Living Abroad in Mexico: Tim Leffel, OG Travel Blogger and Travel Writer

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Tim Leffel’s bestselling A Better Life for Half the Price is testament to his own lifestyle of living abroad in Mexico as an expat with his family. He’s also a highly decorated award-winning travel writer, author, and one of the OG travel bloggers (he started his first blog in 2003).  

Learn more about Tim and his lifestyle abroad, his remote travel writing career, and much more, in this (in-person!) interview in Guanajuato Mexico. 

Curious about Living abroad and Travel Writing/Blogging? Check out these interviews:
Living in Montenegro and Getting Residency, with Kach Howe
Freelance Writing, and why Leif Pettersen left the biz
Being a Digital Nomad versus having a Home Base, with Sherry Ott 

Jump right into my Awesome Interview Series videos on YouTube here – and please give it a thumbs up, leave comments and subscribe!

How do you move abroad to Mexico with your family, and earn a living as a travel writer? Tim Leffel has the answers to all this and more. #TimLeffel #TravelWriting #TravelWriter #ExpatLife #MoveAbroad #MexicoLife #MovetoMexico #TheProfessionalHobo

Meet Tim Leffel, Venerable Travel Writer Living in Mexico 

Tim Leffel is an author, travel writer, and publisher with more than 25 years of experience. He has won dozens of “best travel writing” awards over the course of his career and is frequently invited to speak at writers’ conferences and travel industry events. 

He began as a travel freelancer while circling the globe three times over several years of travel and has written for Outside, Lonely Planet, USA Today, Global Traveler, and multiple newspapers and airline magazines. He is the author of five books, some of them in multiple editions, including The World’s Cheapest Destinations and the best-selling moving abroad title A Better Life for Half the Price.

As the head of Al Centro Media publishing company, he oversees five online magazines and blogs. 

His Cheapest Destinations Blog is one of the longest-running travel blogs on the web, established in 2003. 

His Perceptive Travel site features narrative stories from published book authors and has been active since 2006, winning awards each year and getting stories into several book anthologies. 


Tim grew up in Virginia and has lived in five U.S. states and three foreign countries. When not traveling, he is now based in Guanajuato, in the highlands of Mexico.

Tim Leffel, travel writer

Get Real-World Advice from Tim on Expat Life and Travel Writing

Tim’s pragmatic and lighthearted approach to his life and career made him a great guest for my show, as you’ll see below. 

Here are a few of the topics we cover: 

  • How Tim came to choose Guanajuato Mexico as his home.
  • What it was like to raise his daughter in Mexico.
  • How his daughter, now a young adult living back in the United States, views her time in Mexico.
  • Why living in Mexico during the pandemic was a blessing.
  • The funny thing about time zones, and the ease of working remotely in a similar time zone to clients and colleagues.
  • How foreigners getting residency and living abroad is a net gain for the country they’re moving to.
  • Tim’s top picks of the best countries to live abroad in (including some places in Europe that you might be surprised to learn are cheaper than Mexico).
  • Various ways to integrate into local culture, and the surprising benefits thereof.
  • Celebrating little accomplishments when integrating and learning a new culture. 
  • How Tim manages five (5!) websites.
  • Why Tim started the Cheapest Destinations Blog in 2003, before blogging was even “a thing”.
  • Tim’s advice for aspiring travel writers and travel bloggers.
  • Making a bonafide living as a writer (he wrote the book on it…literally; it’s called Travel Writing 2.0), versus getting exposure or having travel expenses covered.

Learn more about Tim, his various projects, and his lifestyle abroad in this short fun interview

As always please do give the video a like and leave a comment if you’re inspired. It’s a bigger help than you know. 

Tim Leffel, living abroad in Mexico

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1 thought on “Living Abroad in Mexico: Tim Leffel, OG Travel Blogger and Travel Writer”

  1. I love reading such inspiring articles. I look forward to reading more, I add the blog to my favorites.

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