Searching for warmth
Like many of you, Davis and I highly value and carefully choose where we live. We’ve loved every location, from our modest Eichler in Palo Alto to our beach front townhome at Tahoe. Having these bases has made it easier for us to find balance, comfort, and pretty continual happiness, despite life’s inevitable bumps.
Finding the right location for us is not coincidental. It requires extensive research (although we don’t discount gut feel). We start years before we need to move so that we don’t feel pressured to compromise. That’s why we’re currently scouting locations that we may want to live, either part time or full time, in our late 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and beyond.
Why not stay in Tahoe? Our current residence is truly a dream come true, and we will stay there as long as we possibly can, but it’s got challenges. Winter can be unbearably cold, snowy, and long, resulting in a gloominess that’s hard to shake. It is not a walkable town — you must have a car and quick reaction time. It’s also overrun by tourists in the summer and holidays, has limited shopping, and even slimmer restaurant options. Recreation is abundant, but it favors a constantly active, highly fit population. Oh and we have forest fires. Big ones.
At some point, we will need to find a place to spend the winter, and then perhaps a few years later, a new place to live. Ideally, that could be one place, but it doesn’t have to be. The attributes we’re seeking — somewhat in order of their importance to us — include:
Warm weather
Near water
Plenty of ways to stay active mentally and physically
Walkable town (grocery, restaurants, shopping, parks, recreation, etc)
Good transportation (bus, taxi, subway or similar)
Excellent health care system
Friendly social people like us, plus some that are different from us
Safety (environmentally, politically, personally)
Reasonable cost of living
Well-connected airport
We’re using that criteria to check out a long list of contenders including San Diego, the Bay Area, Sacramento, Palm Springs, St. George, Santa Fe, and several cities in Spain, Portugal, and Mexico. Ideally, we’d like to convince at least a few of our friends to choose the same area, so we’re sharing what we learn. Here’s our take on two cities we visited in December.
Manzanillo, MX — I blame Jesse’s fine gin martinis for this one. Over drinks during one of our gloomier winters, she raved about a small Mexican beach town. My slightly buzzed brain heard “Manzanillo,” and I quickly booked an Airbnb stay to check it out. She was actually saying “La Manzanilla,” but my mishearing proved fortunate.
Manzanillo is on the west coast of Mexico between Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta. It is most reminiscent of early Los Angeles, specifically that city’s southern section from Manhattan Beach to San Pedro. It is a sprawling city, filled with restaurants and scattered resorts, but it doesn’t live on tourism. It’s Mexico’s largest port and it’s surrounded by agriculture.
The weather is warm and humid — too much so most of the year, but near perfection Dec through March. The coast is a series of long, lovely white sand beaches dotted with palm trees and lush semi-tropical greenery. It is walkable in some parts, notably the gated beach communities, but you’re ambling to a single bodega or a small meat market and not much more. Taxis are abundant but they feel more like jeeps as they bounce over unpaved roads or cobblestone. Calling 911 gets you emergency care just like in the US and doctors still make house calls here. If you need to be hospitalized, they will be your advocate.
Getting to Manzanillo is not easy. We flew into Guadalajara then rode a bus 3 hours south. Another route is to fly non-stop from LAX or Mexico City into Manzanillo airport, but flights and carriers are surprisingly limited. The drive from Puerto Vallarta takes about 5–6 hours and is quite similar to the drive between the Bay Area and LA via highway 101 — a winding coastal road with lots of gorgeous, rugged shoreline interspersed with cattle ranches.
Living in Manzanillo will currently run you about 25–30% of US costs. Food, even in restaurants, is shockingly cheap. You can buy a lovely 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo in a gated community on the beach for about $100k-$200k. HOAs fees are lower than US for similar services. Rent for a furnished 2 bedroom/2 bath beachfront home runs about $2000-$3000 a month. Transportation costs are negligible (including flights if in country). Extras like massages, housecleaning, dental care et al are embarrassingly low priced.
