Best Places In The World To Retire
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Recently Answered Questions
How are the apartments in Mexico different than in the US or Canada?
Barb Goodhart
I was just looking for something like a 2-bedroom apartment and I wanted to be right downtown Puerto Vallarta. I had a budget of around a thousand dollars that I wanted to stay under. The place I found is furnished just like it would be here in the US, with the same amenities.
Compared to the US, the buildings in Puerto Vallarta that I prefer have fewer units in each apartment complex. There are a lot of smaller buildings, at least where I’m going. For...
Compared to the US, the buildings in Puerto Vallarta that I prefer have fewer units in each apartment complex. There are a lot of smaller buildings, at least where I’m going. For...
I was just looking for something like a 2-bedroom apartment and I wanted to be right downtown Puerto Vallarta. I had a budget of around a thousand dollars that I wanted to stay under. The place I found is furnished just like it would be here in the US, with the same amenities.
Compared to the US, the buildings in Puerto Vallarta that I prefer have fewer units in each apartment complex. There are a lot of smaller buildings, at least where I’m going. For example, the building that I’m moving to is a relatively new building. It’s three levels and there’s one apartment on each level.
There are buildings that are huge, with lots of apartments just like you would find in the US, but I don’t want to live in that kind of a place. I would rather be immersed in the local community. I don’t want to live in a condo building where all the expats are. I want to be right there with the locals.
Compared to the US, the buildings in Puerto Vallarta that I prefer have fewer units in each apartment complex. There are a lot of smaller buildings, at least where I’m going. For example, the building that I’m moving to is a relatively new building. It’s three levels and there’s one apartment on each level.
There are buildings that are huge, with lots of apartments just like you would find in the US, but I don’t want to live in that kind of a place. I would rather be immersed in the local community. I don’t want to live in a condo building where all the expats are. I want to be right there with the locals.
(Brightly colored apartment interior in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, pictured.)
Can I see beautiful flowers, plants and trees in or around San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua?
Joe Lopes - las escadas condominiums
There are natural parks everywhere in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua and you will most definitely see beautiful flowers and trees there. Ometepe, which is the island in Lake Nicaragua, is extremely nice with all the flowers and trees.
Just walking around San Juan Del Sur, you will already see a lot of flowers and trees especially now that it is rainy season. Everything is green and it is beautiful.
There are natural parks everywhere in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua and you will most definitely see beautiful flowers and trees there. Ometepe, which is the island in Lake Nicaragua, is extremely nice with all the flowers and trees.
Just walking around San Juan Del Sur, you will already see a lot of flowers and trees especially now that it is rainy season. Everything is green and it is beautiful.
Is it safe to drink the water in the Panama City, Panama area of Casco Viejo?
Vannessa Solano
Casco Viejo´s tap water is as drinkable as any bottled water you could buy at the store. in fact, the quality of the tap water in general is one of the many good things in Panama.
Casco Viejo´s tap water is as drinkable as any bottled water you could buy at the store. in fact, the quality of the tap water in general is one of the many good things in Panama.
Do I lower my US income tax liabilities if I retire or work abroad?
Charles Evan - Panama Chuck's Everything Store
Here is my test ansawer.
Here is my test ansawer.
How are the restaurants in Ambergris Caye?
Kate Corrigan - Caye International Bank
The restaurants in Ambergris Caye are lovely. I love them! They are more expensive than other places, but we have a really lovely array of restaurants here.
You can eat at local restaurants. When I am trying to spend only US $5 for my lunch, I eat out at local restaurants where you can buy stew chicken, rice, and beans or pork chop, salad and mashed potato. You can also buy burritos, tacos, tostadas (pictured), and nachos for $5.
The restaurants in Ambergris Caye are lovely. I love them! They are more expensive than other places, but we have a really lovely array of restaurants here.
You can eat at local restaurants. When I am trying to spend only US $5 for my lunch, I eat out at local restaurants where you can buy stew chicken, rice, and beans or pork chop, salad and mashed potato. You can also buy burritos, tacos, tostadas (pictured), and nachos for $5.
In England, we consider a nice meal to consist of meat, a lot of carbohydrates and vegetables or salad, whereas here in Belize, they will ask you what you want to eat. If you ask what the choices are, they will tell you that it is meat, rice, potatoes and pasta all in the same plate. For me, from England, that just seems very odd. Normally, we would have potatoes and a salad or potatoes and vegetables, but here, they would happily serve rice, potatoes, and salad all in the same plate, and that would be okay.
We also have beautiful restaurants. My favorite is Blue Water Grill. They serve sushi on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which I love. It is a packed restaurant. They do two or three sittings per night during the high season and I love it there. Their breakfast is delicious and their lunch is slightly different but are very lovely. They are open 365 days a year usually.
