Best Places In The World To Retire

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Recently Answered Questions

How much do restaurants cost in Chapala and Ajijic, Mexico?

Valerie Friesen - Blue Angel Solutions

View from Lake Taco, Ajijic, Mexico – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

There's a variety of restaurants in Chapala and Ajijic, including very inexpensive food trucks off the roadsides.

My typical lunch from the local restaurant Lake Taco is a two-piece fish taco and a nice, big glass of lemonade. This meal is under 100 pesos (US $5.50). I usually run over to Lake Taco because it's like home and is very accessible.

I like to go to a really nice, full, all-you-can-eat Mexican and north of...

There's a variety of restaurants in Chapala and Ajijic, including very inexpensive food trucks off the roadsides.

I like to go to a really nice, full, all-you-can-eat Mexican and north of the border fruit buffet breakfast on a weekend, which normally costs 125 pesos ($6.85) per person and up to 150 pesos ($8.25) on special events like Christmas and Easter. The simple buffet would have soups, salsas, tacos, and vegetables. A full buffet would also include omelets of all kinds, half a dozen different eggs and other breakfast-type dishes, a table just for desserts, and drink-all-you-can coffee and juice.

All Mexican restaurant prices include tax. When you order in restaurants in Canada, the taxes added on to the final bill. It's nice that in Mexican restaurants, the prices you see in menus are what you get in your bill and what you pay for.

For dinner, there are a couple of restaurants that we like such as Roberto's Restaurant, which offers two-for-one promos on Fridays during certain hours. A meal of soup or salad, appetizers such as carrot and sweet potato fritters, and one of my favorite entrées of sea bass with orange sauce, rice or potato, and steamed vegetables costs around 180 pesos ($10). You can also go to Roberto's for lunch and they have a whole menu for 75 pesos ($4).

There are a lot of restaurants that have very excellent lunch-time specials around the 75-peso range ($4). A year or so ago, the lunch package cost was in the 50-peso range ($2.75), but the impact of the drastic change in the difference in the Mexican peso to US dollar resulted in the increase of food prices as well as the rise in costs of other products like gasoline.

You can also go to the mall and get a Subway sandwich for 45 pesos ($2.45).

(View from Lake Taco, Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)

What are the expats like in Boquete, Panama?

Giselle Leignadier - Hacienda Los Molinos

Horseback riding available at Hacienda Los Molinos, near Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Most of the expats in Boquete are from the US and there are some Canadians, too. We are seeing more and more Canadians coming over to Boquete in the last 2 years. There are still more Americans but the difference between the number of Americans and Canadians in Boquete used to be a lot but now the numbers are getting closer to each other. There are also some Europeans.

If you live in the center of Boquete Town, you will be around Panamanians and then there are some gated communities like Los Molinos where you would mainly be around expats. However, Los Molinos also has different phases. Phase 1 is focused on the expat market. In Phase 2, we are also receiving expats but as the market changes, we are now also getting local people, people from Panama City who want a second home, or people who live in other areas of Boquete but did not get all the amenities that Los Molinos has to offer, or those people who live in Boquete but do not have a good access to town and they are somewhat isolated. In Boquete, you can find places that have facilities such as electricity, water, telephone, but it is in the middle of the mountains so you would be technically in the middle of nowhere. If you want to buy bread, you have to drive and look for a store. In the gated communities such as Los Molinos, you would be in a good location where you have access to grocery stores, good roads, and all the amenities and activities.

Some expats choose not to live in gated communities. In Boquete, you also have the access to single-family homes in a non-gated area if you choose to.

Here in Panama, you will see a lot of houses that have bars on the windows. That is one of the things that my expat clients always ask me about. They say, “Why do you have bars on the windows if it is a safe town?” Having bars on your windows here in Panama is more a cultural thing rather than a security measure. It is not that you feel unsafe but it is a cultural thing to put bars on the windows.

Overall, living in Boquete gives you a choice of living in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, where everything is more spread out, or you can live in the middle of town, or in the gated communities, and your neighbors would depend on where you choose to live.

(Girls horseback riding at Hacienda Los Molinos, near Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama, pictured. )

What’s the cost to rent a home in Portugal?

Luis Teixeira da Silva - Algarve Senior Living

Rental a Algarve Senior Living, Algarve, Portugal – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

The cost of rent a home in Algarve varies based on what kind of home you are renting, how many bedrooms it has, whether it is an apartment or a villa, and so on. It also varies depending on the length of time that you intend to stay.

