choice and, unlike the US, coastal property is still affordable in many places across Mexico.  If you prefer cooler temperatures year-round, Mexico’s highland mountain towns could suit you.

Some foreign residents come for the winter, some stay longer or stay all year. Our guide to finding a climate to suit your lifestyle will help you to consider the choices.  As a bonus, the light here is extraordinary all year.

“We can afford healthcare in Mexico.”

Routine medical care, specialist services, and medications cost less in Mexico, and you don’t have to compromise on the quality of healthcare you receive.

As the costs and limitations of the US and other medical care systems reveal themselves, people are looking abroad for the treatments and care they need—and Mexico’s geographical closeness is as attractive as the affordability.

You can learn about options for medical health care insurance in Mexico and find lots of additional insights about healthcare and well-being here on Mexperience.

“We feel safe in Mexico.”

In a related article about finding your niche in Mexico, we wrote: “If what you’re seeing about Mexico on your TV screen scares and keeps you away now, your perceptions have been hijacked before you allowed yourself an opportunity to better understand these lands, and see what others here see: a country in transition, a country which is, by and large, less violent than those places where stones are so readily thrown from glass houses.”

Despite the anti-Mexico news flow, foreign residents living here report that they feel safe and settled in Mexico. The drug cartels are not targeting foreign residents or tourists. People who are not involved in the drug trade or other criminal activities have a very small chance of being affected by violent crime.

Resources for Living & Lifestyle in Mexico

Mexperience offers you a comprehensive online resource of information and local knowledge to help you discover Mexico, explore choices, find opportunities and plan a new life in Mexico.  Our resources include:

• Relocate to Mexico, detailed guide to help you plan and realize your move
• Insightful articles about living and lifestyle in Mexico
• An extensive selection of free guides to living and lifestyles in Mexico
• A regular Mexico Newsletter you can subscribe to for free

Key reasons why Mexico is attractive to retirees

The country’s popularity as a retirement destination is underpinned by a variety of key elements and characteristics that are especially attractive to retirees, which include:

• agreeable year-round climates;
• a variety of location types to choose from;
• a warm and welcoming culture that also offers the enjoyment of experiencing unusual traditions and celebrations that are nevertheless quite familiar;
• ready access to transport infrastructure, including modern roads and international airports;
• well-established communities of existing foreign resident retirees;
• a wide range of local services and amenities to support day-to-day retirement lifestyles;
• affordable access to world-class health and well-being facilities;
• access to local markets bursting with color and selling delicious fresh produce; and, amidst all this—
• affordability—a retirement pension can stretch further in Mexico.

Retirement lifestyles underpinned by key benefits

People who arrive in Mexico to live and retire here can lead active, healthy, lifestyles underpinned by Mexico’s agreeable climates, first-class amenities, and affordable living costs.  Some who have come to retire in Mexico and consider the country their natural home comment on how they value and appreciate their enjoyable lifestyles and activities, and how they feel settled, safe, and content in Mexico.

When you’re considering a move to Mexico it makes sense to take a step back and:

• consider your approach to a lifestyle in Mexico;
• define your intentions and know what’s motivating you to move here;
• be mindful about where in Mexico to live, taking care to match your true needs with the locations you consider;
• consider the requirements for legal residency;
• plan to deal with essential matters related to settling-in and adapting to a new culture and lifestyle in Mexico: by yourself, or with your partner or family.

Learn more about retirement lifestyles in Mexico

Begin exploring your choices for a new and different life in Mexico:

• Key factors to consider as you plan your lifestyle in Mexico
• Latest articles about retirement in Mexico
• Latest articles and insights about Mexico lifestyle planning
• Key resources for planning a new lifestyle in Mexico
• Exploring potential locations to live in Mexico
• Learn about acquiring legal residency in Mexico
• Our Home Life section shares detailed practical insights about day-to-day living matters in Mexico

Get help to plan your approach when you apply for residency in Mexico and practical facilitation assistance as you make your way through procedures related to applying for and managing your residency status in Mexico.

