Post: #1

So I'm looking for somewhere cheap and warm to work remotely this winter.

My criteria:

-You can get around with little Spanish
-Low COL (downtown apartment for less than $600/mo)
-Easy to get around on foot, bike, bus (no car)
-Safe, no crazy hurricanes or violent crime
-Lots of universities/intellectuals/arts and culture
-Fast/reliable internet
-Well-designed city (some greenery, not filled with parking lots, not overly crowded)
-And of course, reasonably hot women that are reasonable to swoop

After spending a LOT of time researching cities through RVF and elsewhere, here's the shortlist:

San Jose, Costa Rica (esp. San Pedro neighborhood)
Medellin, Colombia
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Guanajuato City, Mexico
Havana, Cuba

I don't have a lot of time and money to travel and try out all the cities.

I want to just choose one, find a good spot in a good neighborhood, and post up there for the winter.

If you have intel on any of these places, let me know. Which ones would be ideal for my criteria? Which ones should I eliminate?

Also, it would be ideal to stack the game cards in my favor...

...my specs are: white / 26 / 6' / skinny / red hair / no Spanish

Given those specs, do any of those cities strike you as better or worse for my appeal to women?

Post: #2

(09-09-2018 12:28 PM)roc_student Wrote:  My criteria:

-You can get around with little Spanish
Guadalajara, Mexico

-Safe, no crazy hurricanes or violent crime
Medellin, Colombia

-Lots of universities/intellectuals/arts and culture
Guanajuato City, Mexico

-Fast/reliable internet
Havana, Cuba

-Well-designed city (some greenery, not filled with parking lots, not overly crowded)
Playa del Carmen, Mexico

All the above cities are mutually exclusive with those statement.
Seems like you are trying to find a unicorn city, you will definitely have to compromise on something especially since you don't speak the language.

Puerto Vallarta seems like a good fit for you, it has the added bonus of being by the sea (even if a bit cold).
Also many gringos are moving there so you are probably going to find many people that speak English.

Post: #3

(09-09-2018 12:55 PM)wellrockthecity Wrote:  

(09-09-2018 12:28 PM)roc_student Wrote:  My criteria:

-You can get around with little Spanish
Guadalajara, Mexico

-Safe, no crazy hurricanes or violent crime
Medellin, Colombia

-Lots of universities/intellectuals/arts and culture
Guanajuato City, Mexico

-Fast/reliable internet
Havana, Cuba

-Well-designed city (some greenery, not filled with parking lots, not overly crowded)
Playa del Carmen, Mexico

All the above cities are mutually exclusive with those statement.
Seems like you are trying to find a unicorn city, you will definitely have to compromise on something especially since you don't speak the language.

Puerto Vallarta seems like a good fit for you, it has the added bonus of being by the sea (even if a bit cold).
Also many gringos are moving there so you are probably going to find many people that speak English.

Second that. I know a tall, thin person with OP's look that lived there, worked remotely, and felt it was pretty safe.

I'm not saying I second that opinion on safety, but that was that person's opinion on that.

Post: #4

Red hair? You will hopefully be swimming in pussy in Mexico, I recommend Mexico City or if by the seaside Puerto Vallarta, I heard Mazatlan is the bomb but you'll need more Spanish.

And how the hell can you work remotely in Cuba? There's no internet there

Post: #5

IMO Mexico City is great for OP.

Mexico City has a large amount of people that speak English, is a fairly intellectual place for Latin American standards, has some parts of the main city that are incredibly safe, clean, and organized, and there are 1st world amenities everywhere. It's also only geographically very close to the USA so that's a huge plus.

Oh yeah, and the women there are friendly, hot, slutty - and with red hair, you will 100% stand out.

Post: #6

Mikestar, I'm curious, are you being sarcastic about red hair being an asset in Mexico? Here in the US, only a minority of girls respond positively to my hair color. (And when they dig it, they REALLY dig it...but the point remains, red hair on a guy isn't exactly an asset in my experience).

Post: #7

I’m not sure about Mexicans but Colombians definitely like gingers, I’ve seen a couple of my red headed friends do well there, people literally stopping and staring. At one point a group of several teenage girls approached us in a mall and asked to take photos with my ginger buddy who has blue eyes and tons of freckles, they gave me the camera to take the pics, little bitches lol.

