# Why do people prefer big tourist resorts



## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Just had to ask

On all the boards a large percentage of people want to go to Cancun or Vallarta. I can see it for a quick visit but they sound like that want to live there or at least an extended stay.

Why not a small beach town that has no Homedepot or Costco


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

It is quite easy to understand. They don´t speak or understand anything in Spanish. It takes many years to get to the simple communicative level in Spanish, faster with lessons and lots of homework.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Melaque has a small Expat message board and a number of ****** owned businesses. Easy to find stores and restaurants that speak English. I'm surprised at how many Mexicans speak decent English

People that are overlooking smaller towns are cutting themselves short. Big tourist towns are also going to be more expensive


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Sparks askes: "Why not a small beach town that has no Homedepot or Costco ".
I think you answered your own question, most Americans and Canadians are used to the creature comforts they have gotten used to NOTB...I am in a smallish fishing / tourist town, I would have to drive 1 hour to Costco in Puerto Vallarta to buy a years supply of toilet paper or a dollar off a bottle of Tequila.


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

sparks said:


> Just had to ask
> 
> On all the boards a large percentage of people want to go to Cancun or Vallarta. I can see it for a quick visit but they sound like that want to live there or at least an extended stay.
> 
> Why not a small beach town that has no Homedepot or Costco


We have been here going on five years now. Over the years we visited a lot of different places trying to find the perfect area for us. Actually in hind sight it was probably along the beach between Akumal and Tulum. Even though at the time, between the two of us, we were making good money and had decent savings - we just couldn't see paying THAT much for a house in Mexico - even if it was ocean front. In the end we paid a lot more than that for our current house - which is no where near the ocean.

So we chose a place with relatively easy access to the airport in Mexico City - which happens to have a Costco and Home Depot (and Sams/Walmart/Office Depot/Office Max). Home Depot is not my first choice when I need something - but it right next door to our post office box. Costco has a lot of things we happen to enjoy which are hard if not impossible to find elsewhere like corned beef, various cheeses, USDA choice beef, etc. They also offer car tires at a good price and provide free tire rotation/wheel balancing/tire repair. We purchased our tankless water heater there and our Generac pressure washer. They have a good price for the chlorine tablets for the pool. Tequila is cheaper at Sam's - which also has sauerkraut we like.

There is virtually no English spoken here. We are kind of hybrids I guess. We like pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, hamburgers, corned beef sandwiches etc. But at the same time we like arrachera, cecina, lamb tacos, hugo verde, etc.

When I can't do most of the things I do now around the house (mow the lawn, some painting etc) we will probably move to someplace like Cancun. To be honest I prefer the east coast of Mexico to the west. But we are from the east coast of Florida.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

AlanMexicali said:


> It is quite easy to understand. They don´t speak or understand anything in Spanish. It takes many years to get to the simple communicative level in Spanish, faster with lessons and lots of homework.


... and fastest when there's no option but to use Spanish every day to cover basic needs and desires. Necessity is the mother of invention (and learning). Lots of people get stuck in the comfort zone of accommodation provided in expat enclaves and tourist areas with English speaking personnel everywhere and NorAm products readily available.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

sparks said:


> Just had to ask
> 
> On all the boards a large percentage of people want to go to Cancun or Vallarta. I can see it for a quick visit but they sound like that want to live there or at least an extended stay.
> 
> Why not a small beach town that has no Homedepot or Costco


You forgot to mention San Miguel Allende and Lakeside. Perhaps these are the only places that they ever heard of. These places are reported in US newspapers and their friends have vacationed there. Not speaking Spanish might be a reason, but I bet that high-speed internet is more important. 

A recent post on another forum mentioned that they heard of San Miguel Allende, but never heard of Santiago de Querétaro.


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## Rammstein (Jun 18, 2016)

I live about 15km outside of Acapulco in a very large and very old public housing community. In the 80´s I started vacationing here, fell in love with the people, and decided this was where I wanted to live. I started saving my money and taking Spanish language courses at a local community college. In the early 90´s I sort of bought the place I am still living in and in 1997 I quit my job, sold everything I could not bring and my cat and I moved here and never looked back. Most folks would consider my little apt. a dump but I am still very content here. I do patronize Walmart a lot, have DishTV, and have high speed internet. There are no gringos around where I live. You have to go into Acapulco to find them and actually I have encountered very few there due to Acapulco´s tarnished reputation but that is fine with me. Hope I did not bore you all with my little story.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

joaquinx said:


> You forgot to mention San Miguel Allende and Lakeside. Perhaps these are the only places that they ever heard of. These places are reported in US newspapers and their friends have vacationed there. Not speaking Spanish might be a reason, but I bet that high-speed internet is more important.
> .


 I thought of those too but thought I could make the point better with only 2

Whoops .. forgot Cabo


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## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

Aren't there really three different Acapulco's ? There is the old section, the diamonte area and some other. We visited the old section when we were house hunting about four years ago. It isn't that we were looking for an expat enclave - but it felt really weird that we didn't see any (from what we could tell). I think Acapulco went through some changes when the cruise ships stopped going there. Now Mexico has put a lot of energy/money into the Mexico-Acapulco highway. I believe they have just expanded the road to 10 lanes, five in each direction, in Cuernavaca. Supposedly the trip from Mexico City/Acapulco is now three hours. It is very dangerous now. During the 20 months of construction something like 130 people were injured and 40 people killed. Unlike say South Florida where they have express lanes with plastic sticks separating the lanes, they have those large cement barriers - for like 20 miles. It makes it very difficult for rescue vehicles to get to those hurt in the express lanes.

Case in point. Yesterday...
https://www.elsoldecuernavaca.com.mx/policia/vuelca-auto-en-el-paso-express


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## Lawgrrl (Apr 24, 2015)

AlanMexicali said:


> It is quite easy to understand. They don´t speak or understand anything in Spanish. It takes many years to get to the simple communicative level in Spanish, faster with lessons and lots of homework.


Some of us who are members of 12 Step recovery fellowships prefer English-speaking meetings. It is one thing to know that the "language of the heart" is being spoken around one, and another to fully understand and participate. It may be many years before I've reached proficiency sufficient to practice my recovery in Spanish.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Lawgrrl said:


> Some of us who are members of 12 Step recovery fellowships prefer English-speaking meetings. It is one thing to know that the "language of the heart" is being spoken around one, and another to fully understand and participate. It may be many years before I've reached proficiency sufficient to practice my recovery in Spanish.


And that's a really valid reason for sticking close to English speaking expat concentrations, similar to not being far from a hospital that offers the frequent treatment one might need. Although.... my father-in-law was quite active in AA, one of the local organizers. Being helpful, to the extent of saving lives, is their nature. Can't think of more supportive people or a more nurturing environment to learn or improve Spanish, and perhaps you should try meetings in that language when you feel ready. At any rate, Godspeed on recovery.


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