Another important aspect regarding your choice of location as you short-list places for your home here is whether to live in a town or city, or in a rural or semi-rural area.

Country living in Mexico: the charms

There are many attractions to living in the Mexican countryside.  The principal ones include:

Creating your countryside idyll

There’s something comforting about taking enjoyment in a home situated in the Mexican countryside, away from the hustle of urban pursuits and the congestion of contemporary pressures; living amidst the sounds and scents of nature.

The pace of life is more gentle and so, it seems, are the people—often with the benefit of vibrant local communities who organize themselves around common interests. A country home in Mexico can offer this idyll, far enough away from urban sprawls characterized by rushed lifestyles, and often close enough to a town or city where a plentiful choice of services and amenities may be readily obtained.

Rural living in a small Mexican town or village promises respite from the urban ‘rat-race,’ a place where you can live life more deliberately, where young children can experience their childhood in large gardens and wander picturesque streets, and where life’s demands at least appear to be a little less demanding.  The charms of living in the Mexican countryside are  alluring—and it can be quite affordable…

Affordability

Whether you are renting or buying a property here, you’ll usually pay less per square meter of land and living space in Mexico’s (semi)rural areas than you will in urban towns and cities, especially in comparison to the country’s three big cities: Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey.

Provincial cities in Mexico’s highlands —whether urban or (semi)rural— can offer some of the best value real estate in Mexico, although prices are very localized, so you need to examine markets on a per-location basis.

There are some notable exceptions where property prices in provincial areas can be as high as, or higher, than urban alternatives.  Perhaps the most notable of these is San Miguel de Allende—a colonial mountain town where prices have soared in recent years and homes in the center are comparable in cost to Mexico’s City’s most expensive neighborhoods.

Valle de Bravo and Tepoztlán —semi-rural colonial enclaves within relatively easy reach of the capital that have been popular with Mexicans and foreign residents for decades— are two other provincial locations where residents pay a premium to rent or buy.

Nature and outdoor living

Living in the Mexican countryside gives you easy access to Mexico’s natural habitats, country walks, and breath-taking natural landscapes.  The sound of crickets chirping at night is a sure sign you’re falling asleep in a rural idyll, and a dawn chorus of birdsong drifting through your bedroom window adds to the charm when you wake up in the morning.

In addition to the immediate access to nature, country homes tend to offer ample gardens, some have outdoor swimming pools, and many feature quaint terraces which provide attractive spaces for outdoor living and entertaining.

Local people and community

People living in rural and semi-rural spaces tend to be more laid-back than their urban counterparts.  You’re more likely to be greeted with a cheerful ‘buenos dias’ on a morning stroll than doing the same thing in urban areas, where locals are generally much more rushed and pressured by the events of their daily lives.

Smaller towns also like to show-off their community spirit: both foreign residents and local Mexicans organize events which, with a bit of local research, you can learn about and be welcomed to as an active participant.

Relaxed and laid-back country lifestyle

Countryside living in Mexico is taken at a slower pace and rhythm than urban life.  Provincial rural or semi-rural areas are often the environment of choice for retired people who don’t have the pressures and responsibilities of professional lives, and young families to raise.

Some foreign residents of working age —and even those with young children— do establish lifestyles and become an intrinsic part of local communities in Mexico’s provincial outlying towns and villages and this trend might accelerate with the increasing interest in working ‘online’ with the requirement for physical commutes being less frequent, or perhaps even non-existent.

Country living in Mexico: the compromises

As you explore options for countryside living in Mexico, consider the compromises you’ll have to make, which include:

Physical accessibility and transport links

When you’re researching places to live in the Mexican countryside, consider how the locations you are short-listing will affect how much time and effort it will take for you to get around —and for others to visit you— if this is important to your lifestyle.

Local country roads in Mexico can be adequate but usually take longer to traverse than the line on the map suggests.  Some of the access roads may cut through mountains or jungle terrain.

Country roads which pass through small hamlets often feature obstructions like speed-bumps, farm animals, and dogs wandering into the road space, as well local events like festivals or funeral processions adding to the myriad of combinations that can delay your journey’s progress.

