.png "I MOVED IN MEXICO!! (How To Get Settled in a New City)")
Hi my name is Maddie I'm a solo female traveler that's been livig and traveling all across Mexico for almost five years now and in this video I'd like to share my top tips for how to get settled in a new city in Mexico quick start guide if you will and before we dive in I'm very excited to announce the city I recently moved to if you can't tell by this gorgeous background behind me this is Lake Chapala I moved to ajijic at least for the next couple months we'll see what my next move is after that okay so you want to move to
How To Pick Where To Live Or Travel In Mexico
Mexico well where do you even start first of all of course you're gonna have to pick a couple cities that you might be interested in and the best way that I like to go about this the way that I always recommend is to test drive it first don't just decide I mean maybe you're daring and you want to go this route but I would recommend booking an Airbnb for at least a week but ideally a month in a city that you're considering a location doesn't have to be a city Town wherever and that way you get a real feel for the city I would recommend on Airbnb find a place that's at least 4.8 stars and read through the reviews very carefully so that you're setting yourself for success with that just just the place so you're comfortable has a nice bed Wi-Fi whatever you need pet friendly all those things of course you can look on other websites .
Uh you can use Facebook Marketplace or look in local groups but I find Airbnb to be pretty good way so you can filter exactly what you want and pay very close attention to location I can say with absolute certainty that a location of your Airbnb your rental will make or break your experience in a new city even if on every other account you would have loved the city the location that can sometimes ruin the experience then during this one week to a month you can use the tips in the rest of the video to get acquainted with the city and figure out if it's the right fit for you I can't tell you how many times I went to a place thinking that I was absolutely going to love it and in reality it wasn't the right Vibe for me or vice versa places where I was like ah there's no way I'm gonna like this and then all of a sudden.
I found so many Charming aspects about it and was like wow okay and my opinions have often been different than what I read online and the videos or for the blog articles and other things that I've seen because everybody has a different perspective everybody has different needs but let's move on next is making friends because I guarantee no matter how great a place is you're going to start feeling extremely isolated and lonely if you don't develop a Social Circle and I actually want to to address this because a patron of mine Corrine asked this question it's like it seems like you have a really thriving social life how do you get plugged in how do you get connected how do you make friends the first way is that I try to use existing connections if I already know some people in the city getting plugged into their social network and making friends that way but not everybody knows people in Mexico and that's okay so what then I recommend joining local Facebook groups like here in ajijic there's one called friendly friendly gringos ajijic and Chapala and so you can basically just make a post hey is anybody looking to meet up and you can also find local events that you can attend another great thing to get plugged in or even other groups for socializing and meeting people and of
What Not To Do When Coming To Mexico
Course many people come to Mexico myself included to embrace the culture and make local friends so you can literally just walk around and talk to strangers talk to locals Mexicans are incredibly open and patient with the language barriers so even if you have limited Spanish use it don't be afraid to embarrass yourself
How To Make Friends And Get Connected
Who cares make friends Mexicans are some of the most hospitable and welcoming people I've ever met in my life and you will have no problem plugging yourself in that way next thing you're probably wondering is how do I get my questions answered you're going to come to a place and you need to know maybe what's the best dentist in in town where do I find XYZ products where's the best grocery store or really any other questions that you have besides asking those friends that you're now trying to make like I said I recommend joining all the Facebook groups that you can and for the love please search please search the group first because you're very likely not the first person to ask this question and everybody in the group will appreciate it if you try to poke around a little bit before asking what you may think is a very unique question to your situation others have probably had it before I honestly can't tell you how
Where To Get Your Mexico Questions Answered
Many times people have left questions or sent me DMS or whatever asking very specific questions about Mexico and while I do have a lot of experience and I can answer most of these I can't tell you how valuable a resource it is to add yourself to these Facebook groups to see other questions people are asking get travel tips that people post even get ideas of where you might want to live or travel to in addition to the local Facebook groups though I'd also recommend adding yourself to ones like on the road in Mexico expats in Mexico and really just search Mexico on Facebook in the groups category and you'll find a ton of them oh hello Luke Doug wants to be part of this video the next thing you can do to get settled into if the city is take tours in a lot of places you can find free walking tours where you can not only meet people but get a more boots on the ground perspective of neighborhoods or activities but if there's nothing like that that exists.
