Paradise in Mexico: Cost of Living in Puerto Vallarta

[Skip to Forecasted Cost of Living]

[Skip to Actual Cost of Living]

Last year the pandemic greatly changed the way we all live. While I by no means want to trivialize the negative consequences the pandemic has had (and continues to have), COVID-19 did also create some new opportunities. 

For me specifically, I was fortunate to be able to keep my job and work from home. After just a few days of sharing a 3-digit square footage apartment with my partner (who was also working from home), a wall with our neighbors (who seemed to be playing video games at all hours and laughing at things that didn’t seem that funny), and a window with Haight St. (and all the characters that brings), we decided to stay with family for the short term. [This is my first post and is my blog, so I am so happy I get to write as many run-on sentences as I like]

This meant packing a few things and heading to California’s greatest achievement: Fresno. We quickly upgraded from a 3-digit square footage apartment to a proper home. While we did get three new roommates (hi mom, gram, and Bailey), we no longer had to listen to folks in their 20s playing video games or have couples on Haight St. making cameos on my Zoom calls. 

As time went on, it became clearer that COVID-19 and the global pandemic wasn’t going to end in May (RIP April Hawaii trip; RIP 30th birthday trip to Bali and Tokyo). What does one do with lemons? Besides saying f*ck the lemons and bailing, one tries one’s best to make lemonade. 

Thanks to our companies being communicative and proactive, it quickly became clear it was extremely unlikely we’d be returning to the office before winter or even 2021. Because of that, I quickly made a spreadsheet forecasting how much rent we could save by cutting our lease (and how much of a hassle it would be if we needed to come back) by month x. Worst case, as long as we didn’t have to return for about 3 more months, the savings would be reaching the 5-figure mark. Although packing/moving is one of the most stressful things to do, I figured it was a gamble worth taking.

Fast forward a few months, and as wonderful as getting to spend time with family is (AND living rent-free), we were itching for two things: space of our own and some semblance of travel. [Quick interlude: jokes aside, prior to COVID-19, one of my biggest regrets was not spending enough time at home/with family. Again, not trying to trivialize the negative impacts had and is having globally, but this provided another silver lining/opportunity: spending time with family]. 

With most of the world locked down AND the necessity to stay within +/- 3 hours of our working time zone (to stay sane), there weren’t a ton of options of places to go. The first spots we looked to were California (expensive and not that exotic) and Hawaii (even more expensive and I think they weren’t letting folks in). The most realistic option quickly surfaced its beautiful head: Mexico. This “intro” is already getting a little long, so I will spare you, but suffice it to say: I love Mexico.

So, great, we know we’re going to Mexico, but where in Mexico? Mexico is not the size of Puerto Rico or even California. Mexico is huge. The first criteria we had to choose was city vs beach. While around this time it was summer and we were spending time in Southern California (and frequently going to the beach on the weekends), we still opted to go for la playa instead of la Ciudad (my Spanish was already improving!). 

So, great, we know we’re going to a beach in Mexico. Turns out there are still a ton of options: Baja? Riviera Maya? West coast? Further down the West coast? We quickly eliminated Riviera Maya (read: Cancun [never really an option], Playa del Carmen, and Tulum) because flights cost more, it was further to get to (in case we needed to come back) and Airbnbs were a lot more in Tulum or too small in Playa. That left us with Baja vs the PV area (Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, Sayulita, Punta Mita, etc.) 

We almost opted for Baja (by way of La Paz or San Jose del Cabo), but the weather seemed prohibitively hot and it didn’t seem extremely walkable (something we really care about). This left us with the PV area to narrow down from. I quickly decided we should do a month in PV proper and then maybe a month in Punta Mita or Sayulita, but everyone I talked to said more than a week in either place would probably be too long. 