Post: #8

Thanks scotian, that's gold to know. Very little intel on this forum about red hair, I didn't realize there are some cultures that really dig it.

I'm in that middleground where I have red hair but not the other ginger traits: no freckles, no blue eyes.

Hopefully the red hair alone will still be worth something. At the very least, it sounds like it won't be a gross-out to the Mexican chicks.

Post: #9

(09-09-2018 12:28 PM)roc_student Wrote:  So I'm looking for somewhere cheap and warm to work remotely this winter.

My criteria:

-You can get around with little Spanish
-Low COL (downtown apartment for less than $600/mo)
-Easy to get around on foot, bike, bus (no car)
-Safe, no crazy hurricanes or violent crime
-Lots of universities/intellectuals/arts and culture
-Fast/reliable internet
-Well-designed city (some greenery, not filled with parking lots, not overly crowded)
-And of course, reasonably hot women that are reasonable to swoop

After spending a LOT of time researching cities through RVF and elsewhere, here's the shortlist:

San Jose, Costa Rica (esp. San Pedro neighborhood)
Medellin, Colombia
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Guanajuato City, Mexico
Havana, Cuba

I don't have a lot of time and money to travel and try out all the cities.

I want to just choose one, find a good spot in a good neighborhood, and post up there for the winter.

If you have intel on any of these places, let me know. Which ones would be ideal for my criteria? Which ones should I eliminate?

Also, it would be ideal to stack the game cards in my favor...

...my specs are: white / 26 / 6' / skinny / red hair / no Spanish

Given those specs, do any of those cities strike you as better or worse for my appeal to women?

I've been to four of these. None of them exactly fit your criteria

Eliminate Havana, internet is a problem.

Mexico is also known for not having great internet.

Most of those beach towns have no university life.

Define SAFE?

Never been to Costa Rica, but I think its one of the tougher countries in Latin America.

I airbnb'd a place in Palermo for $750 for a month, so Buenos Aires might work. You could probably get a better deal staying longer.

Post: #10

Safe = not going to get kidnapped, robbed at gunpoint, a bystander in a gang war, apartment broken into.

I'm OK with the usual precautions like locking my door, avoiding bad neighborhoods, not flaunting gold chains etc.

I just don't want to put myself at undue risk, especially being conspicuously white and English-speaking.

Post: #11

I'm not sure how much research you did but Havana is the absolute worst place to work remotely in the world.

Post: #12

(09-09-2018 06:18 PM)Shimmy Wrote:  I'm not sure how much research you did but Havana is the absolute worst place to work remotely in the world.

OP's logic also one of the reasons I stopped helping people....they just come in, start a thread with zero research, and then leave without adding value.

San Miguel Allende is expensive as fuck, nothing but gringos and canadians there.

Cuba has shitty internet

You're going to need Spanish for Guanajuato since it's small and few people speak English.

The rest of the Mexican cities have some sort of cartel problem, either due to being CJNG (Guadalajara) or Sinaloa HQ....or contested land (Vallarta). Ciudad del Carmen doesn't have hotties.

Post: #13

Roc-student,

Check your PM, which answers your question. Good luck.

Post: #14

(09-09-2018 05:18 PM)scotian Wrote:  I’m not sure about Mexicans but Colombians definitely like gingers

Post: #15

What happened to that parque lleras post?

Post: #16

Havent visited all of the places you mentioned but I can definetely recommend Guanajuato city, its honestly a magical city, I want to return there next year. It is touristic, especially during october / november every year because theres an event called cervantino, which is a big cultural event. I think you can find an appartment for 600 per month downtown there, my friend paid 150 euro for a room.

Post: #17

(09-09-2018 12:28 PM)roc_student Wrote:  So I'm looking for somewhere cheap and warm to work remotely this winter.

My criteria:

-You can get around with little Spanish
-Low COL (downtown apartment for less than $600/mo)
-Easy to get around on foot, bike, bus (no car)
-Safe, no crazy hurricanes or violent crime
-Lots of universities/intellectuals/arts and culture
-Fast/reliable internet
-Well-designed city (some greenery, not filled with parking lots, not overly crowded)
-And of course, reasonably hot women that are reasonable to swoop

Your place is either Mexico City or Buenos Aires. You can live in both cities for 600$/mo, but you will have a lot more fun with at least 1500$+. Seriously, no place is fun with only 600$.

