Best Places In The World To Retire

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...

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 developed. Not only that, we have various motorways that connect the north to the south of Portugal within 3 to 4 hours. So you can cross our country in 4 and a half hours from top to bottom, and from side to side, you can do it in 2 hours.
 
Personally, I have a car, and pretty much everybody, in middleclass and above has a car.  In a family of five there’s five cars.

 

(Rossio train station, Lisbon, Portugal, pictured.)

The quality of life here in Nicaragua is very safe. There is nothing crazy like gangs here. Your kids could go out pretty safe. I think it is because the people here are behind so it is almost like you are going into another era, which I think is nice. People here are more traditional so they are more about getting to know their neighbor. I feel like they are not exposed to things like the ugly side of the American culture.
 
I know that expats come here and live here for a...

The quality of life here in Nicaragua is very safe. There is nothing crazy like gangs here. Your kids could go out pretty safe. I think it is because the people here are behind so it is almost like you are going into another era, which I think is nice. People here are more traditional so they are more about getting to know their neighbor. I feel like they are not exposed to things like the ugly side of the American culture.
 
I know that expats come here and live here for a reason. Some of them do not like being in the States anymore. For me, that ugly side of the American culture that you don’t want your family to be exposed to in the US, like racism, class division, etc., is not here. You can get to know a lot of people here from different places and different realms of life and everybody is just okay with that.
 
I also think that it is nice to have a little bit of struggle. As an expat, we’ve had everything that we ever needed and wanted in the US; even things that you don’t know you needed or wanted, you had. We have so much luxury and so much comfort. When you go out of the US and you don’t have that anymore, you get a little thrown back by it but the honest truth is that you learn that you don’t need all those layers of comfort. You just need to be you and then figure out what you need here in Nicaragua and you will be comfortable.
 
It is nice because you will realize and appreciate things a lot more this way. It makes me feel really good that my kids are growing up pretty sheltered. If you talk to my kids about brands and the materialistic side of the US, they don’t know what that means because that doesn’t exist here. My kids don’t play on tablets; they go outside and play. I like that people here are not focused on the material things. They are not focused on what you’re wearing. There are other things that they value here.

 

(Marissa Lolk's children enjoying playing outside, Nicaragua, pictured.)

Asking whether any place is "safe" is an open-ended and sometimes frustrating question.  Rather than inquiring as to crime statistics or actual community trends, it tends to question more how one might feel in an area as opposed to a realistic relative threat that someone might be subject to.

 

A few months ago, two young Dutch travelers disappeared in nearby Boquete, releasing a torrent of rumors and speculations about all manner of terrible criminal...

Asking whether any place is "safe" is an open-ended and sometimes frustrating question.  Rather than inquiring as to crime statistics or actual community trends, it tends to question more how one might feel in an area as opposed to a realistic relative threat that someone might be subject to.

 

A few months ago, two young Dutch travelers disappeared in nearby Boquete, releasing a torrent of rumors and speculations about all manner of terrible criminal enterprise that might have led to their demise.  Tragically, their remains have recently been discovered and it appears that it was simply a manner of two hikers that became lost in the mountains and perished.  Yet now, without the intrigue of international human trafficking rings and organ harvesting no longer an option, the rumor mill continues to turn and has resorted to outlandish reports of lost, savage tribes in the mountains that must have cannibalized these poor helpless foreigners.  Especially when it comes to the question of safety, beware of sensationalism and always take into account the level of fear that an individual is experiencing in their own life when they provide their opinion of what is safe and what is not.  Fear is a powerful emotion and is very often disproportionate to the reality of risk.

 

With all that said, Volcan and Cerro Punta have historically experienced very low rates of crime of any sort.  As in much of Panama, theft is the most common crime and is typically a result of opportunity and chance.  Physical assaults, robberies committed by force or threat are beyond rare and sexual assaults are almost unheard of anywhere in the area.  The region is serene and populated primarily by hard-working locals who support the healthy agricultural industry as well as expats who tend to form strong bonds or have sought out a life of peace and solitude.

 

After having spent a good bit of time in a variety of areas in Panama, including in close proximity to some of the more violent and crime-ridden ones, I would have to say that the Volcan-Cerro Punta-Boquete region is likely the most peaceful and "safe" area in all of Panama.

Although it is difficult to narrow down all of the things you may be happily surprised about when moving or retiring abroad, I will pick one that has made the most difference in my life:  The feeling of rebirth and waking up!

 

 

Although it is difficult to narrow down all of the things you may be happily surprised about when moving or retiring abroad, I will pick one that has made the most difference in my life:  The feeling of rebirth and waking up!