Contrary to most people’s belief, Mexico is quite safe, and Manzanillo is one of the safest cities in the country. If you’re a drug dealer, then yes, you should fear the cartel, but in daily life you rarely see anything the least bit frightening. We think of Mexico’s cartels as similar to America’s mafia in the last century. Stay away from their restaurants and don’t marry into the family. That said, Mexico’s stability is probably as vulnerable as the States. Hopefully, neither country fails, but there’s no guarantee. Despite that, Manzanillo’s future seems bright. It’s likely to rapidly grow in size and sophistication, benefiting those who invest now. But climate change will impact it. Hurricanes hit every few years and they are likely to get worse. It may also warm to a temperature that’s intolerable.
Our verdict on Manzanillo is that it’s worth trying for a month or more in the winter, particularly in one of the beach communities attracting ex-pats and snowbirds just north of town. It is not where we’d live permanently as geezers, but it could be our winter respite. I was most concerned about not having enough to do, but a new friend who spends 3 months there every year set me straight. She said she thinks of her time in Manzanillo as a re-set. She meditates, does yoga, spends time on the water, and works on herself. She doesn’t try to stay busy, informed, or engaged. Davis is wired for occasional resets, so he’d have no problem with that. For me, it’s a stretch goal, but probably a good one.
Puerto Vallarta, MX — We’ve been coming here for over 20 years. Our only regret is we didn’t invest. The city is now on par with Honolulu and Miami for beach city living with a jungle flair. High rises dot the coastline. Mega-million dollar homes cling to steep, lush hillsides. Modern living luxuries come easy, including UberEats, top end retailers, notable restaurants, and a seemingly infinite number of infinity pools. Health care is as good as the States, and English is abundant. The weather is perfect in winter — a little less humid than points south — and the water is warm. Getting here is simple and relatively cheap. Nonstops fly in and out all day from most major cities.
While not as cheap as Manzanillo, PV is still less costly than most US cities, depending on the neighborhood. For a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo near the water, here’s the options we found (there are many more neighborhoods, but we want to be near water):
- Zona Romantica (colorful, gay party land, older buildings, public beaches) purchase prices for basic adobe condos run $700-$800k. Similar furnished rentals average $2–5k per month. Usually no amenities, although some have rooftop gardens or pools.
- 5 Diciembre and Mid-town (a bit more downscale, but quaint, art district, great restaurants) condos in small complexes run $500-$700k for purchase. Similar furnished rentals average $2–4k per month.
- Hotel Zone (lots of 15–25 floor buildings, private beaches, upscale shopping) purchase of a high rise condo will run about $800k (plus HOA fees). Rentals average $3k-$6k/month. Amenities include lots of pools, hot tubs, gyms, spas, restaurants and more.
- Marina (even more upscale, lots of yachts, also gigantic cruise ships every few days) condo purchase will start at $1+ million. This area is similar to Newport, Marina Del Rey, or La Jolla. Rentals in this area average $5k-$15k/month.
- Nuevo Vallarta (north of the marina, planned communities, quieter, less tourists, lots of golf courses) Purchases and rentals in this area are similar to the Hotel Zone.
- Bucerias (about 30 mins north of Puerto Vallarta, arts & crafts town, local vibe, very beachy) Purchases and rentals priced similar to Zona Romantica, but many are nice low rises with amenities.
Everything else — food, transportation, entertainment — runs about 70–80% of US prices.
PV’s negatives are few, but they’re significant. It’s a tourist Mecca in the winter, filled to capacity with snowbirds from the US, Canada, and Europe. Visitors need transportation so the less than sufficient roads are packed all the time turning a 4 mile trip into a half-hour drive. Retirees flock here, but so do young families and partying singles resulting in places with a strained “we must have fun” vibe. Regrettably, the city’s growth has outstripped its infrastructure and zoning regulations. Buildings can arise in front of your view with little warning. Hurricanes hit regularly and even small ones can damage older buildings. Some report that the building boom has stopped because waste water overflowing into the street deters tourists (don’t gasp, this happens in Hawaii and Miami too), but others claim it hasn’t.
Our verdict on PV is that it’s also worth trying out for a month in winter (probably in Bucerias), and could be a permanent location at some point depending on how it handles its growth. There’s plenty of things to keep a normal person smiling, and the entire city is walkable. Friends and family could visit without investing a day or more getting here, and there would be plenty for everyone to do.