There are two types of rentals in the Algarve. One is the summer, short-term rentals similar to the ones they have in Florida, California, or anywhere that is a holiday spot. In the summer, a two-bedroom apartment, which is probably the most common type of apartment to rent, would start between €500 (US $550 or £360) a week to about €1,250 (US $1,375 or £900) a week, depending if you have the views and other amenities. A three-bedroom villa would start you at about €750 (US $825 or £540) a week to around €3,000 (US $3,300 or £2,175) a week. The price depends on where the villa is located, the views, and the amenities. The price range is very large because there is a huge range of real estate products here in Algarve.

The second category of rental is the winter, long-term stay or permanent rentals. The average rule for this type of rental is that one week of summer rental would be slightly less than one month of winter rental. That is the rule of thumb that we use all the time and it works very well. A two-bedroom apartment in the winter, per month costs around €500 (US $550 or £360) to €900 (US $990 or £650) and a villa in the winter would cost you €1,200 (US $1320 or £870) to €2,000 (US $2,200 or £1,450). The reason why it is lower than the high end in the summer is because many of the very expensive villas in the summer would not be target market for winter rentals because they would be too large or too expensive for most of the winter lets.

The winter rental is slightly different than the 12-month rental. A winter rental is a rental for people who would be looking to stay in a warmer place like the Algarve during the coldest months in places like Canada, the US, England, Sweden, and Germany. They would typically stay here between October and November and maybe around March to May. Those would be your typical winter months. We are getting an increasing number of people who are looking for these winter months because of recently approved legislation called the non-habitual resident status, which allows pensioners from abroad, newly-arriving and resident pensioners to receive their pension tax free in Portugal. To do so, they have to remain in the country for 183 days or more. Of course, most people do not want to be in the cold countries during winter so they spend their winters abroad with a tax advantage and they come over to Portugal to rent for 6 to 8 months. This way, they get their tax benefit and spend their winters in the sun.

The year-long resident with a12-month contract would typically pay more than the winter let rate because the rate would include the very expensive summer months, and so the monthly rental price would be higher than the monthly price for winter let. Using the same example as above, on a year round basis, a two-bedroom apartment would cost between €1,000 (US $1,100 or £725) and €1,500 ($1,650 or £1,088). For a two-bedroom villa, it would cost around easily €1,500 (US $1,650 or £1,088) to €3,000 ($3,300 or £2,175) a month. These rentals are located in the nicer areas of Algarve with the top end being in the nicest areas. There is enough nice quality stock of rentals in the Algarve so that no one needs to feel as though they were living in a very basic, bare bones location. Even our cheapest stock, which is a one-bedroom apartment and costs around €350 (US $385 or £254) a month in the winter, are fully furnished and within walking distance to shops, restaurants, and sometimes even to the beach. Not all rentals are like that but there is no lack of quality, fortunately, in the Algarve.

(Rental a Algarve Senior Living, Algarve, Portugal, pictured.)

What should I be most concerned about regarding retiring abroad?

John Ohe - Hola Expat Tax Services

One of the things to be concerned about when retiring overseas is when you have a lot of immediate and extended family who are still in the United States and if you spend a lot of time with your family, moving abroad will make the family interaction a lot more difficult.

There is a lot more technology nowadays such as Skype or getting on a plane, depending on where you are, is always a possibility. However, the actual physical meetings with family...

What are the construction standards in Nicaragua?

Floyd Buch

As Mike Cobb indicated there are no real standards enforced by local government outside of Managua. Selecting a knowledgeable and qualified builder and architect is a must from the time you purchase the land and make the decision to build until you take possession of the building. Buying property within a planned community such as Gran Pacifica is also important to insure that you have the infrastructure such as roads, water, electricity, internet, sewers and local liaison with...

How's the surf and surfing in and around Ambergris Caye?

Rachel Jensen - Grand Baymen

Ambergris Caye at sunset – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

There is no surfing in Ambergris Caye because the ocean is not that rough, which I think is very nice because that way you can swim in the ocean and you don’t have to worry about the rip tides or the waves crashing down at you or getting washed out to sea. There is, however, wind surfing now here on Ambergris Caye because it gets pretty windy around the island, but there is no wave surfing here.

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