- Welcome to the third edition of
"10-minute Tangerine Travels Tuesdays."
- Today, we're gonna be telling you
our nine most (Maddie laughs)
livable cities in Mexico.
- We created seven main criteria
of things that are most important to us.
Year-round weather,
cost of living,
walkability and transportation,
things to do,
the food culture,
conveniences,
and finally, the "it" factor,
which could be anything from culture
to the people,
to the nature, and others.
- No city is perfect,
and there isn't gonna be
a single city in this world, I doubt,
that meets every single criteria perfectly,
so with each one of these cities,
we're gonna tell you a few things we love about them,
and what we think is the biggest drawback.
- These are in no particular order.
Number one,
Guanajuato, Guanajuato.
- This city is absolutely filled with culture and history.
It's one of the most colorful cities in all of Mexico.
- Yeah, it's just a beautiful-looking citer, citery.
(Jordan laughs)
(beep)
It also has a lot of unique food,
like enchiladas mineras,
miner's enchiladas,
and some unique drinks like pulque,
which is a fermented alcoholic drink.
It has a lot of the things that we love most
about, like, colonial Mexico.
- In addition, it's one of the cheapest places
we've been in Mexico.
- As far as its biggest drawback,
it is missing some of the conveniences of a larger city.
For instance, it doesn't have a major airport.
- Number two is
Morelia, Michoacan.
- We really loved the architecture in this city.
Specifically, the cathedral was absolutely stunning.
- Mm-hmm!
- It's one of the most walkable cities that we've been to.
- Very affordable,
and we love the food there, as well.
- As far as the biggest downside,
we did get a little bit of a weird vibe
from some, let's say, questionable characters in the city.
For instance, I got some weird,
unsettling stares from some men in that city.
Number three is
Orizaba, Veracruz.
We were just in this pueblo Mexico
and absolutely loved it there.
- Uh-huh, yeah,
this city checks almost everything on the list.
It's like the perfect sized city
where it's big enough to have all the conveniences you want
without it being overwhelming,
the overwhelmingness of a big city.
- Exactly, like it doesn't have too much traffic
or too much pollution,
or too many people,
but it had amazing sidewalks,
making it super walkable.
The cost of living was probably the lowest
that we've ever seen in any city across Mexico.
- Yeah. (slaps arm)
There's a wasp on me!
- You good?
(beep)
The mountains around the town,
absolutely gorgeous.
Just nature in general. - Beautiful nature.
There are lots of things to do in this city, too,
like the River Walk,
taking the cable car up to the top of the mountain.
- As far as the big drawback of this city,
we were honestly kinda disappointed
by a lot of the food that we ate there,
and I had the darnedest time trying to find
some of Orizaba's famous coffee
because so many of the cafes didn't open
until 11:00 am, noon, 1:00, 2:00 pm.
- But yeah, the restaurant scene
was a real letdown, for me.
Number four,
Guadalajara, Jalisco.
- Of all the cities on this list,
this is one that we've spent some of the most time in,
so we're very confident that this would make
a good long-term livable city
for so many reasons.
One of which,
it checks off just about every criteria on our list.
Tons of things to do within the city,
and also, nearby day trips that you can do,
like nearby pueblos Mexicos of Mazamitla,
Tapalpa,
Tequila,
eh, eh, Tequila, yep! (chuckles)
- Like most of the cities on this list,
it has great year-round climate.
That is a very important consideration for us.
- Oh, heck yeah.
- And also, there's tons of great ways to get around,
and if you're living in the right neighborhood,
it's very walkable.
But it has Ubers,
they have a great bike rental program there.
- Mm-hmm, buses.
- And a good bus system.
There is a metro system.
- The food scene is also amazing.
There's a lot of cuisine,
like international cuisine,
which you don't find in every Mexican city,
so that's nice,
and also, allergy-specific or diet-specific,
like vegan and gluten-free and Paleo.
Lots of options like that.
It's filled with culture and history.
It's a very historic colonial city.
I think we could just go on and on.
- Yeah.
- We really do love Guadalajara. (chuckles)
- Our one big drawback for Guadalajara is
something that comes with a lot of big cities.
Sometimes the pollution is noticeable,
and the traffic is bad.
- By the way, guys,
if you're new here,
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Number five,
Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes.
Unlike Guadalajara, one of the places
that we've spent the most amount of time,
Aguascalientes is where we've spent
the least amount of time.
However, we do think it deserves
to go on the most livable list
because it's an amazing city with beautiful sunsets,
an awesome food scene,
it's got some of the nicest people that we've met
in the entire country.
- It's even called "la tierra de buena gente,"
or "de la buena gente,"
meaning "the land of good people."
- It's fairly walkable.
Also, an extremely affordable city
with year-round weather that's super nice.
Since we spent the least amount of time here,
as far as drawbacks,
we couldn't think of any.
- We don't know of any. (Maddie laughs)
I'm sure if we spent more time there,
we would come up with a drawback.
Number six,
Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo.
- I know what you're thinking.
"What the heck, you guys.
"You basically just released a video
"saying seven reasons why you would never live there again,"
and just for a note of clarification,
we were talking about the Riviera Maya as a whole.