Ultimately we decided to do ~2 months (9 weeks) in PV proper. We did our first 4 weeks in Zona Romantica/Emiliano Zapata and opted to do the following 5 weeks in Versalles (Versailles). Below you can find our meticulously accounted for expenses for the time we spent in PV (averaged across 2 months [October and November 2020] and not including the last week we were there). All below prices are in USD: 

Forecasted Cost of Living

Forecasted* total monthly costs (on a per couple basis): $2,500

Forecasted accommodation: $1,000

Forecasted food & alcohol: $800

Forecast transportation (including flights): $450

Forecasted “activities”: $175

Forecast miscellaneous: $75

*[I came up with these forecast based on averaging two years’ worth of nomadic travel expenses from a FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) blog I read called Millennial Revolution] 

Actual Cost of Living

Total living costs (including travel in and out of Mexico from California): $4,565.58 (for 2 people for 2 months)

or $2,182.79 per couple per month

or $1,091.40 per person per month

or $36.38 per person per day

Categorical breakdown of spend/expenses: 

Accommodation: $1,232.95 per couple per month

Not surprisingly, accommodation was our largest expenditure (however, I am hopeful/excited for when food becomes our #1 expense!). 

As mentioned above, we spent the first 4 weeks in Zona Romantica and the latter 5 weeks in Versalles. Here’s a look at our 1-bedroom in Zona Romantica:

Link to our first Airbnb

And here’s our 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom place in Versalles: 

Link to our second Airbnb

We actually got a crazy deal on our first Airbnb (~$1,200/4 weeks vs the ~$2,400-3,600/4 weeks it usually is). Overall, we enjoyed the first Airbnb more than the second one, but we enjoyed the second neighborhood much more. (PV neighborhood guide/where to stay in PV article coming soon!).

At each Airbnb, we were never more than a 15-minute walk to the beach or more than 3 minutes away from a restaurant. We had A/C, wifi, fully stocked kitchens, and in-unit washers (#necessary) at both units as well.

Not Puerto Vallarta, but here’s a look at an Airbnb in Mexico City:

Food & Alcohol: $687.53 per couple per month (or $11.46 per person per day)

[Skip to Eating Out]

[Skip to Bars]

[Skip to Alcohol]

Here comes my favorite expense! Across two months, we spent $1,375.06 on groceries, eating out, going to bars, and alcohol (includes groceries, drinks at restaurants and bars).

Groceries & Eating In

Groceries represented a little under a third of our food and alcohol spend at 28.08% or $193.13/month. This is likely where we drove down our food costs, as we ate breakfast at home Monday through Thursday/Friday, made lunch at home Monday through Thursday, and had dinner at home Sunday through Wednesday. 

My typical breakfast was a two-egg breakfast burrito with a flour tortilla and Mexico Lindo habanero hot sauce. Our typical lunch was a simple turkey and cheese (manchego or gouda) sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, and a tostada (for texture). I frequently ended up adding more Mexico Lindo hot sauce. Dinners ranged from meat, bean, and rice tostadas with homemade pico de galllo (and you guessed it: more Mexico Lindo hot sauce!) to burgers or fried fish sandwiches.

For our first leg in PV, we mainly shopped at Ley’s, whereas for our second leg we shopped at a combination of Soriana and Ley’s.

Restaurants & Eating Out

We spent over twice as much on eating out as we did on groceries at 62.3% of our food budget or $428.17/month. About 5-8 times per week, we would go out to eat. Typically, we’d go out for dinner on Thursdays, lunch, and dinner Fridays, brunch, lunch and/or dinners Saturday, and brunch and/or lunch on Sundays. 

I don’t want to get too much into what and where I ate as I will be writing a separate article on my favorite bites and restaurants I had during my time in PV.

UPDATE: 19 Best Places to Eat and Drink in Puerto Vallarta

Of our restaurants and eating out spend, 22.12% or $94.86/month went to our weekend brunches, 24.74% or $105.96/month went to lunches, and over half, or 54.28% or $232.27/month went to dinners. I’m not surprised about dinner but am a little surprised our brunch spend is almost equal to our lunch spend.

Bars

Bars accounted for our lowest spend category at 9.62% or $66.24/month. This isn’t super surprising as we typically got drinks with meals and seldomly went out for drinks alone. 

