With more than a million expats estimated to live there, Mexico is far and away the most popular destination for North Americans looking to move abroad. But, with so many places to choose from, where in Mexico should you move? It's a very large country, after all.

Much depends, of course, on what you're looking for. There are places in Mexico where you can live totally off the grid, or immerse yourself in a small village where there's nary a foreigner around you. Alternatively, there are cities and neighborhoods where you can live a gringo life, never seeing a local and never needing Spanish.

Most expats seek something between these two extremes: places where the transition to Mexico is easy (and so is getting there), amenities abound, and local culture and color are all around. Based on that happy medium, here are my three top picks for living in Mexico.

Puerto Vallarta: Live by the Sea

This Pacific-coast town has been a major international resort for more than 50 years. With its chic boutique hotels, trendy restaurants, and designer shops, Puerto Vallarta offers plenty of upscale goodies—at upscale prices, too. But you don't have to spend a fortune to live here. With its wide range of condos, villas, and townhouses, Puerto Vallarta has properties at every price point.

And, while you can get by in English, go just a few blocks inland in some parts of town and you find locals going about their daily lives. The shops in these areas cater to Mexicans — with appropriately lower, Mexican-style prices.

Flights from Puerto Vallarta's international airport can get you back to the U.S. in just a few hours. Puerto Vallarta is also a popular medical-tourism destination, with several top hospitals offering state-of-the-art medical care.

And did I mention the beach? This is a beach resort, after all — if you can tear yourself away from the wealth of non-beach options.

San Miguel de Allende: Rich in Culture

Considered one of the prettiest small towns in Mexico, San Miguel is a Spanish-colonial jewel glowing in pastel colors. With a rich arts-and-crafts tradition, San Miguel has small shops a-plenty where you can spend hours admiring (and buying) pottery, painting, sculptures, hammered-tin mirrors and lamps... the list is endless. You can also enjoy its many art galleries, restaurants and scenic plazas.

Like Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel is home to thousands of expats from all over the world. Here you can get by in English if you want, or speak Spanish if you prefer. (In my experience here, if you greet folks in Spanish when you enter a shop, they continue in that language unless you decide otherwise.) And most North Americans love its high-desert climate, with warm days and cool nights most of the year.

There's no international airport right in San Miguel, so choose from two in the region: León, which is about two hours away, and Querétaro, about an hour. Or if you prefer, just fly into Mexico City, three hours away, and take the bus to San Miguel.

Mérida: Colonial City-Living

Like San Miguel, Mérida is a Spanish-colonial city. But Mérida is a very different animal... Unlike small-town San Miguel, Mérida is a metropolis of almost a million people, with universities, major corporations, museums, and its own international airport with direct flights back to the U.S.

And Mérida is in the semi-tropical Yucatán Peninsula, at the opposite end of the country from San Miguel. It's just half-an-hour from the Yucatán Gulf Coast, where the white-sand beaches are punctuated by little beach towns and you can still find beach homes for around $100,000.

Mérida's expat community numbers about 4,000, but that's a drop in the bucket for a city this size. As a result, you'll have more need — as well as opportunity — to learn Spanish here than in Puerto Vallarta or San Miguel. Or learn to sing it — this is a very musical city. You'll find bands performing in some plaza or other almost every day of the week. And, if you think you know Mexican cooking, think again - Yucatán cuisine is distinctly different - and on display here in colonial Mérida.

Whether or not you choose to settle in any of these picks, they're all worth a visit.