Moving to Mexico for Americans and Canadians usually begins with the desire to live well on less or retire earlier. While it’s true that housing, food, dining out and personal services cost less in Mexico, prices are on the rise in some more established expat communities such as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, San Miguel de Allende and Merída, not only in housing but in food costs.

For aspiring expats exploring off those beaten paths and thos who might be looking for a more cosmopolitan city, Querétaro still offers a good housing market with great variety in types of places to live. With over a million people, it has Fresko grocery stores that rival Whole Foods, an upscale mall and plenty of fine dining. I took a look at Queretaro for a month to feel it out as a potential expat might. There was much to like.

Great climate

Querétaro couldn’t have made a better meteorological first impression. I walked down the steps of the plane in February to a beautiful 70-degree late afternoon with none of the humidity of my Mexican coastal town. Nights were just cool enough to require a jacket, days warm and sunny. Overall, the climate seemed similar to Southern California, a never ending succession of sunny, warm days and cool nights, with periodic spikes up and down in temperature in February and August.

Attractive international airport

You can read a neighborhood by its grocery store. You can read a city by its airport. The Querétaro airport had live plants, patio restaurants and excellent security, all of which made a reassuring statement - the “don’t-worry-we-have-money-here” statement of a city with one of the strongest economies in Mexico. 

Lovely city views at night

Probably the aspect of Querėtaro I enjoyed most during my stay were the night views of the rolling hills blanketed in lights at night, reminding me again of San Diego as you drive further from the beach toward La Mesa. My last night in Querétaro I hired an Uber just to drive the length of Hwy 57 to take in the view with a glass of wine one last time.  Many neighborhoods situated along the hills offer similar views of the rolling blanket of twinkling lights.

Varied housing options

Expats in Mexico tend to line up in one of two camps, either the camp that wants to live where the action and color is, that is to say El Centro, a city’s historical commercial district, and those who prefer a house in full in quieter suburbs. 

Querétaro’s El Centro is comparatively vast when compared to those in other cities, with wide, orderly streets and plenty of open pedestrian spaces and plazas. Living in Queretaro’s El Centro, you’d never get bored. 

For anyone who would like to live in a Mexican colonial historical district but hesitate about the noise you’ll find in many of them, this El Centro might be one to consider. (Although I’m sure it has its nights). Compared to other historical districts I’ve stayed in, El Centro in Querétaro is relatively peaceful.

In the latter category of those looking at neighborhoods outside the central city, a number of them developed up Hwy 57 in Querétaro, some so new that they haven’t made it to Uber drive maps yet. 

I stayed in one such area called Millenium III, one of the first neighborhoods you pass going north of the main part of the city. Millennium III has everything upperly-mobile young professionals could want; upscale bars and restaurants, ultra-modern apartment and condo options and, my favorite, that Freska grocery store I mentioned that will took my breath away after so many years in Mazatlán where the high-end grocery store until recently was the Walmart.

Invariably at least one of the quieter gated communities popular with expats will be near a golf course. In the case of Queretaro, that neighborhood is Juriquilla. Springing up along that same fault line between the city center and Juriquilla at the most northern point, you’ll find the newer communities such as Jurica and sprawling El Refugio, near the toniest shopping mall in Querétaro, Altea.   

Attractive, older neighborhoods include Jardines de la Hacienda, close is to El Centro, with its quiet wide streets, attractive homes and good restaurants, Carretas and Alamos Dos and Tres, and Campanario are other safe areas with a good number of parks and mature trees lining the streets. Rents run from $600 to $800. With banks and stores all nearby, you might be able to live without a car if you lived in one of these areas. 

Road Trips!

Querétaro is a great jumping off point for week-end get-aways and getting to other parts of Mexico.

It’s a wine and cheese-making (caseiculture) region and you can visit vineyards Finca Sala Vivé by Freixenet Mexico, Viñedos La Redonda, San Juanito, De Cote Casa Vitivinícola, and Puerta del Lobo, which are best known for Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Malbec

I really was a little puzzled by what would make a monolith interesting, but I was glad I visited Pena de Bernal, one of the world’s largest monoliths, about an hour away. The picturesque village is worth exploring and a short bus trip up a steep hill takes you to a food stalls and tanguis nestled in the rocks above the town at right at the foot of the monolith. 