Alcohol

Lastly, alcohol in general (beer/tequila we purchased with groceries, drinks with meals, and drinks at bars) came in at almost ⅓ of our food spend at 31.49% or $216.36/month. I’m not sure if this is or isn’t surprising and if this is or isn’t sad. I do know that if we need to find places to trim our budget, this will be the first place to look.  

Transportation (including flights into and out of Mexico): $245.91 per couple per month

The extreme majority of our transportation costs were our flights to and flights home from PVR. Our flights to PVR from LAX were $103.68 per person on Delta, and our flights from PVR to LAX were $134.30 per person on Alaska. With a little math, you can see we didn’t spend much on travel outside of these flights. 

Outside of flights, we used Uber to and from the airport and for a few grocery/Costco runs. Uber is about ¼ to ⅓ the cost compared to SF and LA, and trips typically cost anywhere from $3-8. We also took a day trip to Sayulita which included trips on the local bus as well as trips on the intercity bus. 

Miscellaneous: $16.41 per couple per month

This is another category we didn’t spend much on and mostly includes buying 10L jugs of water, ~10lb bags of ice, and/or random items from Oxxo (the Mexican equivalent of 7-Eleven, which I love btw).

Activities? 

Activities are a bit of a contentious category for us. To me eating and drinking ARE activities. I’m not super into renting a kayak or going on a paid tour/experience. Because of that, our activities expense was $0. This might seem confounding, but it’s probably more due to how I account for things (e.g.: our day trip to Sayulita might be viewed as an activity to some, but I accounted it as transportation and food & alcohol). 

Where and how we reduced our cost of living in PV 

The top two places we saved were by cooking the bulk of our meals at home and walking.

My breakfasts probably cost ~$0.30 (18 eggs ~$2, 15 tortillas ~$0.75) and lunch/sandwiches were likely ~$1/each. Also, opting for a beer or two (~$0.50/ea) at our rooftop pool versus consistently going out to bars definitely adds up savings.

While in PV, besides Ubers to and from the airport and a couple of ad-hoc Ubers home from the grocery store, we walked everywhere. For the months of October and November 2020, I averaged 5 and 5.9 miles respectively (with a peak day in November at 12.8 miles!). While walking isn’t for everyone, it’s something we genuinely enjoy and happens to reduce costs (even at $3/trip, Uber can add up). 

Places we could further reduce our cost of living

The three main areas we could save more in are alcohol, eating out less frequently (or more inexpensive restaurants), and finding cheaper Airbnbs. 

Thanks to Puerto Vallarta’s inexpensive cost of living and given we were under our forecasted budget ($2,500/month) at 91.31% ($2,282.79), I don’t think we will make any changes at this point. With that said, it’s always good to understand where changes can be made if necessary. 

Additionally, if one were to stay in PV long term and get a proper lease, this would drive accommodation costs down by anywhere from 30-50%. Yes, you would have to sort out utilities, internet, etc., but seeing as accommodation is already the largest category expenditure, a double-digit percentage savings would be huge. 

Because we like the flexibility and don’t want to commit to any single place for 6-12 months+, we will likely continue using Airbnb or something similar for the foreseeable future. 

Caveats & final thoughts on PV’s cost of living

Traveling as a couple has the benefit of being able to share the accommodation expense. However, outside of accommodation everything (food, transportation [flights and buses but NOT ubers], misc., etc.) scales linearly. If I were traveling alone, I would look for a cheaper Airbnb or look at renting a room in a hostel or Selina.

Because Mexico is so close and convenient to the States, I understand transportation expenses will go up as we look to travel to Europe and Asia. However, I believe other categories will fluctuate as we change region, too (e.g.: while traveling to Asia will likely cost more food and accommodation will likely decline). 

One last thing, because of COVID-19 and the bulk of the world is closed, there has been an artificial (long-term) spike in demand in markets like Mexico and Hawaii. By mid to late 2022, I predict prices returning to where they had previously been prior to COVID-19 as other travel destinations reopen.

Have any tips on reducing the cost of living or places you loved in PV? Do you have any questions, or did I mess up my math somewhere? Please let me know in the comments below!

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