San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

I’m sitting in a rooftop restaurant in San Miguel de Allende, sipping on a margarita from a frosted, salt-rimmed goblet. Below me stretches out a cityscape of tiled rooftops, gaily-colored colonial buildings and cobbled streets.

Shadows are lengthening, and as night falls and the air cools, locals, expats, and tourists will throng the town’s main square. After dinner, I’ll probably join them there—it’s the perfect way to end an afternoon spent in the creative artisan shops dotted around town.

I’m here as part of a month-long stay in the state of Guanajuato, in Mexico’s Colonial Highlands. This region in central Mexico has long been a favorite among expats. The country’s Spanish heritage is strongest here, and the region is dotted with colonial cities whose centuries-old buildings seem to grow out of the stony soil. Yet the Highlands are also wholly Mexican. And Guanajuato is its heart.

I’ve been touring the state to see what it has to offer these days—and I’m not disappointed. San Miguel alone—arguably the best-known colonial town in Mexico—would make the trip worthwhile (see a video tour of San Miguel here). And the state has at least one other excellent expat option, the state capital, Guanajuato, as well as the town of Dolores Hidalgo—a convenient day trip—which may appeal to adventurous expats.

If you love the kind of rich history and culture that Europe offers but want something closer to home and less expensive, then Guanajuato state is the place to look.

San Miguel de Allende: An Easy Transition to Expat Life

Strolling the streets of this mountain town—which dates back to the 16th century—it’s easy to see why as many as 10,000 expats choose to live here full- or part-time. San Miguel offers romantic, historic Mexico at its most approachable. Physically beautiful and centuries old, yet offering every modern amenity, this colonial gem offers one of the easiest transitions to expat life you can find anywhere. Hands down.

Colonial buildings, lovingly restored, line the town’s main streets, and beautiful churches and squares are around every corner. But you also find excellent restaurants, superb arts and crafts, and a temperate climate that’s hard to beat. You can get by with English here, thanks to tourism and the large expat presence. There’s even a Mexican immigration office in town for processing expat visas.

The town’s amenities are first-rate and wide-ranging. For its size (population about 80,000), it’s possibly the most sophisticated city in Mexico. Sushi on a Saturday night? Need a little Reiki or a first-rate spa experience? No problem. Get spa packages (massages, facials, body treatments and more) at area hotels like Casa de Sierra Nevada and Hacienda el Santuario Golf & Spa…or skip the hotel and go right to The Spa, where an all-day pamper-fest, including lunch, will set you back only $135. (There’s even a Spa-mobile that gives a two-hour treatment in your home for $50.)

Artist Lena Bartula, who moved to San Miguel after almost five years in nearby Mineral de Pozos, cites the mix of modern and traditional as one of San Miguel’s attractions. She calls the town “an intriguing blend of serious and fun.”

San Miguel feels like a resort town along the lines of Sedona, Arizona, or Taos, New Mexico, and if you like that atmosphere, you’ll love San Miguel. Like Sedona and Taos, San Miguel is a great place for artists: painters, sculptors, writers and everyone in between. Established artists settle here, and others—inspired by Mexican motifs—begin their art career after moving here.

It’s also proved a good environment for expat entrepreneurs. Patrice Wynne, who’s lived in San Miguel since 2001, began a business here six years ago. She describes the town as “one of the most gorgeous and fascinating communities in Mexico.”

Today she sells a line of gaily-patterned, Mexican-inspired aprons, ties, men’s shirts and more from her shop, Abrazos, in the center. When I mentioned I’d be visiting San Miguel, she quickly fired off a list of almost a dozen expats—mostly women—running activities as varied as health food shops, writing workshops, and chiropractic and psychotherapy practices.

One warning: If you’re an art spectator—or you like to shop—it’s easy to blow your budget in San Miguel on everything from chic shoes and high-end peasant blouses to hand-carved furniture and mirrors.

Local expats assure me, though, that, once you live here, the urge for uncontrolled buying fades. What remains is the town’s fertile, creative atmosphere.

And these days it’s more affordable to buy here than you might think. There are plenty of properties for sale and prices have softened due to the long recession in the U.S.  (Much of San Miguel’s higher-end real estate market depends on U.S. buyers.)

