Post: #1

Its cold as balls in Canada right now, and I'm thinking of taking a trip to somewhere warm where I can get shit done.

I'd need to be in a time zone that's EST or at most 1-3 hours different for work collaboration so Asia is out of the question.

So North America, the Caribbean and South America are all decent options.

This is what I'm looking for-

1) Decent sized city that has decent nightlife on the weekend. I want to focus on work, but I still want to have fun on the weekends. Or at least a place that's close to a city.

2) Warm weather. Preferably with a beach.

3) Not expensive, or too hectic. Somewhere where rent is fairly cheap.

4) Attractive women.

5) Good internet.

Mexico seems like a very solid spot, but not sure which coastal city would work. Maybe Cancun? Colombia is also a strong contender IMO.

My Spanish is beginner level but I'd love to work on it so Latin American countries would work well for me. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Post: #2

I haven't been, but check out the data sheets on Playa Del Carmen. An hour south of Cancun or so. Not so big and built up, but still popular.

It sounds like it may be what you are looking for.

Post: #3

How long are you looking to spend in this location? A particular place that might be good for ~ a weeklong getaway might not be so good for an entire winter retreat.

Post: #4

(01-21-2016 04:45 PM)JohnKreese Wrote:  How long are you looking to spend in this location? A particular place that might be good for ~ a weeklong getaway might not be so good for an entire winter retreat.

I'm thinking around 3 weeks to 1 month.

Post: #5

This is pretty much my life, as I'm location independent, look for pretty much the same things and I also have to work during the week. So I'll give you some of my insight from having done this for the past two years.

Playa Del Carmen is a million times better than Cancun. I just spent October and November there and was really happy with that decision. Internet can be hit or miss though as it was down some hours for me, but I had a local SIM card with 3G/LTE so was able to use that as my backup connection. I had thought about staying in Tulum, but the internet is worse there than in Playa from what I saw and heard, so it was too risky for me to stay there and be without a reliable connection.

After spending a lot of time in Playa and meeting lots of "local" girls, there was a recurring pattern that some of the better looking ones were from Mexico City, and had just moved to Playa for work. So Mexico City might be a decent option too (obviously no beach). I'm definitely looking to go check it out after living in Playa.

Miami Beach is also one of my favorite places on earth, but it might be too expensive, given that's one of your requirements. It can be done on like $1200-$1500/month rent though.

Cartagena Colombia isn't a bad spot either. It's got the girls, the beach, the weather and internet.

Medellin doesn't have a beach but it's lots of fun (depending on who you ask the opinions might vary). Internet is good.

Lima is another option that's cheap, with lots of girls and internet, but not the best beaches.

Panama City isn't so bad. Surfing a couple hours outside the city was pretty fun. Pretty good nightlife. Good internet.

I've heard lots of good things about Costa Rica too. Plus you pretty much have anywhere in Brazil as an option since it's 2-3 hours ahead of EST and it's got great weather this time of year.

Post: #6

Great info, Natas.

Can you break down Playa Del Carmen vs Cartagena a bit more for us?

How were the "local" Playa girls? Were they difficult? Speak much English? Attractive, or more indigenous looking?

Were there many attractive foreign females there?

I saw quite a few boxing gyms online in Playa, so it seems like a pretty good place for me. If you could drop some more info on it since you spent a couple months there, I'd appreciate it.

Post: #7

I'm currently in Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and last November, I spent two weeks on the Yucatan peninsula. I'll write a comparison data sheet on the two in a few days when I have more time.

Post: #8

(01-21-2016 07:33 PM)scotian Wrote:  I'm currently in Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and last November, I spent two weeks on the Yucatan peninsula. I'll write a comparison data sheet on the two in a few days when I have more time.

Get out of here. I already saw what you're doing. You aint writing shit anytime soon lol.

Post: #9

(01-21-2016 05:24 PM)natas305 Wrote:  This is pretty much my life, as I'm location independent, look for pretty much the same things and I also have to work during the week. So I'll give you some of my insight from having done this for the past two years.

Playa Del Carmen is a million times better than Cancun. I just spent October and November there and was really happy with that decision. Internet can be hit or miss though as it was down some hours for me, but I had a local SIM card with 3G/LTE so was able to use that as my backup connection. I had thought about staying in Tulum, but the internet is worse there than in Playa from what I saw and heard, so it was too risky for me to stay there and be without a reliable connection.

After spending a lot of time in Playa and meeting lots of "local" girls, there was a recurring pattern that some of the better looking ones were from Mexico City, and had just moved to Playa for work. So Mexico City might be a decent option too (obviously no beach). I'm definitely looking to go check it out after living in Playa.

Miami Beach is also one of my favorite places on earth, but it might be too expensive, given that's one of your requirements. It can be done on like $1200-$1500/month rent though.

Cartagena Colombia isn't a bad spot either. It's got the girls, the beach, the weather and internet.

Medellin doesn't have a beach but it's lots of fun (depending on who you ask the opinions might vary). Internet is good.

Lima is another option that's cheap, with lots of girls and internet, but not the best beaches.

Panama City isn't so bad. Surfing a couple hours outside the city was pretty fun. Pretty good nightlife. Good internet.

I've heard lots of good things about Costa Rica too. Plus you pretty much have anywhere in Brazil as an option since it's 2-3 hours ahead of EST and it's got great weather this time of year.

Thanks for the data man.

I'm looking at airbnb for Miami Beach and its pretty damn expensive. Looks like Carategena, Panama City, and Playa Del Carmen all seem like good choices. Medellin too since it seems like there are a ton of entrepreneurs there who do similiar stuff, and I've heard amazing things about Colombianas and how hot they are .

