Best Places In The World To Retire

WELCOME. WE INVITE YOU TO VISIT THE MAIN PARTS OF OUR SITE

Recently Answered Questions

What are the best and worst things about living and retiring in Los Cabos - La Paz, Mexico?

Jimena Malagamba

La Ventana beach house, La Ventnana Bay, Mexico – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

The best things about living in Baja Sur in the La Paz – Cabo area and the little villages in the area is how peaceful it is, how friendly the people are, how good the quality of the vegetables and food is, the fresh fish, and the nice meat products. There are local farmers and organic farms slowly growing so you can get all these products. It’s easy to see a doctor. Many doctors speak English or make sure that somebody there knows how to. I wouldn’t be...

Is the Panama City, Panama area of Marbella safe?

Antonio Cheng - Romero Realty

Yes, the Marbella area of Panama city is a safe area. It is also very modern, surrounded by high rises and hotels. It’s near the financial district and you can find a lot restaurants in the area.

How's the economy in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua?

Lance Moss - Surfari Charters

Surfing Magazine featuring Nicaragua surfing – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

We just had our ISA (International Surfing Association) world championships as the first really big international contest here in Nicaragua in Popoyo, north of San Juan del Sur. During the event they came out with some statistics that showed that the biggest part of the gross domestic product right now in Nicaragua is tourism, which has displaced coffee, sugar, and all those kinds of things. The biggest center of tourism is surf tourism.

In a sense...

In a sense it’s almost like surfing is this a godsend in this Third World country that had very limited resources. Tourism is such a special thing for our country because the money trickles down through the whole economy and through all the people whereas for a plantation or something like that it doesn’t have that same trickledown effect. Here a local person can start a little restaurant or open up a couple of rooms and have people come through and stay with them and have a real inter-personal relationship between the locals through tourism. It’s a real special thing and something we’re really proud of now.

We’re proud to have been on the forefront of bringing this type of tourism to Nicaragua and helping to put this place on the map. In a sense, surfing is bringing more money to the country than basically anything else. So it’s pretty radical to think about that, in the beginning, we were just a bunch of guys going through the jungle, trying to find waves, and that has changed Nicaragua for the better. Now, suddenly, surfing is something the whole country can be proud of

Nicaragua has embraced surfing and now there’s a Nicaragua National Surf Team that just sent juniors to California to compete in the ISA junior championships. And then it just was announced that there’s a really good chance that surfing will be in the Olympics in 2020 so in 5 years we could be sending an Olympic team representing Nicaragua. In 1999 when I first came here, there might have been 5 surfers in the whole country and now there’s hundreds of thousands of local kids who have taken up surfing and that’s their life now. So it’s pretty neat.

(Surfing Magazine featuring a surfing safari in Nicaragua from Managua to Popoyo, pictured.)

Can I get American or Canadian radio stations in Belize?

Irma Quiroz-Yuque - Belize Vacation Homes

Home in Bullet Tree, Cayo District, Belize – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Yes, especially via the Internet, you can get anything you’d like. We actually could even get Canadian TV, I think it’s available here in Belize because there are a lot of Canadians living here.

We get Mexico channels because we’re so close the Mexican border here. The regular radio stations are Belizean, of course, but they play a lot of different music for different ethnic groups and people. We get a lot of country western here in Corozal and we get a...

What should I be most concerned about regarding retiring abroad?

Tom Zachystal - IAM

There are a number of financial planning issues people face that are unique to retiring abroad as compared to retiring in your home country:

If your retirement savings are held in your home country they may be denominated in a different currency from that in which you will spend. This can lead to considerable currency risk. As an example, consider that the Euro has strengthened by 30% vs. the USD over the last decade or so.
Inflation rates are generally higher in developing countries...

What’s it like to retire in Portugal?

Carol Bartlett Ribeiro - Carol Bartlett Ribeiro, Property Consultant

Trains from Sintra to Lisboa, Portugal – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Retirement in Portugal is very good and we have a tremendous amount of new people retiring here.

For the Portuguese who are retiring, because we’ve been through a big economic crisis here and they’ve had to cut down pensions, there are a lot of people struggling. The new government has promised that that’s all going to change but then you’ll wonder where they’ll get the money. But certainly for foreigners coming here,...

Retirement in Portugal is very good and we have a tremendous amount of new people retiring here.

There are several reasons its fantastic to retire to Portugal. Number one, the climate; number two, the wines; number three, the weather; number four, the people who are sympatico to foreigners. The lifestyle is easygoing. I think the weather helps a tremendous amount for people who are golf players or riders. A lot of people go horseback riding and a lot of people have brought their horses here. Portugal has an easy lifestyle.

A lot of people will go down to the Algarve, which is completely different to being up in the Lisbon coast area. The Algarve is sort of a permanent holiday atmosphere, almost like an extension of Spain except all of a sudden you’ll hear Portuguese and a lot of English. I’m not a great fan of the Algarve region because I don’t think it has a Portuguese identity. You know, you don’t feel that you’re really in Portugal even though there’s beautiful beaches, there’s beautiful homes, but that’s it, whereas up here you have good theater, you have good concerts, good shows, and you can still do all that—you can ride horses and you can be on the beach.

It really is a relaxed kind of life filled with lunch parties and coffee parties. And with the big expat community that you have here, it’s good social life and a lot of people will entertain at home a great deal.

I live in the Lisbon coastal area, about 20 minutes on the train from the center of Lisbon and if you drive, depending on the time of day, of course, it’s about 20 minutes as well if you haven’t got all the traffic. Nothing’s very far here. We’re a little bit inclined to think, when we’re out in Cascais in Estoril, “Oh gosh, I’ve got to go into Lisbon” and vice versa, but it’s really very, very close. The style of life in Lisbon is more city life than it is along the coast. It’s quite different but I think that it’s mainly because parking is more difficult in Lisbon and there’s a lot more traffic.

(Trains from Lisboa to Sintra, Portugal, pictured.)

Recently Posted Expat Stories

There is no 'U' in Colombia-- The rudiments of obtaining a residency visa in Colombia

As much as I disdain essays that begin with the phrase, ‘your experience may be different,’ I have no choice here. Your experience obtaining a residency visa in Colombia may indeed be different. Here’s the latest info, and as the title indicates, it’s rudimentary.

You can visit Colombia as a tourist for up to 90 days. This may be extended for an additional 90 days, but the extension must be sought, it’s not automatic. In order to live in Colombia beyond...

Mike Cobb: The Hardest Working Man in Central America, Creating Communities that Evoke Familiar Melodies

These places would seem to the native inhabitants to be neglected lands of unruly bushes and trees with views that were pretty, but where one did not linger while on one’s way to somewhere else. But to Mike Cobb, these were places to turn into communities with a network of pathways close to the cool porches of neighbors one would regularly visit.

In this interview, Jet Metier learns that though not a builder by training or a developer by plan, Mike Cobb...

Settled Happily Here In Panamá

Having spent around 5 years researching the best places to retire my wife and I decided that Panama was the best place. We arranged an exploratory trip to judge first hand. We selected a bed and breakfast in Ancon which is strategically placed for easy access to the important places of interest and conveniently just 5 minutes drive to the bridge of the Americas. Nearby Albrook airport was the perfect place to rent a car and only 10 minutes away in a cab.

...