Don’t get me wrong; you’re unlikely to find fire sales here. And you’ll need deep pockets if you want a large property in the historic center. The price tag for large dream-worthy colonials on streets like Barranca still runs into the millions of dollars. But you don’t have to spend anywhere near that much. Homes well under $200,000 are available within an easy walking distance of the center.

Right now, for instance, you can get a four-bedroom, two-bath house that’s about a 15-minute walk from the center for $110,000. It’s an older home and will need some updating, but all the basics are there. If you don’t want to renovate, what about a fully-furnished, 1,700-square-foot home, with four bedrooms and two baths? One is selling for just $127,000. And it’s only a 10-minute walk from Parque Juárez, in the historic center.

Renting is easy, too. A quick Internet search on San Miguel turns up dozens of entries, and vacation-rental sites like Vrbo.com have entire sections devoted to San Miguel. If you’d like to try San Miguel out for a while, consider a short-term rental: Two-bedroom, two- or three-bath furnished properties start at about $400 a week.

Wide as its appeal is, though, San Miguel may not work for everyone. If you dream of living right in a city’s historic centro, your budget may not stretch here. And if you want a really Mexican environment, you may find San Miguel too international.

But don’t worry, because just 50 miles to the west lies a wonderful alternative…the city of Guanajuato.

Guanajuato: Vibrant Culture in a Historic Setting

A state capital that’s a World Heritage site; a college town with a young, lively vibe; a performing-arts Mecca; a venerable historic icon; and an affordable expat destination… the city of Guanajuato is all these and more (see video footage of Guanajuato here).

I chose to base myself in Guanajuato during my stay in the Colonial Highlands. The city lies in a narrow river valley between two ranges of hills. Winding streets and stair-laden, pedestrian-only passageways called callejones twist and turn up, down and sideways. Brightly-colored colonial buildings hug the hillsides and crawl up the mountains, which are riddled with long tunnels to take car traffic zooming underneath the city rather than through it.

Guanajuato is made for walking. On foot you can appreciate the passages, secret staircases and many sidewalk stalls, hidden squares, and markets the city offers.

Expat Donna Leffels, who moved to Guanajuato last summer with her husband and daughter, loves the city for several of the same reasons I do.

For one thing, “it’s not a museum,” she says. Despite the well-preserved colonial buildings, the many tourists, and the professional, first-rate tourist signage, “this is a living, breathing city.”

It’s also a Spanish-speaking one. Unlike in San Miguel, expats are a small presence here—there are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 in a city of about 70,000. Consequently, most expats in Guanajuato speak some Spanish—many of them fluently. And the city tends to attract expats who want to blend in, have Mexican friends, and be a seamless part of the population.

It also attracts expats who like the city’s vibrant atmosphere. Guanajuato’s expats say San Miguel has better shopping and restaurants…but that there’s more to do in Guanajuato.

During the month I was there, the city had a book fair, a festival of European cinema, a medieval festival and a paella festival. This was on top of a regular concert series at several museums and theaters, the local symphony, guest artists and plays at the Teatro Juárez, an opera-film festival on the steps of the university… the list goes on.

All this is not even counting Guanajuato’s biggest cultural claim to fame: the annual International Cervantes Festival, which takes place this year October 12 to 30 and brings performing troupes from around the world.

During the Cervantino the number of tourists in town swells exponentially. (When I mentioned that I have friends with a house in Guanajuato, one expat quipped, “Good. It’s the only way you’ll get a room during the Cervantino.”)

And then there is the university…. The University of Guanajuato has its main campus in the city’s centro histórico, and there are students everywhere. Thanks to them, contends expat James Pyle, “the energy here is younger,” even among the retiree expats.

Several people I spoke with contend that Guanajuato may never attract the concentration of expats—especially older ones—that San Miguel does. The continual influx of students is one factor they cite.

The other, inevitably, is the city’s terrain.

Local realtor Gerardo Araujo dubs it “a natural filter” that will probably always limit the expat population. You need to be fit—and to stay that way—to navigate Guanajuato’s hilly streets. An afternoon’s walk around the city is as good as a StairMaster workout—though a lot more fun.

“Guanajuato won’t ever be like San Miguel,” he says. “It’s not as accessible.”

