San Felipe is a small town on the Sea of Cortez on the eastern side of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. It's near the mouth of the Colorado river, around 120 miles due south of the California USA border.
San Felipe is a rare combination of rugged desert, white sand beaches, turquoise sea, great views of high mountains towards the west, laid back lifestyle, friendly people, and a very reasonable cost of living. As a desert area, it rarely rains (normally just a few days a year), and the sun almost always shines. In the summer it can be very hot, in winter it is cool at night but never below freezing.
San Felipe Lifestyle
There's a large population of expatriates in San Felipe, mainly from the western USA and Canada, plus some from the UK, Ireland, and Australia. As a result, the lifestyle isn't authentically Mexican, it's more similar to a small dusty desert town in the American Southwest. The vast majority of stores take US dollars as well as Mexican Pesos, and it's quite possible to survive with minimal if any spoken Spanish (which does make it harder to learn Spanish!).
To those from more manicured places, San Felipe will look a bit decaying and uncared for (there isn't a lot of money around), although the malecon (beach walk) is reasonably attractive. Despite the appearance, crime is low, mostly petty burglary. Many of the expats live in gated comunities to the north and south of town where crime is even lower.
El Dorado
One of these gated communities is El Dorado, possibly the largest gated community in the world (by area), about 7 miles north of town on the road to Mexicali (and the USA).
It's home to thousands of (mainly) North American residents. Some of these residents only stay for the warm winter (snowbirds), an increasing number live year-round.
El Dorado consists of many different areas, including beachside condos, golf course houses, desert area houses with tank water and electric, and some “solar” areas which have no electric.
Other developments include the nearby Playa del Oro and Pete's Camp. On the south side of town there are communites like Los Sahuaros, beachside villas, and (further south) very basic campos (camps).
Real Estate
The real estate (property) market is currently a buyer's market, with basic 2 bed homes in a gated community for under US$150,000, and very nice houses and golf course condos for around $200-300k. There's a massive oversupply of building lots, especially within El Dorado, which gives a very wide choice in the $5,000 to $50,000 range for lots that are typically 6000 sq ft to 15000 sq ft.
San Felipe Life
This website, San Felipe Life, is intended as an “owner's manual” for English-speakers who live in San Felipe either full time or part time. As a result, it doesn't really cover tourist information or more background information on San Felipe. For that, follow some of the links below.
If you have any suggestions for information I should add to San Felipe Life, please contact me with the “contact” link in the last column below.
