Campeche Mexico Best Retire Cheap Paradise

Campeche Mexico Best Retire Cheap Paradise?
Campeche Things to Do!
–>Campeche Free Old Town Walking Tour
–>Campeche Day Tours
–>Campeche Best Restaurants
–>Campeche Nightlife (Bar Hopping) Tour
–>Campeche Best (and) Cheap Places to Stay
–>Campeche Flights, Buses, Trains
–>Campeche Livability Factors
–>Campeche Cost of Living
Best Travel or Retire Cheap in Paradise Locations in the World

Campeche Mexico Best Retire Cheap in Paradise Location?

This is Dan from Vagabond Buddha. This is my “Campeche Mexico Best Retire Cheap Paradise” guide. Campeche is certainly a gorgeous place. However, your needs and preferences will determine whether or not it is the best retire cheap in paradise location in the world for you. I hope these videos and my below livability factors will help you make that determination.

My goal for this Campeche Mexico best retire cheap paradise guide is to observe and describe the good, the bad, and the ugly about each place and let you decide from there. In fact, this is exactly what Vagabond Buddha is all about. We travel around the world and rank living conditions and costs in various parts of the world, and then let you decide which ones are worth considering.

I have visited 65 countries in my life so far. I left the United States in 2007. I had a blog of mostly just pictures until I started Vagabond Buddha in 2016. Now I make videos and rate each place I visit based upon my below-described livability factors and costs.

Here is my Youtube Channel with videos of the places I have visited in the last 24 months. If you are interested in knowing the other countries I have visited or lived in, just ask for a link to my old travel blog. I started that blog in 2007 and it covers my first 60 countries.

In 2017, Qiang Hui of Hobo Ventures joined me on my travels. You should check out her Instagram account. She is fun to follow. In addition to being a travel junkie like me, she is also a runway model in Malaysia.  She has been helping me decide if this Campeche Mexico best retire cheap paradise guide includes the good, bad, and ugly

If you would like to learn how to make money online, or how to live internationally possibly with less money than you spend at home, please grab a free copy of my Ebook.

Campeche Mexico Facts

Here are some interesting facts about Campeche. I am here now as I type these words. 🙂 It is super fun and beautiful. Click on this Google Map to zoom into Campeche.

1. Campeche City is the capital of the state of Campeche, Mexico.
2. There are over one million people living in Campeche State and about 25% of those live in Campeche City. There is only one of the other 31 states in Mexico with a smaller population than Campeche.
3. There were people living in Campeche City when the Spanish arrived. However, the history books still say the city was founded by the Spanish in 1540. As with many other cities in Mexico, the Spanish built right over the top of the existing Mayan city that was called Can Pech. Although there were 3000 houses here and many monuments, the Spanish destroyed everything in the city with almost no exceptions.
4. The colonial town center of Campeche City was awarded the UNESCO world heritage status in 1999.
5. The Spanish lived inside the castle walls and forced the indigenous people live outside in the surrounding barrios. The Spanish also believed that the indigenous people had no souls so they made them worship in separate churches outside the castle walls. This is also why the Spanish believed they could kill, rape, and enslave the indigenous population without spiritual consequence.
6. Campeche was where the Spanish first landed in Mexico in 1517.
7. The Spanish built castle walls surrounding Campeche in the 17th century to help stop pirates from looting Campeche, like the Sack of Campeche in 1663, when 1000 Pirates with 14 Ships plundered everything of value from Campeche.
8. Subsequently, all of the defensive positions in the city were fortified with castle walls that had a combined total length of 2580 meters (8500 feet), with 8 defensive bastions on the corners. The below diagram shows the castle walls as they were about 100 years ago. Not all of the walls remain standing today. The city has removed some walls for better traffic flow, since not too many pirates have attacked in the last century. 🙂
9. Below, the red lines are where the walls where and the circles are where the bastions were. A bastion is a part of a fortification built to house more people and artillery to allow defensive fire in several directions. The top of the walls between the bastions of this castle are only wide enough to move people and supplies between bastions. Defensive canon fire originated from the bastions and boiling oil was often poured from the tops of walls on soldiers below trying to scale the walls with ropes and ladders.

