Enjoy Simple, Sustainable Lifestyles in Mexico

Along with the current trends of seeking healthier ways to live, some people are discovering how Mexico also offers choices for living simpler and more sustainable lifestyles.

Mexico is popular with foreign residents

Mexico is already host to a strong contingent of foreign residents who live here full time or part time, and although the reasons they tend to cite for choosing to live in Mexico vary, common themes include a welcoming culture, agreeable climates, the delicious flavors and fresh produce, and affordable living costs.

Improved transportation infrastructure and access to information online is also causing off-the-beaten-track places in Mexico —some of which were completely unheard of just a decade or two ago— to emerge as desirable destinations for people seeking alternative living styles.

It’s not just the retired who are seeking change: we’re receiving interest from people in their middle-ages, and even some younger working-age people whose transferable skills enable them exercise their talents in various areas of the ‘knowledge economy’—especially online working.

Locations for simple living in Mexico

Locations in Mexico which offer potential for foreign residents seeking simplified and sustainable living choices in the years and decades ahead include:

• Morelia and Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán;
• San Cristóbal de las Casas in the state of Chiapas;
• Mérida on the Yucatán peninsula,
• Veracruz and Campeche on the Gulf Coast,
• Mazatlán and Manzanillo on the shores of the Pacific,
• Guanajuato and Querétaro, in the colonial heartland; and
• San Felipe, Loreto, and La Paz on the Baja peninsula.
• Mexico City remains a popular choice for those who like living in an urban setting, and working foreign residents are particularity taken by neighborhoods like Condesa, Del Valle, Nápoles, and Roma—as well parts of the refurbished Centro Histórico.
• If you want to be near Mexico City but away from the capital, consider Cuernavaca and Tepoztlán.

Rural and semi-rural living

Outside of Mexico City, the places mentioned above offer rural or semi-rural settings with good road and/or air connections. Although most of them are some distance away from the urban buzz of Mexico’s three big cities, they nonetheless offer key services foreigners seek like healthcare, good transportation links, and reliable internet connections—as well as ready-access to modern amenities foreign residents tend to use on a regular basis.  Learn more about the pros and cons of living in the Mexican countryside.

Affordable living costs

Another attraction for people seeking an alternative lifestyle here is the lower cost of living in Mexico—which translates into things like more retirement savings for those still in their working-age, and more sustainable living standards for those on fixed incomes in retirement.  Sustainable life styles are about living materially simply and taking responsibility for the choices we make, for example, by taking into account our consumption habits and how we plow value into the local communities we adopt.  Download the free guide to the cost of living in Mexico from our Mexico eBooks library,

Living simply and living well in Mexico

Every year people come to Mexico seeking ways to simplify their life styles: moving here to Mexico to live well, but live more simply.  The questions we get asked by email, the articles people are reading on Mexperience, and the free guides people are downloading from our Mexico eBooks library reveal trends that indicate people are actively considering how they can live differently—and they’re considering how Mexico could be part of the changes they seek.

Further reading

Mexperience helps you to discover Mexico including how to live more simply:

• Lifestyle planning – helpful article about planning a new lifestyle in Mexico
• Simple living in Mexico
• Could you live ‘off-grid’ in Mexico?
• Guide to retirement in Mexico
• Healthcare and well-being in Mexico
• Mexico Essentials – practical information about living and lifestyle