There are a lot of reasons
that we really, really loved Puerto Morelos.
For instance, it charmed us.
The second we came there, we, like, felt good.
It just had the right vibe,
that "it" factor that we were talking about.
- Yeah, the beaches are absolutely beautiful.
You have all the conveniences of a big city
without it being a big city.
The Cancun International Airport is just 20 minutes away,
a Costco is 30 minutes away.
- It is a lot lower priced than its neighbor cities
of Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum.
It's definitely not as low-priced
as some of these others that we're mentioning on this list,
but also, there's a ton of things to do around there,
like cenotes.
You can enjoy the beautiful Caribbean.
There's a lot of day trips that you can take in the area.
- By far, (Maddie chuckles)
the biggest drawback for us was the weather.
There are, about half the year is miserable
in terms of what we think.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like, really hot and humid. - Heat, humidity.
It comes with lots of mosquitoes.
I hope, honestly, that I never have to experience
another summer there again. (chuckles)
- Number seven,
Oaxaca City, in the state of Oaxaca.
- What is not to love about this city?
If I'm being honest,
it's probably my favorite on this list
for so, so many reasons,
starting off with the food!
Oh! - Mm-hmm!
- So good!
So much unique food
that I'm actually just gonna come out and say it,
it's my favorite style of food in all of Mexico.
- And Oaxaca is probably the cultural epicenter of Mexico.
- From the music to the dances and celebrations,
the handy crafts.
Even, like, the architecture and the buildings.
- It's also a very walkable city,
and it has a great year-round climate.
However, the biggest downside
is that prices in Oaxaca are rising fast.
Over the course of about a year and a half,
we saw prices increase about 50%.
So something that cost 80 pesos now costs 120.
That is crazy high inflation,
and if you're on a fixed budget,
in a few years, you're gonna be priced out.
- We can't honestly say that Oaxaca City
is one of the most affordable places in Mexico anymore,
even though that is something we had said about it
in the first time that we came.
- By the way, guys,
if you've been wanting to learn Spanish,
our favorite program, Rocket Languages,
is running their Christmas sale right now.
It's only for the first 1,000 courses sold,
so if you're interested in that,
head on over to TangerineSpanish.com.
That's our affiliate link,
and it will take you right there.
- Number eight on our list
is Merida, Yucatan,
and we're gonna have to get the downside
out of the way right off the bat,
because it's a big one.
The weather.
The weather is so horrid in the summer.
It's hot and humid and still.
Even worse than the Riviera Maya,
because at least over there,
you've got an ocean breeze,
but in Merida, it's inland.
You don't have any of that,
so it's a place that we could not stand a summer.
However, that aside,
it is a very livable city for a lot of reasons.
- Yeah, the city has a ton of history,
beautiful architecture.
It has all the conveniences
that you're gonna want in a big city,
from a Costco to an international airport.
- A lot of the neighborhoods in Merida are pretty walkable.
You also have the Yucatecan food, mmm!
- And not just the Yucatecan food,
but the food scene there is awesome.
- Oh, yeah!
- There's so many incredible restaurants.
- And the cost of living.
It's a little bit higher than some of the other places
that we've mentioned on this list,
but it is still a very, very affordable place to live.
Now, before we get to number nine,
there is a city that you're probably thinking
is going to be on this list,
but it's actually not.
- Mexico City.
So, Mexico City does check a lot of boxes.
It has a million things to do,
great climate year-round.
There's all the conveniences of a big city.
There's no easier city to get to in Mexico when flying,
than Mexico City.
- Tons of history, too,
and beautiful architecture.
Lots of museums.
- There are two major things
that are keeping us from living in Mexico City.
The traffic and the sheer amount of people,
and with 20 million people
comes really bad pollution.
The worst pollution in Mexico.
Before we get to the last one on this list,
just a reminder,
this is in no particular order,
so this isn't our favorite city,
it just happens to be the last one,
and number nine,
Ajijic, Jalisco,
or the Lake Chapala area.
- It's got a great community of people,
tons of expats,
which make it a great place to kind of adapt to Mexico.
- The climate is perfect year-round.
The food scene there is incredible.
No matter what food you're craving,
Ajijic has it. (chuckles)
- Yeah, it also has a lot of conveniences
given that Guadalajara,
another city that was on our list,
is a pretty decently short drive away.
We actually disagree in terms of
what the biggest drawback is.
For me, I think there are some negatives that come
with such a large expat community.
The prices going up,
and some people might say that gentrification
is happening in Ajijic and the surrounding areas,
to the ugly expat that thinks it's their paradise
and they don't want anybody else coming into town.
- What I think is the biggest drawback
is the infrastructure.
For example, there is a one-lane highway going each way,
and in the busy times of year,
that is bumper to bumper in many places
and it takes forever to drive there,
and just a lack of other infrastructure
throughout the city, as well.
- Please subscribe to our channel
if you want to see more videos like this
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living and traveling across Mexico.
On the end screen,
we are going to link the video that we made last week
about one of the cities on our list, Orizaba.
So if you want to catch up on our adventures,
check that out.
(Jordan exhales heavily)
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