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Campeche Free Old Town Walking Tour and Map

Here is the Youtube video of our Campeche Mexico Free Old Town Walking Tour.

Click the interactive Google Map on your smartphone to be guided on this tour.

As you may suspect, the old town walking tour of Campeche City involves a few stops at the above former bastions of the castle walls.

Independence Park (Parque Principal): This first stop on the old town walking tour has three things to see. The principal park, the Cathedral of the City and Centro Casa 6. The cathedral faces Independence Park. It was given the rank of Cathedral in 1895 by Pope Leo the 13th. The cathedral took over 200 years to build. It was started in 1540 and was completed in 1760. It is a baroque architecture with neoclassical features.

Centro Casa 6: This former mansion is now a cultural center that shows you how a wealthy family lived in 17th century Campeche.

Santiago Bastion (Xmuch Haltún Botanical Garden): This bastion was reconstructed into a botanical garden.

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Baluarte de la Soledad (Mayan Museum): This museum includes significant historical displays of Mayan artifacts and social order.

Campeche Malecon: This is a 2 mile stretch of paved sidewalk along the waterfront called Malecon Campeche. We take you just a few hundred meters down the path to give you a beach and city view.

San Carlos Bastion (City Museum): Make sure to take the tour here included in the admission. You will learn the history of Campeche and the struggle to keep the citizens safe from plundering pirates.

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Calle 59: This is a gorgeous walking street in Campeche City. The city planners have figured out the single most important thing you can do to take a UNESCO city from beautiful to amazing and fun. They set up this beautiful walking street where cars are not allowed. There are coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, bars, and retail stores all laced among pastel-colored 17th-century colonial-era mansions.

San Francisco Bastion (Land Gate): This was the original land gate to enter the castle walls. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights there is a light show at the front gate that lasts for 30 minutes starting at 8 pm.

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Best Campeche Day Tours and Map.

Self-Guided (Cheap Bastard) Tours

If you are an adventurous sort, you should try one of my self-guided (cheap bastard) tours.

$8 USD Tour Campeche to Edzna Archaeological Site: At $8 USD roundtrip, this is the cheapest way to tour Edzna from Campeche. If the video looks interesting to you, catch the collectivo (red and white mini-van) in front of this seed store. It costs 40 Pesos $2 USD each way. Upon arrival, you must pay 60 Pesos $3 USD per person to get into the site.

$2 USD Best Beach Tour Campeche to Playa Bonita: At $2 USD roundtrip, this is the cheapest way to tour Playa Bonita from Campeche. If the video looks interesting to you, catch the collectivo (white mini-van with “Lerma Tecnologico” on the windshield) in front of this store. It costs 7 Pesos $0.50 USD each way. Upon arrival, you must pay 2 Pesos $0.10 USD per person to get into the site. Optional items include the following: The food was about 80 Pesos $4 USD, and beer was 130 Pesos $6.50 per six-pack of beer. The straw umbrellas with chairs were about 40 Pesos for 2 people $2 USD.

Fuerte De San José: At $4 USD round trip for your taxi and $2 USD entry if you want to go inside the museum and fort, this is one of the better values for a half day tour in Campeche Mexico. If the video looks good, just grab a taxi to Fuerte de San Jose for 40 Pesos. If your Spanish is bad, just write the name of the fort on a paper and show it to the taxi driver.

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Campeche Best Restaurants, Street Food, and Surprise Experiences

I am still on a vegetable juice fast and Qiang Hui has felt more like cooking this week than eating out. So we haven’t sampled many restaurants. These are the places Qiang tried the local food that she said she would eat again.

