# Isla mujeres



## Tiswhats (Sep 3, 2013)

Hi, we are holidaying on Isla Mujeres Mexico for a month in December with a view to retiring there,will there be any expats around to talk to. We are living in Australia at the moment but are originally from England. We would love to hear from you


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

I have been going to Isla since the late 70's and it is a great place to vacation but now a days with hundreds of folks being brought there from Cancun on booze cruses everyday of the week I believe it would be like living in Disneyland.......Remember Isla Mujeres is only 1 KM wide and 7 KM long,maybe while you are in the area you check out Isla Cozumel which is much larger but does have more ex-pats living on it...........suerte


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## Tiswhats (Sep 3, 2013)

chicois8 said:


> I have been going to Isla since the late 70's and it is a great place to vacation but now a days with hundreds of folks being brought there from Cancun on booze cruses everyday of the week I believe it would be like living in Disneyland.......Remember Isla Mujeres is only 1 KM wide and 7 KM long,maybe while you are in the area you check out Isla Cozumel which is much larger but does have more ex-pats living on it...........suerte


Interesting,thanks for your help.


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## Tiswhats (Sep 3, 2013)

Thanks for your help,we will check it out


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

You should also check out Isla Holbox off the northern Yucatan Coast...good luck and hope this helps.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Typical response form a real estate site, funny when folks have an economic stake in a town or community do not accept any negatives...


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## Tiswhats (Sep 3, 2013)

Would like to find out more about island life, our daughter lives in NY and visits the island regular , is it easy to buy property on Isla mujeres.


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## tjtrela (Jun 1, 2009)

I lived there for a year; it was all I could take. It's breathtakingly beautiful, but it's a small island. Rock fever sets in quickly, and the only quick escape is a trip to Cancun, which is not very attractive outside of the hotel zone. 

Also, it's the tropics. The weather is glorious 3-4 months, and miserably hot and humid the rest of the year. August is unbearable. There is nothing to do indoors...no movies, no mall, no shopping center...nothing other than restaurants and bars. So if you need to escape the humidity, you're out of luck. And if you're thinking "I'll just keep my air conditioning on," keep in mind that electricity in Mexico is expensive. Running two room-sized a/c units full time ran us $300US per month. It's a resort, so it's packed with tourists during the winter months. If you want or need anything out of the ordinary, you have to go into Cancun, which because of the ferry becomes a full day trip. Personally, I hated Cancun, but it was a necessary evil...Costco, Walmart, Movie Theaters, etc. 

Most homes up for rent are for short term vacations and they're expensive. If you're looking to rent long term, your choices are limited since it's such a small island. I do not recommend buying before you rent for an entire year.

On the upside, the food there can be amazing. Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. The expats who live there can be a friendly bunch. Playa Norte is a great beach.

I'm very glad I spent a year there, but I'm also glad I left. I always said I wanted to live on a small tropical island, and I did. But romantic fantasies of living full time on Isla are just that...fantasies. The reality is quite different. As more foreigners "discover" it and buy property, the locals are being pushed out, and I did feel some anti-****** prejudice. 

I don't mean this to sound totally negative, but I do want to sound realistic. And it's only my own personal experience. Just remember to set aside all your romantic notions and realize there's a lot to consider in moving to a small Mexican island.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

tjtrela said:


> realize there's a lot to consider in moving to a small Mexican island.


or any small island for that matter especially a touristy one.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=tjtrela;1701513]I lived there for a year; it was all I could take. It's breathtakingly beautiful, but it's a small island. Rock fever sets in quickly, and the only quick escape is a trip to Cancun, which is not very attractive outside of the hotel zone. 

Also, it's the tropics. The weather is glorious 3-4 months, and miserably hot and humid the rest of the year. August is unbearable. There is nothing to do indoors...no movies, no mall, no shopping center...nothing other than restaurants and bars. So if you need to escape the humidity, you're out of luck. And if you're thinking "I'll just keep my air conditioning on," keep in mind that electricity in Mexico is expensive. Running two room-sized a/c units full time ran us $300US per month. It's a resort, so it's packed with tourists during the winter months. If you want or need anything out of the ordinary, you have to go into Cancun, which because of the ferry becomes a full day trip. Personally, I hated Cancun, but it was a necessary evil...Costco, Walmart, Movie Theaters, etc. 

Most homes up for rent are for short term vacations and they're expensive. If you're looking to rent long term, your choices are limited since it's such a small island. I do not recommend buying before you rent for an entire year.

On the upside, the food there can be amazing. Sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. The expats who live there can be a friendly bunch. Playa Norte is a great beach.

I'm very glad I spent a year there, but I'm also glad I left. I always said I wanted to live on a small tropical island, and I did. But romantic fantasies of living full time on Isla are just that...fantasies. The reality is quite different. As more foreigners "discover" it and buy property, the locals are being pushed out, and I did feel some anti-****** prejudice. 

I don't mean this to sound totally negative, but I do want to sound realistic. And it's only my own personal experience. Just remember to set aside all your romantic notions and realize there's a lot to consider in moving to a small Mexican island.[/QUOTE]_

An Extraordinarily insightful post. It makes no difference whether the island with all its charms is Isla Mujeres or Cozumel or Roatan (Honduras) or the Seychelles or Zanzibar or Mauritius or you name it or even a place that is not an island but is geographically isolated and difficult to escape within reason. Just a few months ago we spent just a day in a place known as Playa Ventura, Guerrero just 50 kilometers from another small and uninteresting town where true (limited) shopping was available and the house we explored was directly on the constantly pounding wild Pacific surf which made it seem even more isolated and I could not wait to get the hell out of there before I lost my mind. When I first viewed the bright lights of Acapulco a few hours later after driving up the desolate Guerrero coast, I was reborn. Well, at least rejuvenated . My kingdom for a cold cerveza and some human contact and I don´t even like humans.

By the way, we made the mistake of renting a condo in a resort facility in Akumal, Qunitana Roo for a month a few years ago and found ourselves surrounded by drunks having weekend flings boozing about the baech in various stages of undress and obnoxious kids running up and down the halls screaming delight at being at the beach and the next thing we knew we were motoring about the peninsula visiting places unknown to vacationers. What a nightmare.


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## Tiswhats (Sep 3, 2013)

We have NY to escape to when we get bored. We are ready for retirment so it could work, after a months holiday we should get a feel for it ( we are are open minded)


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Tiswhats said:


> We have NY to escape to when we get bored. We are ready for retirment so it could work, after a months holiday we should get a feel for it ( we are are open minded)


That's a long (and expensive) place to go for entertainment!


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## tomjohnson (Sep 11, 2013)

i would look at tulume


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Tulum?

It's been Gringoized beyond recognition, too. More's the pity.


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## Tiswhats (Sep 3, 2013)

Our daughter lives there,at the moment we live in Australia ,so living in Mexico would mean we could get to see her in four hours instead of twenty six .would like to meet up with anyone who's around in December


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