Margit Gantt wanted to find a more fulfilling lifestyle than the one she had in California. She was looking for great weather every day.
Sandra Ward was introduced to the idea of living in Mexico early. The love of the country followed her for 45 years…into retirement. Sandra’s journey to Mexico began in 1952, when she was just a girl.
In our part of coastal Mexico, there is a cadre of people who migrate annually from the Northern U.S. or Canada. Like us they enjoy the warm months in the north, and the warm winter months in Mexico. We sometimes call our lifestyle, “the endless summer.” I rarely have to wear long pants and own more pairs of sandals than shoes. During our time in Mexico, we rent out the small mother-in-law apartment attached to our main two-bedroom house…
With a number of language schools and private teaching opportunities around every corner, Oaxaca is an exciting city to be in for someone in my profession. English teachers are spoiled for choice here. Many locals are eager to learn English and I’ve often been approached in the street with teaching requests. My dentist even offered to trade English classes for her children in exchange for dental work!
Erin and Philip Whitley were getting itchy feet. “How do we want to reinvent ourselves?” Erin recalls. Mexico didn’t figure in their plans at that time. But one day a friend mentioned San Miguel de Allende—the scenic artists’ colony and expat haven in Mexico’s Colonial Highlands. “We made some connections here in San Miguel,” says Erin, “and everything just lined up for us.”
Life in Europe may be less luxurious than the U.S. by the standard measures we Americans often use—the houses smaller, the cars more compact, the utilities pricey—but it often feels richer in quality, more textured, more civilized. It’s easy to glean pleasure from the simple moments there.
In this video, Mexico editor Glynna Prentice speaks to an expat couple in Mexico, each of whom moved abroad as a single person. They talk about how being single affected (or not) their decision to become an expat and where to move. This (now) couple, moved to Mexico on their own and met one another there. They both offer advice on moving overseas as a single person.
If you want to live with world-class natural beauty without the world-class price tag, come to Mexico’s Baja California Sur. And be sure to bring a camera. This is a desert land of sharp, clear lines. The mountain peaks in the distance gleam a delicate mauve.
Five years into my expat life, I look forward to downsizing. In fact, I recently bought a small, manageable, lock-and-leave property in Guanajuato, in the Colonial Highlands. It’s a far cry from what I thought I wanted when I first moved to Mexico… Then, I’d wanted a good-sized house, instead of an apartment as I’d had in the U.S.
I’m in an SUV in La Paz, in Mexico’s Baja California Sur. The sun is hot and we’ve rolled down the windows as we drive through town. We go at a leisurely pace, stopping at street corners to obey the four-way stop signs; La Paz is too low-key to need many stop lights.
This isn’t five days a week; it’s closer to seven with 12- to 14-hour days. The stress has mounted, your health has suffered, and forget a personal life. You think constantly of retirement, but it is five years in the future. Sound familiar? Fifteen months ago, that was my life…and it was certainly not my own.
In this video, IL’s Mexico editor Glynna Prentice talks about the cost of living in Lake Chapala, Mexico. Lake Chapala, located in central Mexico, is an affordable expat haven that is one of the easiest places to retire abroad, thanks to thousands of English-speaking expats and US-style amenities. It’s a part of the world where it’s easy to afford a cook, a maid, and a gardener.
Someone asked me recently what city in Mexico has the best climate. Questions like this are subjective, so at the time I said, “It depends.” It depends, of course, on your own tastes and temperament. But the question made me think about climate a bit… and some places do stand out. So here are my picks for the best climate in Mexico.
I spent a month in Guanajuato, in Mexico’s Colonial Highlands, this past spring. I loved it so much that I plan to spend a lot more time in the Highlands this next year. (In fact, I just bought a house here.) There’s so much to like about this region… Guanajuato—like much of the Colonial Highlands—has four seasons, so I look forward to getting out fall and winter clothes.
In the right places overseas, you can live well without burning through your retirement nest egg. Where? I’ve told you about some of them already this month—the top-ranking countries in International Living’s Annual Global Retirement Index. All a perfect mix of culture, climates and lifestyles.
When my wife Janina and I decided to move to Mexico from Oklahoma City, one of our biggest concerns was our finances. We moved out of our home country at the ages 29 and 30…far from retirement age. We came to Mexico with every intention of finding work.
The stress reached a breaking point; it was time to take some serious action toward retirement. We decided to sell everything we owned and start living our dream five years ahead of schedule.
If you like your beach living with comfortable amenities like first-run films, great restaurants, and plenty of night life, then consider heading to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. This relaxed resort town on Mexico’s Caribbean coast has all these comforts…along with some of the most beautiful beaches around.
Glynna Prentice is International Living’s Mexico Editor for a reason…she loves the country and she loves to report back to IL readers regularly on the benefits of living in Mexico.
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 de Allende offers romantic, historic Mexico at its most approachable.
I think I’ve found our place.” That’s what Tim Leffel told his wife Donna after his fi rst visit to Guanajuato, 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.
In Diane Pearl’s view, taking a conventional retirement is the worst thing you can do for yourself; people start feeling old, she thinks, if they have nothing to do…and it’s all downhill from there.
In this video, IL’s Mexico editor, Glynna Prentice takes a tour through the scenic city of San Miguel de Allende, in Mexico’s Colonial Highlands. San Miguel has beautifully-preserved colonial buildings, fine dining, great shopping, and arts and crafts.
Patrice Wynne now lives in San Miguel de Allende, and her unique take on life and business in central Mexico is an inspiration to anyone who thinks that the challenge of starting over is one to be savored.
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