Cinépolis: I felt like seeing an English movie. I Googled “English Movies” and found Johnny English playing at the theatre in this mall. The movie was playing in the VIP section so Qiang was able to order Sushi and eat while we watched the movie. It was about 90 Pesos $5 USD for sushi. The movie in the VIP section was 120 Pesos per person $6.5 USD per person.

La Choperia: Qiang had a chorizo sausage her for 120 Pesos $6 USD. She said it was nice.

Playa Bonita: Qiang had chicken wings on our day at the beach. They cost 85 Pesos $4.5 USD.

Juice Fast: I have been on a vegetable juice only fast while we were here. Here are the two fresh juice extraction places we found. I prefer the second one but they are both acceptable. Punto Verde, Juice 2 (across the street and left from this store).

Vagabond Buddha’s Kitchen: Qiang cooked many of her favorite meals while we were in Campeche. Here is the market where we shopped.

Best Campeche Nightlife (Bar Hopping) Walking Tour and Map

This is a sleepy town. To the extent you are able to have fun out drinking and listening to music, it is very likely to be on Calle 59 in the Old Town.

Just click the above interactive map or ==>this link<== on your smartphone to start your tour.

If you book my recommended flights, tours (Viator Tours, Get Your Guide Tours) or accommodations, you will pay nothing extra, but we will earn a small commission.

Campeche Best (and) Cheap Hotels

You should stay in the old town area of Campeche, if possible. That will allow you to walk to the interesting things to do and see. Here are accommodations you should consider. They go from most to least expensive, as follows:

Hotel Socaire (Price is reasonable, amazing location.)

Casa Mazejuwi (Look at the reviews, great location)

Hotel Lopez Campeche (Swimming Pool, great location)

Hostel (Supercheap, crazy good ratings)

Airbnb House Share (Where we stayed): This is a house share on Airbnb. We have our own bedroom and our own bathroom, and we share the kitchen and Internet with our host. This place is super nice and new with loads of privacy. But it is a 15-minute walk to the old town so I probably would try to get inside the old town area, like here next time. (If you are new to Airbnb, use this code http://www.airbnb.com/c/dbell50 for a big discount).

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Campeche Flights, Buses, Trains

Buses: We took the ADO bus from San Cristobal to Campeche Mexico. Right, click in your chrome browser to get an English translation. The trip was 16 hours and cost 640 Pesos per person. Buy your ADO tickets at least one week in advance to avoid their last-minute gouging. As the seats fill up, they raise the price as much as 200 Pesos per ticket.

Normally we recommend ETN or Primera buses between various cities in Mexico. But as we have headed further south in Mexico it seems ADO has a monopoly on travel. You will need to check their web page to see if they have a bus from your city to Campeche. You can visit the English ETN website. In fact, just right click any website in your Google Chrome browser to translate into English.

Campeche International Airport (Alberto Acuña Ongay International Airport (CPE)): You can fly into CPE and take a Taxi to your accommodations in Campeche. It takes about 20 minutes and costs about 60 Pesos, $3 USD. Uber wasn’t operating here during our visit. Let me know if it is up and running when you are here. I have provided a list of 5 places to stay in old town Campeche, see above.

Flights (International or Domestic): I always use Skyscanner to book domestic and international flights. If you allow a range of dates to fly and return, you can sometimes save hundreds of dollars. Get a Mexican SIM card for your smartphone when you land in Mexico. Get your phone unlocked before leaving your home country.

Train: There is still a train through Copper Mountain but it does not go to Campeche. That is the only train in Mexico still. Otherwise, you need to take buses and flights.

Please book using my recommendations. 🙂 If you book my recommended flights, tours (Viator Tours, Get Your Guide Tours) or accommodations, you will pay nothing extra, but we will earn a small commission. This is why we are able to keep creating these travel guides.