When getting to where you need to be matters —for example, when you have a flight to catch or a meeting to attend— these otherwise quaint experiences become reminders about the compromises made in rural living in Mexico.

Consider how often you intend to travel and what transport links exist to facilitate your movements, including the state of local roads, local public transportation, bus stations and airports for longer trips and connections to places abroad.

Most foreign residents living in Mexico like friends and family to visit them, including visits from those living outside of Mexico.  Locations in rural or semi-rural Mexico might be served by local roads which take longer to travel across, local public transportation might be limited, the nearest intercity bus station might be a significant distance away, and the nearest regional airport might require more connections to complete the journey, especially when traveling to/from abroad.

Negotiating the local topography

Cobbled streets are picturesque and charming, and prevent road traffic from driving along your residential street at high speed.  They also get very slippery in the rain and can be awkward to walk over.  They are the least practical pavement type for people with mobility issues.

If you’re considering renting or buying a home which is accessible only via cobbled streets, consider the side-effects this may have on your day-to-day living.  Some back-streets leading to beautiful properties in Mexico’s rural towns and villages may be less well-developed than cobbles.  Dirt tracks, or roads with loose stones or gravel are not uncommon in rural areas.

During the seasonal rains back roads and country lanes can flood and become mud-baths. Some residents act to create a common fund among neighbors to pave a dirt road for the benefit of all the residents living alongside it; permissions must be sought and although they are usually granted, the cost of the road’s construction and its ongoing maintenance will usually be borne by the residents.

Range of amenities and local services

Rural and semi-rural places in provincial Mexico feature fewer local services and amenities: these include things like food stores, supermarkets, local markets, banks, dentists, doctors as well as leisure facilities like cinemas and restaurants.

Rural stores, the local tienditas, sell everyday basics—although most foreign residents tend to seek out a wider assortment of goods and these won’t be available without a trip to the nearest large town or city.

If you choose to live in the Mexican countryside, you will need to accept that the No Hay factor is far more prevalent in Mexico’s (semi)rural areas than it is in urbanized centers—and plan accordingly.

Access to healthcare and medical services

If access to health and medical services is important to your situation, then you should take care about where you choose to live in Mexico.  Urban areas tend to be well-served by doctors, dentists, opticians, clinics and hospitals whereas smaller towns and villages may have, at best, a small local clinic with limited facilities.

Most foreign residents who live in rural (or semi-rural) towns and villages in Mexico travel to the nearest large town or city for routine healthcare matters, including check-ups, dentistry, and eye care.

If the state of your current health carries a higher risk of requiring immediate medical attention or hospitalization —for example, if you have a known heart problem— then living in the Mexican countryside, even if only a few miles from the nearest hospital, could be problematic in the event of an emergency: as discussed earlier in this article, it often takes longer to traverse countryside roads and your journey to the nearest hospital may be delayed in a situation where every minute matters.

Social and cultural connections in rural areas

While practical aspects of a location including transport accessibility and the availability of local services and amenities are important, it’s also wise to consider the social and cultural aspects of a rural location you are considering as part of a lifestyle move.

Assessing whether a rural or semi-rural location will serve your social and cultural needs and the potential impact that a move to a countryside location will have on you requires knowing yourself—and yourselves if you are thinking about moving with a partner or family.

If you need strong cultural amenities to support your wellbeing, for example, ready access to art galleries, music halls, theater and dance, spirituality and well-being centers, as well as other cultural events, consider how the rural locations you’re short-listing provide for those—or how far you will need to travel to a larger town or city to access them.

Most rural villages and hamlets in Mexico are by definition “off the beaten path” and don’t have foreign residents living in clusters that form local ‘expat’ communities of they type which can provide an immediate ‘community of interest’ and can be especially helpful to newcomers finding their feet, and finding their way around the locality.