Post: #18

(09-09-2018 06:06 PM)roc_student Wrote:  Safe = not going to get kidnapped, robbed at gunpoint, a bystander in a gang war, apartment broken into.

I'm OK with the usual precautions like locking my door, avoiding bad neighborhoods, not flaunting gold chains etc.

I just don't want to put myself at undue risk, especially being conspicuously white and English-speaking.

Big difference in Latin America between blond-hair white vs black-hair white. Its unlikely that anything will happen anyway, but robbed is possible in most of Latin America. The safer countries are Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.

I suggest Asia if you're worried about it.

Post: #19

(09-09-2018 12:55 PM)wellrockthecity Wrote:  

(09-09-2018 12:28 PM)roc_student Wrote:  My criteria:

-You can get around with little Spanish
Guadalajara, Mexico

-Safe, no crazy hurricanes or violent crime
Medellin, Colombia

-Lots of universities/intellectuals/arts and culture
Guanajuato City, Mexico

-Fast/reliable internet
Havana, Cuba

-Well-designed city (some greenery, not filled with parking lots, not overly crowded)
Playa del Carmen, Mexico

All the above cities are mutually exclusive with those statement.
Seems like you are trying to find a unicorn city, you will definitely have to compromise on something especially since you don't speak the language.

Puerto Vallarta seems like a good fit for you, it has the added bonus of being by the sea (even if a bit cold).
Also many gringos are moving there so you are probably going to find many people that speak English.

I will add in PV it's nice but pretty small, and heavily concentrated with gay men as has a big scene there. Tinder runs out after under 100 swipes tbh - nice place though.
Guadalajara is a good all-round shout, pretty chill, had amongst my easiest bangs there, cool city
Lima safest best food easiest bangs
Bogota decent good women relatively easyish bangs, crap food (colombia in general)
medellin - played ut full of gringo "nomads" and backpacks, not particuarly easy
cartagena - complate tourist trap full of hookers including tinder hot as fuck (the weather)
mex city - good all-rounder, can have crap weather, decent for lays not too hard medium quality, lots of nice parks, museams, food

Post: #20

Miami, Florida

Post: #21

(09-09-2018 05:33 PM)godzilla Wrote:  I airbnb'd a place in Palermo for $750 for a month, so Buenos Aires might work. You could probably get a better deal staying longer.

BA fits a lot of your criteria, especially palermo. Though I will say the spanish was harder for me down there. Internet, university students, all that other stuff is there for you though and you can live reasonably cheaply (getting cheaper).

Post: #22

What about Manizales? University town, big enough (approx 400k), without the crowds, traffic and cost of Medellin. The bus is 4/5 hours from Medellin.

Post: #23

I like Manizales but I think most guys would be bored there after a week or so, myself included. If you just wanted to have a quiet life and a nice girl friend then it could be nice. It has very clean tap water and air, is overall the cleanest city I’ve been to in the country and is relatively safe, compared to say the big three cities. It’s fucking hilly though and gets cold at night, you’ll need a sweater or jacket.

Post: #24

I'm currently shopping for my winter lodging in Mexico City. I have spent the past four years dialing-in my game for that place (with a ton of help from this forum) and have enjoyed the fruits of my labor. I usually spend Thanksgiving through New Years there as the holidays are the best time for me to get out of the states.

Now, on the housing front. I have stayed in Roma, Condesa, and Escandon. I am seeing prices bump up a bit this year as I am looking. To get a place with good logistics (self-explanatory) and that doesn't look like a backpacker flop house, something that looks like a cool place, it is going to cost north of $1000/month.

Last winter I stayed in the west part of Escandon and I didn't like it. Too far away from the action. Now, the eastern part of Escandon is not too bad as it has some street action, and if you are just across from Condesa in Escandon then that is ok. Escandon just has cheaper rent.

Now, if you are Polanco style player (the really high dollar part of town) then this doesn't apply. I run with a suit and no tie and spend 90% of my time in Condesa hanging out during the day, venture into other areas like Coyoacan when I feel like it or maybe a walk down to the Centro/Zocalo.

G

Post: #25

Head straight to Peru.

Skinny gringos with red hair do well and you won't need much Spanish in Lima.