Personally, my wife and I made the decision that we wanted our kids to be bilingual and bi-cultural. We’ve raised them in a primary school in Ajijic and we are generally pretty happy with that decision. 
Marbella, Panama City has a pretty nice standard of living, and similar to the standard of living in the Punta Pacifica area, which is the most luxury area of Panama. Marbella is the heart of the banking district, so it houses many banks and bank headquarters. There are also many luxurious apartments in the Marbella area, some houses, and many hotels. A lot of the business travelers who come to Panama stay in the Marbella area. 
Whether or not I need to own a car in Portugal depends first, the place where I live. In Estoril and Cascais (in the Lisbon area), you have everything at walking distance. If you want to go to the city center, you have a coastal train that’s a beautiful trip—the train goes always along the seafront from Cascais to the city center of Lisbon and it takes 25 minutes. The bus and taxi terminals are all over the place. So transportation in Portugal is very, very well...Bill Edsell of Ventana Bay Resort on the Best House Orientation, Solar, Septic and Water in Baja California Sur
From an interview in early July, 2016 by Jet Metier with Bill Edsell, pioneer, innovator, and proprietor of the Ventana Bay Resort. Jet: I there any innovation that you’ve learned over time regarding the best way to situate a house in La Ventana?
Bill: Well, yeah. It’s pretty simple here. You want to face east for the view obviously and this nice breeze we’re getting today. They also face the way they do because of...
It was literally with a splash (more on that below) that Jet Metier interviewed one of Best Places in the World to Retire’s earliest contributors, Renate Jope, about her life in Panama, intending to talk about one subject, and then finding herself veering headlong into another: Renate’s experience canoe racing through the Panama Canal. What follows is the instant message (IM) interview.