For some, the notion of being ensconced in a rural setting far away from the crowds is attractive and perhaps even desirable. However, if you (and your partner) need social connections to thrive, moving to a rural or semi-rural location in Mexico where there are no like-minded communities established will require more effort on your part to cultivate new friendships, and to integrate locally including the ability to speak Spanish and adapt to local customs and traditions—some of which might feel quite unusual to you, at least to begin with.

Even the most hermit-like characters discover that they need to make an effort to integrate their lifestyles amidst rural locations where local customs and traditions are keenly observed, and residents are expected to participate and contribute when important local events, festivals, and activities take place.

The free and continually-updated guide to living and retirement in Mexico, contains chapters about considering your lifestyle intentions and tips for choosing places to live in Mexico.

Liquidity of (semi)rural real estate markets

If you’re accustomed to living someplace where the buying and selling of homes is brisk and the market is liquid (that is, there are plenty of able buyers and sellers and housing transactions are fluid) then you will need to recalibrate your timescale expectations when you own a home in the Mexican countryside.

Real estate markets in Mexico are different to those in the US, Canada and Europe; and in particular, properties can take longer to sell —sometimes considerably longer— and the closing process can take longer than you might be accustomed to.  Homes in popular, often more urbanized, areas across Mexico can sell relatively quickly in a buoyant market; however, if you own a property in rural Mexico you ought to exercise patience when you decide to sell, and plan ahead with a longer sales cycle in mind.

The matter of property market fluidity can become pertinent if you need to sell due to an unexpected change in circumstances, or your life situation begins to evolve: examples include needing to move due to health reasons, a change in your personal or work circumstances, or because your children could use being closer to a school they are attending.

Rural property might not offer title deed

Another factor to consider regarding rural property in Mexico is that many idyllically located homes are not sold using titled deeds, and so you must be prepared to buy and possess the property on agrarian terms.

Many Mexicans and foreign residents live in country properties which give them possession but not title through a legal deed, and pass quiet enjoyment of their dwelling space without any problems, including selling (or bequeathing) the property to others in due course. However, it’s prudent to be aware of the terms on which you buy your rural property in Mexico, and this article describes the differences between possession and titled property.

Schooling for your children

If you have children of school age, you should plan your location with their schooling requirements in mind.  Some foreign residents choose to school their children in local Mexican schools, and some home-school, but most choose to educate their offspring at private schools.

While provincial towns and villages you shortlist for living might offer at least one privately-run elementary school, access to private secondary and tertiary education facilities is only available in larger cities in Mexico.  If you purchase a home in rural Mexico when your children are very young, a local elementary school may be adequate for their needs.

When your children grow and need secondary-level schooling, you’ll probably need to commute each school day to the nearest city where an adequate choice of schools exists, or move.  As we noted in the previous section, houses in rural and semi-rural places in Mexico usually take longer to sell than houses in urban areas.  Some families rent their country home and use the rental income to pay their rent in a city while their children are passing through their secondary school-age years. Learn more about schooling your children in Mexico and also learn about property rentals in Mexico.

Electricity supply

Mexico’s electricity supply has been improving constantly in recent decades but the reliability of rural and semi-rural electricity supply continues to trail behind urbanized areas. When the lights go out places with higher concentrations of residents tend to get higher priority for service restoration than homes situated on quiet country lanes.  Read our free guide about house maintenance in Mexico for details concerning the practicalities of house ownership, including electricity services.

Internet access and cell phone coverage

Provincial areas tend to have slower internet connection speeds than urban areas, and the same climatic conditions which cause electricity outages can cause internet connections to fail.

However, rural internet services have been improving dramatically in recent years, and some villages now have fiber optic internet lines that offer residents reliable internet access with high speed connections.

For areas which are still lacking in wired (or fiberoptic) services, access to Wireless Home Internet (internet access at home delivered over mobile data networks) is helping to alleviate provincial internet ‘dead-zones’ and providing a back-up to landline-based internet services.

Cellphone coverage is constantly improving across the country, but in rural and semi-rural towns you can expect signal strength and reliability to be less robust that coverage in more urban areas.

