Best Places In The World To Retire

A luxury condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and with a Gulf view or a jungle view in the state of Quintana Roo (includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and here in Akumal starts at about US $180,000. This amount is for the highest quality materials and a great location in the Riviera Maya. 

 

This price is strictly for Tao Mexico which is a master planned community that’s higher end with an enormous amount of residential...

A luxury condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms and with a Gulf view or a jungle view in the state of Quintana Roo (includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and here in Akumal starts at about US $180,000. This amount is for the highest quality materials and a great location in the Riviera Maya. 

 

This price is strictly for Tao Mexico which is a master planned community that’s higher end with an enormous amount of residential amenities and part of a much larger community

 

In Playa del Carmen and in Tulum, condos also cost $180,000 but these condos are a lot smaller because of the fact that Tulum now has a lot of construction going on. 

 

Pricing of land is different in Tulum because the land is from Ejido, which means it is owned by a cooperative where there are some complications on clear title. When there is a lot of Ejido land, it takes a lot of land off of the market, so the remaining land becomes much more valuable, and therefore more expensive. This is why it’s really difficult to buy land in Tulum. 

 

In Tulum, it is a little complicated to construct and to buy land, and that’s why I would not recommend investing in Tulum. The rest of the Riviera Maya, on the other hand, does not have a lot of Ejido land.

 

It is a little bit more expensive in Cancun than Tulum. In Cancun, you will get a loft with one bedroom for $180,000. That would be in a good, safe area, but it will be smaller.  

 

(TAO Inspired Living condos and golf course, Akumal, Mexico, pictured.)

We do not see a lot of crimes here in Ambergris Caye. If you are on Facebook and you post a status that you are on vacation and when you come back you post that your kids have new iPads and that your husband has his new Sony PlayStation, just like anywhere in the world, you open your doors to people who might take advantage of you. Alternatively, if you keep your doors locked and live a simple life, there is not much crime. Ambergris Caye is a small island, so if one crime happens, it...

We do not see a lot of crimes here in Ambergris Caye. If you are on Facebook and you post a status that you are on vacation and when you come back you post that your kids have new iPads and that your husband has his new Sony PlayStation, just like anywhere in the world, you open your doors to people who might take advantage of you. Alternatively, if you keep your doors locked and live a simple life, there is not much crime. Ambergris Caye is a small island, so if one crime happens, it seems "ginormous," but it is not worse like someone being shot every hour in some other cities of the world. It is very safe here in Ambergris Caye. I am a mother of a 14-year old daughter who hangs out with her friends at the park. She goes to discos; I allow her to walk home, and I feel very safe.

 

Crimes sometimes happen to careless expats; they get pick pocketed when they are at the wrong place at the wrong time, but again, that is the same as anywhere in the world. You should not be on a back street at 2 AM. It is not that you are asking for trouble, but there is no need for you to be there, if you do not live there. Of course, there are hustlers and pickpockets wherever there are tourists anywhere, but it is not much worse here in Ambergris Caye than in other places in the world.

Surfing in the Algarve is fantastic. Algarve is the second most popular region of Portugal for surfing. The most famous surfing spot can be found north of Lisbon, which is called the silver coast, in the area between Peniche and Nazare. They broke the world record there several times.

 

The Algarve has a fantastic reputation for surfing on the west coast of the region, between Sagres and Aljezur, and we have a number of famous beaches there such Bordeira and...

Surfing in the Algarve is fantastic. Algarve is the second most popular region of Portugal for surfing. The most famous surfing spot can be found north of Lisbon, which is called the silver coast, in the area between Peniche and Nazare. They broke the world record there several times.

 

The Algarve has a fantastic reputation for surfing on the west coast of the region, between Sagres and Aljezur, and we have a number of famous beaches there such Bordeira and Carrapateira. We also have other beaches in and around the Sagres area, such as Martinhal and Baleal. They all have long, sandy beaches and very good surf. They have a fantastic swell and very evenly spaced waves. It’s easy to get a ride and get it in without being hammered by the next wave. But the water is cold so you need a wetsuit to go surfing. 

 

There is also some surfing on the southern coast of the Algarve. The further west you go, the better the surf. There are small surfing spots just off the beaches around Lagos and around Praia da Luz. The distance between Lagos and Sagres is only about 25 kilometers so you don’t have to travel far to get to surf.

 

It’s safe to go into the water in Praia da Luz. The waters there are just like the Mediterranean most days. It is calm with azure colors; nary a wave so it’s very safe.

 

In the western part of the Algarve, you shouldn’t really go into the waves alone. If you have children, they can certainly play in the shallow water but I wouldn’t be far away because a lot of the beaches in that area are very remote and there are not a lot of people there. They don’t necessarily have protection such as life guards and so on. However, most of the southern beaches do have lifeguards.

 

The Algarve has probably the largest number of “Blue Flag” beaches in Portugal. “Blue Flag” is the European Union symbol for quality of the beaches, infrastructure and water quality. The beaches in the west coast has big waves whereas there are hardly any waves on the southern shores of the Algarve, so there are surf conditions to love for anybody.

 

(Swells at the beach at Carrapateira, Algarve, Portugal, pictured.)

As far as walking down the street, I could go out at 3 AM and walk by myself down the Cinta Costera or in the Amador Causeway all the way up to TGIF or the Balboa Yacht Club and have a glass of wine and I would be completely safe. There is a lot of security in this country because of the Panama Canal.

 

When they put money into an ATM, they close down that entire block, the Brink’s truck pulls up to put money in the ATM, and everybody is fine. When you...

As far as walking down the street, I could go out at 3 AM and walk by myself down the Cinta Costera or in the Amador Causeway all the way up to TGIF or the Balboa Yacht Club and have a glass of wine and I would be completely safe. There is a lot of security in this country because of the Panama Canal.

 

When they put money into an ATM, they close down that entire block, the Brink’s truck pulls up to put money in the ATM, and everybody is fine. When you go to a bank, you will not be able to walk in with a hat on; you have to take it off. You also have to open your purse so they can briefly scan what you have in your purse. We do not have bank robberies because they would not make it past the guards anyway. Their security measures are all preventative.

 

The guards here in Panama and even the Policia Nacional are very approachable and very friendly. You can walk up to them and talk to them or even take pictures with them. I even had pictures taken with the people who guard the president’s quarters in Casco Viejo. They are very approachable people.

 

There is a lot of security in Panama and that makes everyone feel safe. I feel safer in the country of Panama than I did in the US, which is the country I came from.