I like to look on Airbnb experiences and TripAdvisor just to see what even is available in the area what can you do where can you go what activities are there it gives you lots of ideas and that's going to help you get plugged in as well and just get a sense for the local culture the food the neighborhoods and in my experience it often helps me figure out where in the city I would want to live because sometimes where I pick the Airbnb isn't my favorite spot it's not as walkable as I want or it's too loud there might be roof dogs that are annoying you or different things like that oh and one other thing to mention on the tours sometimes I don't end up buying them through Airbnb experiences just because I want to support more locally but that does give you an idea like you can read through reviews to find out if it's worth it and in some locations I I think it's better actually to vet the tour with those reviews because you go to a tourist spot and maybe you go to the beach and you want to take a catamaran tour or whatever the case may be and sometimes you get ripped off because you don't know the pricing or they just assume that you're new there and maybe you are and so you end up paying a higher price.
But beyond that you can literally just ask around ask locals what is there to do what can you offer what business do you have you can find a lot of really cool hidden gems that way my next recommendation for you is to try to eat at new restaurants and do new activities the entire time don't let yourself fall into a routine where you're going to the same places over and over because you're really not going to get to know the place that way I will be the first to admit I'm honestly sometimes a creature of habit I find my great spots and that's just where I want to go but if you truly want to find out if a place is right for you don't do that instead pick a new place try to pick different neighborhoods because this will honestly give you a taste of not only the taste you know the food culture which is one of my favorite parts of Mexico but also the different neighborhoods what The Vibes are like there's a loud truck coming so I'm just going to hold on one quick second uh what else oh this gives you an idea of traffic and the noise of the place the culture and then on this shoot what was on this on this honest on us oh you might be wondering really took me a minute to pull this one back uh you might be wondering should I rent a car should.
I just take the Local transportation whether that's Ubers taxis buses whatever I would say go to those Facebook groups those very very valuable Facebook groups because in a place like Mexico City you could not pay me to drive in that City it's so chaotic and you really have to know the roads and the different rules and how to navigate it and the traffic is kind of insane but in a place like maybe queretaro I'd say sure getting a car is absolutely no problem it's not very stressful to drive and sometimes that can be more economical especially if you want to do things like in the case of queretro you maybe want to go to Bernal de Pueblo Mexico or just Seymour of the city get acquainted but of course there are other reasons why you would not want to rent a car I would say in the Riviera Maya for instance it is extremely common for police to pull over what they can tell is a rental car and tours and extort you for money it happens all the time so there I would say just take taxis take the buses take the colectivos and that's also a great time to meet people the next tip I have for you is to guess what search YouTube and watch videos.
Because I understand exactly how daunting it can be to go to a city or town Pueblito wherever and start from scratch it's so overwhelming because you're dealing with the language barrier perhaps culture shock just the general overwhelm of going to a place and not knowing what to do so see what other people's experiences are like like my videos for instance you can go back and watch all those see the places I've been queretaro Mexico City and on but this can also give you lots of good tips of what not to do in the place to avoid like tourist traps and scams and just common like newbie mistakes that can be easily avoided plus you get to see uh you know that type of boots on the ground do I even want to be here is this somewhere that just looks appealing in pictures or is it over hyped or whatever the situation may be and on the note of YouTube channels I'll take this opportunity to ask you to please subscribe to my channel because I post new videos about my life in Mexico I also hope you'll go back and see other videos that I've made share them on social media it helps my channel a lot so that I can continue making videos just like these grammatically speaking I meant just like this not these this is one video and sort of along the same lines as looking up YouTube videos just
Where To Do Your Research
Do as much research as possible that means find blogged articles find blog articles uh search Facebook post fake Facebook pages Instagram accounts literally dive down the rabbit hole trying to figure out as much as you possibly can because with all this information you're going to feel so much more empowered and comfortable to take the leap and go ahead and come here when maybe it just seems impossible or like how could I uh how could I do it you can you totally can um also fish through the comments on things too but take that with a grain of salt because sometimes uh people can be very salty and bitter keyboard Warriors especially in the comment section try not to get discouraged by that especially if you do posts in Facebook groups because you have no idea how many times.
I've been chewed out over asking what I thought was such an innocent question but how dumb can I be for asking that so don't get discouraged or at least try not to but do as much research as you possibly can and you'll set yourself up for Success this next piece of advice I think is perhaps one of the most important of all and that's do your best to keep your expectations in check because if you come here thinking it's going to be exactly like the us or Canada or wherever but cheaper you're probably going to be in for a rude awakening well I do hope you found this video immensely valuable if so please share it on social media so you can help out a friend and it also helps my channel out a lot I also hope you'll subscribe to see future videos that I post about my life in Mexico and if you have any feedback drop me a comment a video you want to see follow-up questions that you have on the screen here is another video I made in this town ajijic so you can continue watching and one more thing before you go yeah gong that Bell so you get notified the next time I release a new video and I hope to see you there