If your home is situated in a very rural area, where neither cabled or cellphone services are available, satellite internet is an option, and services like Starlink offer high speed and reliable connections, even during rain storms.

Maintaining and securing a country home in Mexico

Bigger country homes, like bigger automobiles, need more maintenance; large gardens need constant tending; swimming pools require routine care, and when you’re away you need to take additional steps to mitigate burglaries which are common in countryside homes, especially if they are left unattended by their owners for more than a few days.

Read our free and regularly-updated guide about house maintenance and home security in Mexico for comprehensive insights about the practicalities of house ownership here; including regular maintenance, as well as guidance and tips for securing and insuring your home against physical damage and burglary.

Dealing with noise

Mexico’s countryside is not always as quiet and tranquil as one might expect. Local festivals and events tend to be highly energetic with loud music and fire crackers often prominent features of these local gatherings.

If your home in Mexico is situated well off the beaten path, perhaps entirely surrounded by rural country fields, forested areas, or even jungle, then the sound of cicadas, crickets, wild animals, tropical birds, and even spider monkeys might be an integral part of your daily (or nightly) soundscape.

In more built-up areas, local churches ring bells and set-off loud fire crackers on all types of occasions: weddings, christenings, and Saint’s Days to name a few; sometimes at unusual hours.

Dogs barking on roof-tops, local traffic noise, ad-hoc parties and festivities at neighboring homes, as well as the constant parade of local merchants driving past in cars and small trucks with loud-speaker announcements offering to buy or sell a myriad of goods and services are all features which might contribute to the local soundscape around you.

This soundscape is not unique to the countryside, but it’s worth remembering that living in a rural idyll doesn’t exclude you from it.

In summary

There are some truly beautiful and picturesque rural and semi-rural towns and villages in Mexico, but as you’re exploring places to live, it’s important to remain focused on the practical aspects of living day-to-day in the place of your choice.

Considering your needs

Weighing-up the choices between living in a Mexican rural idyll and an urban conurbation (or somewhere in-between) brings into play a range of practical and personal considerations.

Some people enjoy the diverse culture with ready-access to an abundant range services and amenities afforded by living in urbanized areas, while others prefer the relative tranquility and simpler lifestyles afforded by rural Mexico.

For all the compromises, a country home in Mexico can provide an idyllic lifestyle for you and your family: with near-perfect climates, gardens that burst with color and fragrance, and an abundance of affordable space, it’s no surprise that rural Mexico remains a popular choice for foreign residents exploring options here.

The counterbalance is that every activity you engage with when you live in a rural place will take at least a little bit more effort than if you live in an urban environment.  And consider also the responsibilities of country home ownership across the generations.

Our free guide about Living and Lifestyles in Mexico contains an entire chapter about the importance of setting out your intentions and identifying your true needs.

Your life-stage and personal priorities

Ultimately, whether the Mexican countryside is a good choice for you will depend on your life-stage, your lifestyle preferences, personal priorities, and practical matters, for examples, the state of your general health, whether you have children to school, and how much regular access you need to certain things and services like professional contacts for work, local shops, healthcare services, road transport links, and airports.

Take time to pause and consider your social and cultural needs too.  There’s a difference between consciously intending to create a simple lifestyle ‘far from the madding crowd’ —and being mindful about the compromises of doing that— versus inadvertently isolating yourself (and your partner and family) from things and matters that are important to your life styles and wellbeing.

Our free guide to living and lifestyles in Mexico highlights the importance of taking your partner’s and other family members’ needs carefully into account to avoid potentially troublesome situations when choosing a place to live in Mexico.

Measure twice, cut once

Taking time to choose your location with care pays dividends in the longer term. Rushed decisions driven by impulse or whimsical notions —especially when you’re buying a property here— are costlier to recover from if you discover the compromises after the fact.

Recognizing the difference between your immediate and forthcoming lifestyle needs, reflecting on these and considering your choices pragmatically will help you to make informed decisions.  This is one reason why we recommend you rent for a while before committing to buy, unless you’re already familiar with the area and confident about your intentions and the location’s attractions in relation to them.

