Moving to the Queretaro area in September 2026
Hello! My fiancé and I are planning to move to Mexico in September in search of a lifestyle change, to be closer to some of her family (she is a Mexican citizen), and to plan our wedding. She also recently lost her job, and I would be able to support us on one salary much more comfortably in Mexico, especially as I already work 90+% remotely.
Her family lives in Guanajuato state, some in the small town of Ojo de Agua del Refugio, and some in a larger town of San Jose Iturbide (which is about 40 minutes from Queretaro). She visited earlier this year and really loved San Jose Iturbide, but we are really struggling to find decent rentals online and on Facebook groups. We quickly learned that we need to be in person to do any real house hunting in the area. Therefore, we have booked a one-month Airbnb in Juriquilla (which can be extended as needed), as a comfortable place to settle in, while we get accustomed to the move and start to look for a longer-term rental (both in San Jose Iturbide and in Queretaro).
In a perfect world, we would love to find a nice house to rent that already has appliances included, has a yard/jardin for our 2 small dogs, an outdoor sitting space for us (ideally with some covered portions from the sun), and that is walkable to local shops, fruterias, restaurants, etc. We would be comfortable spending $700-$1,000 USD in San Jose Iturbide or $1,000-1,300 USD in Queretaro. Any thoughts/feedback or responses to my initial questions below would be incredibly appreciated!
1. Has anybody else tried finding rental houses in smaller Mexican cities (San Jose Iturbide is somewhere in the 70k-80k population range)? Any tips you may have would be appreciated, as it is clear that online postings are few and far between compared to larger cities like Queretaro.
2. Has anybody else moved to Mexico with dogs? How big of a pain is this? We have 2 Cavelier King Charles Spaniels (about 24 pounds each). Our current plan is to drive them down in our car, as we will need to keep one car living in Juriquilla.
3. What are all the considerations we need to think about with driving down? We will be taking our 2017 Subaru Outback. We are hoping to have a family member from Mexico drive us from the border into Mexico, as I know the roads are very challenging if you are not experienced. She is a citizen and I will have a Temporary Resident Visa and will be applying for the TIP.
4. If we wanted to bring down some of our furniture (couch, dresser, coffee table, desk, a couple TVs, etc.), what is the best way to go about this? I am seeing pretty crazy prices of over $10k for full international shipping companies. Would it make more sense to drive a U-Haul down to TX and warehouse them in a storage unit for a while? And then once we are fully settled, we find a way to get them the rest of the way? Any thoughts on this, or moving company suggestions, would be appreciated.
International moving is very stressful, but we are fully committed to making this happen for us. Thank you in advance for any thoughts you can provide!