New to this website. Looking to retire to Lake Chapala and need coaching

God, I love this board. chico

sambrit10 quote - "I'm still not sure where you're coming from on this, John. I said the Casa apartment rented for $800 a month when we were there -- half the price of a Nuevo Posada suite, according to their website -- and at a little over $25 a night, a long way from the $85 a night you mention. And that includes gas, electricity, and weekly maid service."

I simply don't understand your post. Where did you get that I said $ 85 a night for anything in Ajijic, although Casa del Sol is that, but I never mentioned that.

And my Casita is $ 13 a night in the summer that includes gas, electricity, purified water and satellite TV.

We all have our opinions about the Village vs. Gated Communities and none of us will ever agree. And for some reason, there must be a reason why there are more NOB types living in Fraccs and Gated Communities than in the Village. I wonder what that reason must be???

Have better things to do. I'm thru posting on this subject. Bye, bye

johninajijic wrote:

And my Casita is $ 13 a night in the summer that includes gas, electricity, purified water and satellite TV.

John that sounds very reasonable,can I PM you to book a few nights. My son wants to know if we can use the pool while we're there.

Quoting John: "I can get a nice room in the US and Canada for $ 85 to $ 125 a night. This is not the US or Canada. Mexico has a cheap cost of living, taxes, help, etc."

While I previously gave you credit for your extensive travels throughout Mexico and excellent travel reports, I am now having to guess that these were from an earlier era in Mexico. I hate to burst your bubble but I would have to state that the hotels in some areas of Mexico publish rates which exceed those found for similar facilities in the US or Canada. For example, right now I am booking reservations in San Cristobal de las Casas, Oaxaca and Puebla and it takes some extensive research to stay within our preferred budget range of $60 to $85 USD/night for a hotel in a good location that is clean, has parking, has WIFI and hopefully somewhat quiet.

So I would suggest that before you make generalizations about hotels being inexpensive in Mexico, you might want to renew your "frequent stay cards" by actually doing some traveling!

Hotel prices in Mexico pretty much depend on whether you want a Mexican hotel, or an American hotel that has been imported here. Like anything else from a foreign country, you have to pay for the import price.

On rentals - there are SO MANY rentals available now in all price ranges, and the quality varies widely - I would recommend booking just a few days to a week in a hotel or from VRBO.com, then spend the week looking and comparing and negotiating.

Merry

Merry:

Your point about Mexican hotels versus NOB style hotels is well taken. While we admit to never having stayed in the "no tells" or very basic Mexican type hotels, we are not looking for anything closely approximating what one might call a NOB style hotel. In fact our preference is towards hotels that are converted haciendas or buildings originally built for other purposes. In other words, hotels with a flavor and somewhat traditional feel.

In doing research for our upcoming trip, Oaxaca jumps out at me with their very overpriced hotels with many of them being in the $100 to $200USD/night range. Now I understand that Oaxaca is a very popular city with foreign tourists, especially Europeans and I guess this is what the traffic will tolerate. After a great deal of research, I found Hotel CasaAntica: http://hotelcasantica.com/en/
and can book there for $67 + tax. The fact that it was a former convent, is in a great location in centro Oaxaca and was highly recommended by a local resident weighed heavily in our decision.

So far, our favorite hotel we have experienced in our travels happens to be a renovated hacienda in Patzcuaro.

Going back to my original point, hotels in Mexico have a tendency to be somewhat overpriced and are not what we would call cheap.