Some people use a process of trial-and-error, moving around to different types of places before they choose a location to settle longer term: this can work, but it will demand more time, effort, and funds from you.

Discover places to live in Mexico

Discover interesting and charming locations to live, work or retire in Mexico, and articles with helpful insights about choosing a place to settle here on our section about Places to Live.

Resources for Living & Lifestyle in Mexico

Mexperience offers you a comprehensive online resource of information and local knowledge to help you discover Mexico, explore choices, find opportunities and plan a new life in Mexico.  Our resources include:

• Articles and guides help you plan your lifestyle in Mexico
• Insightful articles about living and lifestyle in Mexico
• Complete and continually-updated guides to aspects of living in Mexico
• A regular Mexico Newsletter you can subscribe to for free

In this third part of the series we explore the need to develop negotiating and bargaining skills, for use everyday.

Negotiation, trade, and bargaining are woven into the fabric of Mexican culture. In 1520, Hernán Cortés wrote to Emperor Carlos V of Spain describing Tenochtitlán as a city with “many plazas, where there are continuous markets and dealings in buying and selling”. These and other records show how Mexicans have been avid traders for many centuries.

Five hundred years later, whether you’re buying a piece of land, a home, a car, or a kilo of limes at the local market, you will need to exercise some negotiation skills, lest you may pay more, and possibly a lot more, than you need have.

How you negotiate (or bargain) will depend upon the precise situation you find yourself in. In most circumstances effective negotiation will require the use of Spanish —a notable exception being real estate purchases— so a basic conversational level of the language, as described in the first article of this series, is a prerequisite.

There are some places and situations where bargaining is not practiced in Mexico. These include the local supermarkets, department stores, and gasoline stations. Bargaining is not generally practiced at tienditas (family-run corner stores) and it’s not practiced at pharmacies.

Restaurants and comedores don’t usually bargain, either; although they might agree to a large group discount or special offer if you talk with the manager or owner before your intended arrival.

Situations where bargaining is practiced (and sometimes expected) include shopping in open-air food markets, flea markets, art and craft markets and fairs; and buying from ambulant vendors on the street and on public transport.

If you board a local taxi cab that isn’t metered or doesn’t charge a zonal fee, you should always negotiate your price beforehand. Many people are now using App Cabs which offer fixed pricing for fares in advance of the journey.

More formal situations where price negotiations are often entered into include the purchase of a vehicle (new or used), the purchase of jewelry or very fine clothing from a specialist suppliers, the bulk purchase of almost anything from a trade supplier, hand-made furniture bought locally, as well as land and property—whether for purchase or to rent.

When you have lived in Mexico for a while —and especially when you have lived in one place in Mexico for a while— you’ll notice that the prices asked for many local things you buy every day can be very elastic indeed. There are prices for ‘locals’ and prices for ‘tourists’—whether the tourists are foreign or Mexican.

Traders everywhere are alert to an opportunity. They will always try to make hay while the sun shines. With some experience of living in a place, you’ll learn what prices should be for things like a taxi cab ride, a kilo of meat or fish, a bagful of oranges, a hat or walking stick, a stack of fresh corn tortillas, and so on.

How? You start talking with people locally, you hear and see what others are being offered and gradually you get to know. Eventually, you might become sufficiently experienced and not have to ask the price for something you buy regularly; —for example, the fee for a local cab ride to a regular destination— you know what it should be and hand over that amount of money.

The acid test is to hand over a coin or bank note that requires some change in return and see how much comes back. In fact, this level of local economic intimacy is a gauge for you—the more you buy without the need to ‘negotiate’ the price, the deeper you have become entwined in, and part of, the local community.

Resources for bargaining and negotiating

Learn more about Mexican culture and traditions, including about negotiating, bargaining and shopping in Mexico:

• Guide to social etiquette and local customs
• Latest articles about Mexican culture and local customs
• Learn about tipping culture in Mexico
• Discover Markets & Shopping in Mexico