Yet some neighborhoods, notably Marfil and La Presa, are relatively flat in parts. They offer large, gracious homes, and garages or parking space for vehicles. You can live in these areas much as you would in any reasonably hilly town. Both are popular with expats.

To give you an idea of price, a home in a similar up-scale area, La Valenciana, was for sale when I was there, with an asking price of about $258,300. A two-story, colonial-style house with 3,766 square feet of construction, it has four bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a garage, and sits on a 9,700-square foot lot with mountain views.

“Here, I can afford to live in centro,” one expat told me… and he’s right.

For instance, I saw one condo about a 20-minute walk from the Teatro Juárez, the heart of centro. A penthouse apartment, it has three bedrooms, two baths, two office areas—one large enough to serve as an extra guest bedroom—and a large rooftop terrace with city and mountain views. With a total of 1,679 square feet of space, it was selling for just over $100,000. A second condo, slightly smaller and a slightly longer walk (downhill), was selling for about $87,500.

And there are still fixer-uppers around the city in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, depending on the size.

Dolores Hidalgo: Expat Homesteading in the “Cradle of Liberty”

Dolores Hidalgo, a little colonial town of about 55,000 people—almost midway between Guanajuato and San Miguel—holds a special place in Mexicans’ hearts. It’s here that Father Miguel Hidalgo uttered his famous “Cry of Dolores” that called Mexicans to arms and kicked off Mexico’s War of Independence from Spain in 1810. Today you often see gaggles of school kids getting a hands-on history lesson in the main square.

For expats this town has another kind of fame: It’s filled with factories that turn out ceramics, including Talavera tile. Much of the stunning tile work found in homes in San Miguel and Guanajuato comes from Dolores Hidalgo. On every visit I’ve made there, I’ve run into gringos stocking up on wares.

Central Dolores Hidalgo is colonial, and many areas are quite attractive. But although it’s so close to San Miguel and Guanajuato, it’s still pretty much off the expat map.

So far, expats tend to come here on day trips for the ceramics and perhaps have one of Dolores Hidalgo’s famous ice creams. (Vendors—at every corner of the main square, as well as elsewhere in town—are known for their range of bizarre flavors, which can include shrimp, bacon, avocado, pork rind, and other odd delicacies.)

If you’re an expat looking for adventure, though, Dolores Hidalgo has great appeal. This town is real Mexico… amid real ranching country. I passed plenty of shops selling cowboy boots, hats, and other gear—and these were not meant for the dude ranch market. (See video footage of Dolores Hidalgo here.)

A few realtors in San Miguel carry properties in Dolores Hidalgo. But by and large, you’ll need to ask around if you’re interested in real estate here. Personally, I’d start my search in the main square. Even if you dig up no leads, the ice cream is great.

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If You Want to Rent or Buy

If you want to rent: Since San Miguel is a big tourist destination, many properties are listed as short-term vacation rentals. Websites like Homeaway.com and Premiersanmiguel.com mostly list vacation rentals, as does Vrbo.com, where you deal directly with the property’s owner.

Long-term rentals are less straight-forward. To find these, check the classified section of San Miguel’s bilingual newspaper, Atención; ask expats and check expat notice boards; and ask realtors—some will provide names and contact information for rental agents.

For short-term rentals in Guanajuato, check sites like Homeaway, Vrbo, and Guanajuatorentals.com. Another source is the weekly newspaper Chopper, in Spanish, sold in news stands, which also lists long-term rentals.

If you want to buy: San Miguel’s real estate market is developed, and there are numerous English-speaking real estate agents here. One group we like is Remax Colonial . Also see San Miguel Real Estate.

In Guanajuato, two English-speaking real estate contacts are Gerardo Araujo at Casa Solaris and James Pyle at Guanajuatolandandhomes.udlun.com.

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Getting There

Connections to the U.S. are extremely easy from the state of Guanajuato. There are international airports in León (El Bajío Airport, about half an hour from Guanajuato city) and in Querétaro (less than two hours from San Miguel). Both airports offer direct flights to Houston, about two hours. However, many expats prefer to fly internationally from Mexico City, as it offers many more direct flights and competitive prices. There is regular bus service to Mexico City; the trip takes about three hours from San Miguel and five hours from Guanajuato. It costs about $30 or less.

This region is also about a 10-hour drive from the Texas border.