San Miguel de Allende Travel Forum

I'm a 25 year old student, artist + mother looking for semi-long term (3-6 month, and possibly longer) housing in San Miguel de Allende or Guanajuato. I need an aptartment or casita, studio or 1 bedroom, with basic furnishings, hot, reliable water, and most importatnly a safe neighborhood. I have a six month old son and so this is very important to me. I am familiar with SMA, less so with GTO but I am open to living in either location, as well as Queretaro, and other cities in central Mexico. If you know of anything pls. let me know, I'd be very happy!

Online listings for apartments/accommodations in SMA are usually expensive, from what I've seen. My experience (in SMA) has been that one has better success finding what they want by walking around town and reading the many "apartment available" notices tacked to the many bulletin boards - or by sitting in the Jardin and asking other expats for leads. Of course, following the approach I'm suggesting means you wouldn't have something lined-up when you arrived, necessitating a hotel stay until you get something. What months are you Planning to be in that area, and for which you'll need housing?

what would your budget for a monthly payment be? i know of some mid term appartments but depending on the location they may be between usd$500 to usd$1500 a month in queretaro.

Good luckk.

My budget would be between 250-350/month (for housing). And I've seen the 800 year old haciendas for 4000 a month...yeah right! Also I really would need something lined up beforehand--doing anything with a baby is tough, much less apartment hunting alone and in a foriegn language. I know you're probably thinking, and living in Mexico alone with a baby is easy?? I prefer to think yes, and that the universe will provide. Haha, I'm slightly delusional, I know. My family reminds me on a regular basis. Also, I'm planning on coming in Sept., Oct., or Nov. Basically as soon as I find something, I'm just not sure how long that will take. I know it would be best to go first a find a place (when I was there I saw lots of signs in windows, etc. for apts.) but I don't think that will happen with my current financial situation. For right now I'll have to stick with the web.

September and October are two of the busiest months for tourism/visitors in SMA, and I think you'll have difficulty finding something "economical." Here's the web address of a Yahoo Group comrised of many SMA residents, and some devoted visitors . . . it might be a good place to cross-post your question and learn of a place that might meet your needs/budget:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Civil_SMA/

The listings on http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/mexico/central-mexico#1561 are mostly expensive. But I have found bargains here, but I book months before my trip.

But for many more reasonable choices, try http://www.atencionsanmiguel.org/
and click classified ads.

You may wish to get someplace for a week while you look around. For a nice, clean, pretty smaller town, consider Tequisquiapan. Popular on weekends with visitors from Mexico City and Querétaro. Quiet during the week. Prices for real estate are much lower than SMA, so I imagine rentals would be too.

larpman
Larpman's Guide to Mexico
http://larpman.com

One new place to start posting questions about housing in San Miguel de Allende is at http://www.san-miguel-allende.com

It is a free classified ad service and has categories for renting reasonable priced housing. Just join it by creating a name and putting in your email address. It sends back an email with a link to verify your email address. You open up the email, click on that link, and then it takes you to the San Miguel website where you log-in with your email address and the password. Then start putting up ads.

Buena Suerte!