Coming to Rosarito

[Monty Floyd]

I will be going out to TJ/San Diego in about a week. I plan to visit Rosarito (and maybe Ensenada), to look for a long term rental.
Any suggestions, advise or tips would be greatly appreciated. I have limited Spanish skills but have survived 15 months in the back-waters of Mexico.
My son lives in San Diego now and I would like to be able to see him once in a while.
I have looked on craigslist but most of those places are in TJ. I don't have anything against TJ, I've never been there but I have been to border towns and I would only live in TJ, if there were nothing available in Rosarito or Ensenada.
I don't have a car, so I need to be relatively close to transportation but my biggest need is for a dependable, high-speed internet.
I currently am paying $2000 p/mn for a 3 bedroom. 2 story house. I don't expect to find anything like that, there. I don't need all this space anyway, it just fell in my lap and it is a good deal. A one bedroom is sufficient, a two bedroom would be better, in case my son would stay over. Prefer a furnished place as I am leaving everything that I cannot sell or give away. A view of the ocean would be a plus. I have room in my budget to increase the rent, for the right place.
Well, thanks for your time

[Monty Floyd]

How about recommendations for an affordable hotel?

[maryellen1952]

I plan to move to Rosarito this month from Tijuana and there are plenty of 1 or 2 bedroom rentals under $300/month provided you do not expect luxury. If you limit your search to Craigs List you won't find much in the budget category so try better sources such as vivastreet.com.mx or vivareal.com. Most ads are in Spanish so you will need to use the Google translator. This person at Lemus Realty is helping me so contact her...she speaks English.
Celia Bahena <grupolemusrealty@gmail.com>

[Monty Floyd]

THANK YOU, maryellen, you're an angel.
You don't have anything available under $300, do you?

[joelpb]

maryellen is right. you will have no problem finding a place. you will love it
baja. check out ensenada or la mission. great palces to live. you will not
need to know a lot of spanish but it helps.

[AlanMexicali]

Originally Posted by joelpb

maryellen is right. you will have no problem finding a place. you will love it
baja. check out ensenada or la mission. great palces to live. you will not
need to know a lot of spanish but it helps.

I agree you "might" not need to know a lot of Spanish when staying exclusively in Rosarito, however living in T.J. or Ensenada you will need a low or intermediate level of Spanish to function properly and get you daily business done. There is a difference between living and vacationing in Mexico. The tourist destinations, restaurants, shopping, tours are not the same as going to a supermarket or store and trying to figure out what they say to you when Spanish is used exclusively. Even in any local restaurant you will not meet many, if any, that speak any English. My experience from going to Baja regularly for 30 years.

[TundraGreen]

Originally Posted by AlanMexicali

I agree you "might" not need to know a lot of Spanish when staying exclusively in Rosarito, however living in T.J. or Ensenada you will need a low or intermediate level of Spanish to function properly and get you daily business done. There is a difference between living and vacationing in Mexico. The tourist destinations, restaurants, shopping, tours are not the same as going to a supermarket or store and trying to figure out what they say to you when Spanish is used exclusively. Even in any local restaurant you will not meet many, if any, that speak any English. My experience from going to Baja regularly for 30 years.

Ditto. I have a little experience with several border towns (Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez and Ensenada). Except for tourist facilities, people don't speak much English.

[canzis98]

i've lived in rosarito for 5 years and am perfectly comfortable comunicating my broken spanish. there are many reasonable places to rent and are in gated communities. i am happy to say i live way over my head here. you pick up what you need to get it across and as long as you try everyone is helpful, but you already know that. as a resident i am treated differently than a vacationer. better

[Monty Floyd]

Any recommendations on an affordable hotel? I have the INAPAM card for a discount. I don't want a luxury place, just somewhere clean and safe to sleep, shower and convenient to transportation and restaurants.

[maryellen1952]

If you expect to find a place less than $300 you need to do a lot of looking around on all the websites, as I mentioned. I found a place in Rosarito that is furnished for $250 and on the beach side (although not directly on the beach) close to Home Depot and Walmex. I have a car and spent a lot of time looking on the mentioned websites and then had the agent, Celia, go with me to check them out.
Get in touch with her when you are in Rosarito as you will definitely need to check the places out in person.
I have lived in Tijuana in a regular Mexican neighborhood for the past 9 months and I believe there is more English spoken in Rosarito versus TJ. You'll find the Americans living in Rosarito or farther south are in a different financial situation than the ones living in TJ; there are a lot of Americans in TJ who are on some type of welfare, SSI, etc. so they financially aren't able to move farther south and usually less educated as well. The 2 apartment buildings where I am now living in TJ have over 70% of Americans on some government assistance and few of them work. That is one reason I am moving to Rosarito along with the horrible TJ pollution.