I'm going to avoid Brazil for now since I want to work on getting my Spanish to a decent level.

@Scotian let me know your thoughts on Santa Marta. If I do choose Medellin I'll come visit you and 20Nation.

Post: #10

Spring break? College girls?

Post: #11

^Unless he's changed plans, 20nation will be joining me in Cali soon, not Medellin. Both are good cities to hang out in but I'd definitely give the edge to Medellin.

Post: #12

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Post: #13

PDC also just switched to EST so you won't have any time lags.

Post: #14

Good info given so far.
Also, with the current low Brazilian Real and relatively inflated US$, Brazil may be a great place right now where your $ will stretch far. Stay in a 2nd tier beach town like say Joao Pessoa in the Northeast and you'd be set.

Post: #15

(01-21-2016 06:50 PM)RioNomad Wrote:  Great info, Natas.

Can you break down Playa Del Carmen vs Cartagena a bit more for us?

How were the "local" Playa girls? Were they difficult? Speak much English? Attractive, or more indigenous looking?

Were there many attractive foreign females there?

I saw quite a few boxing gyms online in Playa, so it seems like a pretty good place for me. If you could drop some more info on it since you spent a couple months there, I'd appreciate it.

Ok so let me try to compare Playa and Cartagena, which are very different experiences, from my time in both.

Playa Del Carmen: Playa is like the South Beach of Mexico. It's touristy, high-end (for Mexico) and it has a great party vibe. Pretty much every night of the week there's something going on, because of the constant stream of tourists looking to party and spend money. Another nice thing about partying there is that the bars/clubs/lounges are all pretty much on Calle 12 or within a few blocks.

As I mentioned there were lots of Mexican girls from all over Mexico that had moved to Playa, but most I met seemed to be from "D.F." aka Distrito Federal aka Mexico City or from other smaller cities around the Yucitan peninusla that Playa is a part of. You have a good mix of your brown girls that look more local and some lighter skinned Mexican girls that don't look so "indigenous". I thought the girls there were pretty damn attractive. Also, I'm a pretty short guy, so I was a fan of the Mexican girls I was seeing, because most of them were also short, and very used to Mexican dudes being shorter than me. If you're tall, you're that much more exotic to them. They definitely liked gringos as well. It still seems like a pretty big deal to score a foreigner to the girls there and it's clear lots of girls go after them. It's not difficult to get a Mexican flag in Playa.

My experience is definitely skewed more towards girls who spoke English because my Spanish is still pretty weak. My crappy Spanish definitely didn't turn off the ones who didn't speak English though, and girls would even tell me they'll try to learn English, which I thought was funny. It was kind of annoying after a while that so many of these girls wanted to speak English with me, when I wanted to try to speak Spanish with them. We both wanted the exotic factor and language practice.

There was a steady stream of attractive foreign girls as well. Tinder had all kinds in Playa. Lots of Europeans escaping the cold. There were also a lot of Canadians and Americans. You'll also see lots of attractive white girls on vacation with their boyfriends.


Cartagena: Cartagena is also a high-end destination in Colombia that is super touristy, but it definitely didn't have the party vibe of Playa Del Carmen. It seemed more like a "romantic" destination to me and was much quieter, especially on the weeknights. Maybe I missed the good clubs, but the nightlife I found there was more limited and there were lots of pros everywhere in the city (something I never saw in Mexico, actually). The pros there are Colombianas, so they're definitely attractive, but I'm assuming that's not what people here would be interested in. Lots of the girls that you would meet in Cartagena would probably be Colombianas from somewhere else in Colombia there on vacation. But I didn't have much luck meeting them and most girls seemed to be with groups or boyfriends.

It actually seemed much harder to meet with any local girls there. Not that girls in Mexico don't get a constant stream of thirsty dudes on Tinder, but the online girls in Cartagena didn't really seem that excited to meet up or hang out. Maybe it's me or maybe they're just skeptical of foreigners because of the steady flow of desperate tourists. My Spanish was even worse in Cartagena than it was in Mexico, so that could have also played a big role in my experience there. English will only go so far in Cartagena.

Cartagena just didn't seem like as good of a setup to meet lots of foreign and local girls, which is actually kinda sad, because Colombians really are some of the most attractive girls. Oh and the girls on that coast in Colombia are pretty dark. They definitely have a different look than girls from Bogota and paisas from Medellin.

There's probably a datasheet for Cartagena that I'd check if you want to compare my experience to others. Again, maybe I missed the good nightlife somehow, since I was in Cartagena for a shorter time than Mexico. Maybe if you go to Cartagena in December or January it's a different story, as so many Colombians seem to go on vacation almost all January. (I was there in early April)

But in the end, even though I really like Colombianas, Cartagena seems like it'd be weird to live in for a month or two. I'd choose other cities in Colombia before Cartagena. For what I was looking for, and for what Saladin used for his criteria, I'd have to go with Playa over Cartagena. It's also even hotter in Cartagena and the beaches actually in the city aren't that great, the good ones are kinda far.

Hope that helps. If I didn't cover something that you're curious about just ask.

(01-22-2016 03:54 AM)MuyTallguy Wrote:  PDC also just switched to EST so you won't have any time lags.

I was so damn confused the day this happened. Like extremely confused, since it was my second year there and it didn't happen the previous year. But it is pretty awesome being on EST there now.

Post: #16

Playa is full of women from Argentina and Europe if you want a change of pace.