Guanajuato, Mexico’s most romantic town, is only two hours away with plenty to see and do, (tours, dining, museums). Luxury buses to San Miguel de Allende, rated by Conde Naste in 2022 as the Best Small Town in the World leave Querétaro several times a day and is only two hours away.

A number of pueblo magicos are located in the state of Querétaro; Jalpan de Serra, Cadereyta de Montes, Tequisquiapan, and San Joaquín (Tequisquiapan being the most visited)

Food! 

I have actually written about Querétaro before, through the eyes of Mexican who lives there who got me very interested in the food as he waxed on about barbacoa de res, gorditas con queso de chile, xoconostles (a prickly fruit) en caldo de olla and nopales en penca. 

Querétaro has over a million people and is Mexico’s most educated city, giving it the affluence and population base to support a huge number of places to eat, with upscale ones standing to attention all along the city’s main arteries. You can find excellent neighborhood dining too, notably pozolerias. Querétaro also has good vegan, vegetarian dining and grocery shopping options, not common in most of Mexico.

Things to do in the city

Queretaro has a rich cultural scene including the Día Internacional de la Danza (International Day of Dance) and the Amealco artisan festival. During certain week-ends you’ll find children's events and live entertainment in every plaza, all under huge canopies with chairs set out for the public, and all for free or close to it.

The Festival de Mole y Nieves (doesn’t that sound like a good combination?) which is held in La Cañada, a town about 5 miles from the City of Querétaro and its oldest puebla, founded by the Spaniards in 1529. 

Spanish and local Spanish teachers

Querétaro, like the other emerging expat destination areas, has fewer natives who speak English. The benefit to that is more integration between natives and the expat community. The disadvantage is expats are pretty scattered about and you have to put more effort into finding them, unlike more established expat towns where they’ve staked out their particular hang-outs and neighborhoods.

David and Ana, hosts of one of my favorite language-learning podcasts How to Spanish moved to Querétaro a few years ago from Mexico City, a big trend among young professionals. The couple has launched a Spanish immersion program that includes orientation activities. David’s a real foodie so you can count on discovering the best places to find the local dishes. (Their podcasts are terrific explorations of the Spanish language and Mexican culture.)

Traffic

The only negative about any big city is traffic and Querétaro is no exception. Right now (2023), traffic is worse due to the widening of Hwy 57. With traffic comes some pollution, as with all of Mexico’s big cities, and noise. Staying in Millenial III, I particularly noticed a lot of helicopters at night, which I assume are related to the Airbus helicopter factory located there.

Overall vibe

What I’m most interested in when I visit a Mexican town is its unique vibe. In Querétaro, I had the chance to have conversations about the city with a few wonderful people.

I enjoyed coffee with an archivist at the Instituto Dominicana de Investigadores Históricas, and had dinners and a picture-taking outing with a teacher and Querétaro native whom I had reached out to through a language-exchange website. I played pickleball a few times with a group of natives in Juriquilla and I talked to Mexicans I know who do business there. When I described the vibe I got from Querétaro to a few of them, they told me that my impression was spot-on, so I’ll share it.

In Guadalajara, an even bigger city, also with a highly educated population, I always feel an energy that’s distinctly entrepreneurial, the happy chaos of young people (the average age in Mexico is 28) in pursuit of dreams, some realistic, some not so much. But regardless of their chances of success, Guadalajara buzzes with their optimism and energy. It’s a city on the move, excited. 

Querétaro’s vibe is friendly, but much more subdued than I’ve experienced in Guadalajara and other parts of Mexico, perhaps a reflection of the large number of corporate transplants and those working for any of one of the number of manufacturing facilities there. 

This makes Querétaro a button-down corporate town, where people work for others and have the more conservative lifestyle that dictates. I think this tamps down the exuberance I’ve grown to love elsewhere in Mexico. Locals are friendly and educated, but readily admit to being more reserved than their fellow countrymen. 

For those looking for a safe, peaceful Mexican city with all the conveniences and luxuries large cities afford, Querétaro offers a terrific option. 

About the author:

Kerry Baker is the author of several books. The second book is “If Only I Had a Place,” giving you the benefits, pitfalls and opportunities of renting long-term in Mexico. The Mexico Solution: How to save your money, sanity and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico, is the cumulation of all I know, love and want to teach you about part-time expat life.

Her most recent book, “The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico” is a cookbook for travelers, snowbirds and expats. (spoiler: to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico, you must cook.)