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Campeche Mexico Livability Factors

This is Dan from Vagabond Buddha. Here are the factors I use to decide if I would want to live somewhere. I call them my livability factors.  They will be my focus when thinking about this Campeche Mexico best retire cheap paradise location is really that good.

Livability Factors: Weather, walkability, internet reliability, cost of living, things to do, social considerations, real estate prices, food choices, and expat opportunities.

Campeche Desirability Score: I rank each livability factors separately before I think about the overall desirability score. Campeche has a medium desirability factor.   Saying it bluntly, this Campeche Mexico best retire cheap paradise evaluation is No!  Right now, my personal top six places to live or retire cheap in paradise include Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Guanajuato, Puerta Vallarta, and Tulum. But I have more places to see in Mexico before firming up my scores. If you would like to know how my next 3 stops compare to my existing top 6, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel or Vagabond Buddha.

Walkability: High. Campeche is totally walkable.

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Internet Reliability: High. The WIFI in our Airbnb was 11.1 MBPS download speed and 1.8 MBPS upload speed. Speed Test. That is the wireless connectivity within our room. It is totally suitable for my purposes.

Food: Medium. The food diversity is okay for a town this size. But is nothing like you will see in towns with a higher tourist or expat penetration.

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Weather: Low or Medium. We came to Campeche from San Cristobal, Mexico. It is much warmer here because Campeche is at sea level. San Cristobal was at about 2200 meters (7200 feet) above sea level and Campeche is just a few meters above sea level. April is the warmest month with an average high of 95F, 35C, and it only cools down at night to 72F, 22C. This means your house is too warm to sleep in without AC. January is the coldest month with an average low of 65F or 18C at night, but it warms quickly in the day to 74F or 24C, so no heat is needed. The rainy season is June through September when it rains about 6 to 8 inches per month (160 to 200 mm). Because the average high for the day is 90F, 32C or above for 7 months of the year, I am labeling Campeche as merely medium. But this could be labeled low for you if you are allergic to heat. You must have AC here just to survive.

Things to Do: Medium or low. This place feels a little isolating even after just 5 days.

Social Considerations: Medium if you know Spanish, Low otherwise. You will feel need to learn Spanish here. You will be isolated otherwise.

Expats Penetration: Medium. There is a very low expat presence in Campeche.

Real Estate: High. You can get a 2 Bedroom 1 Bath condo in Campeche for about $32,000 USD. I do not recommend buying until you have lived here for at least one or two years.

Campeche Mexico Cost of Living

If you try to rent over the Internet speaking only English, you will be quoted only Gringo prices. If you are here, you can speak directly to landlords. I guesstimate $375-625 USD for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in the old town area of Campeche, Mexico.

Monthly Cost of Living, Campeche, Mexico ($USD)

Expense	Cost	Low	Medium	High
Airbnb House Share	$16.00	0	14	30
Moderate Hotel	$25.00	0	12	0
Backpacker Hostel	$10.00	30	3	0
High-End Restaurant	$8.00	1	4	8
Neighborhood Restaurant	$4.00	30	44	48
Food Cart	$1.00	30	12	4
Subway/Train/Metro	$0.20	20	26	8
Bus	$0.20	20	10	0
Taxi/Uber	$2.00	6	10	20
Total	Per Month	$478.00	$801.20	$781.60
Total	Per Day	$15.93	$26.71	$26.05

The above table is just my notes from my time here. The above numbers are for one person and do not include alcohol, tours, or extras. I do not guarantee these prices for anyone.

For more information about how the above “Cost of Living Monthly Multiplier” works, please visit the bottom of this page at Vagabond Buddha.

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This is Dan of Vagabond Buddha. Thank you for stopping by. The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?

Warning: I am not offering you these prices.  These are just my notes and estimates from the time of my visit and this post.  Your costs will likely be drastically different if significant inflation or deflation occurs or the market changes after this post.  I will not update these numbers until I am on the ground again here, if ever.