There is another nice restaurant here in Ambergris Caye called Mangoes and they bring lots of different selection to their menu every year. They have caramba, which is a beautiful fish.
Everywhere you go here in Ambergris Caye, you will find delicious meals but it is not very inexpensive. You will pay anywhere between $30 and $40 for a nice meal at a nice restaurant. You will not get cheap meals here like you would in places like Mexico where you walk down the streets and you will see all their fish and lobsters outside their restaurants and think, “Oh, that’s lovely!” and where you go in and you come out and you spent only $10. It is not like that here in Ambergris Caye. You will find places that serve nice and inexpensive food but if you go to nice places with live music, you will pay extra. This is a tourist town and everything is imported.
What are the best and worst things about living and retiring in Algarve?
Luis Teixeira da Silva - Algarve Senior Living
I’ve lived in several locations that would be considered ideal retirement locations such as Florida and I have little doubt that the Algarve is the best, if not one of the best locations in the world. Here are some of the reasons:
- The weather is superb. The Algarve has than 3,000 hours and 300 days of sunlight. The Algarve has more sunlight and more sunny days than California. The weather is very similar to Southern California—San Diego, Santa...
I’ve lived in several locations that would be considered ideal retirement locations such as Florida and I have little doubt that the Algarve is the best, if not one of the best locations in the world. Here are some of the reasons:
- The weather is superb. The Algarve has than 3,000 hours and 300 days of sunlight. The Algarve has more sunlight and more sunny days than California. The weather is very similar to Southern California—San Diego, Santa Barbara—that kind of area. The Algarve also receives very little rainfall. It doesn’t get very hot, and it doesn’t get very cold. Whatever heat we get in the summer is moderated by the Atlantic, which keeps things moderate.
- The cost of living is very reasonable, if not low—certainly low in European standards.
- The healthcare is good. We have a great public healthcare system, and one in which, under certain circumstances, expats can participate.
- The Algarve is very safe.
- Most people in the Algarve speak English.
- There’s a huge range of activities to do in the Algarve even in the winter, whether it be sporting, wellness, or cultural.
- There is an existing expat population in the Algarve so it’s quite easy to integrate and you’ll probably easily find someone of your nationality. And if you don’t like your own nationality you’ll find someone with somebody else’s nationality. So there are plenty of options there.
- Generally speaking, people just like living here. They like the Portuguese people and the way that they are; the friendly nature of the local folk.
- Portugal is probably the most tax efficient country in Europe at the moment. It has no income tax on pensions for most pensioners. It has no inheritance tax. It has no wealth tax. So there are a number of advantages from a taxation perspective that draws many people to Portugal and to the Algarve in specific.
Here are some of the not so good things:
- Portugal is a fairly bureaucratic country, so as a retiree even though the system is being simplified, initially come prepared for a little bit of bureaucracy. It will take a little bit of time to get things organized. Dealing with public bodies is not easy at all. I’m someone who lives most of my time outside Portugal and therefore when I’m here I always feel a little bit frustrated by having to deal with public sector bodies that take too long and many times they don’t give you the right answer at the first go, so you have to be very careful about the advice that you take from them and double check it. It helps to have someone on the ground to help you along if you’re moving to the country just to make sure you avoid any mistakes and make sure that the transition goes smoothly.
- Getting Internet connectivity may be a bit of an issue. Once it’s working, it’s great. But it just takes a little bit of time to get things set up and organized.
- If you are thinking of building, planning, or constructing something, there may be challenges. If you have a passion to buy a piece of land and build a house, take great care because it’s a fairly long process and you need to make sure that planning is in place that you are authorized and build and develop what you want. And it’s something to be handled very, very carefully.
- Another challenge here in the Algarve for some people is that there are certain items that are not competitively priced, for example, electronics, motor vehicles, and fuel. So shop around. This is not necessary a negative point. In every country there are expensive or less expensive things. When you move and retire to the Algarve, make sure that you shop around because by doing so you can cut your cost of living tremendously.
(Beach on the Algarve, Portugal, pictured.)
Recently Posted Expat Stories
From an interview by Jet Metier with Bill Edsell, of Ventana Bay Resort in July, 2016.
Jet: We're speaking with Bill Edsell, owner of Ventana Bay Resort, in a large, palapa-covered room the resort uses as a restaurant. It is very comfortable; you don’t notice how hot it is outside. One side of the room is open to the Sea of Cortez and on the other side, a sliding glass door in the back is only half open. You can’t tell its 95 degrees with moderate...
Having In-Laws of another Culture and Country
My Mother-in-Law, Dona Maria
It is really difficult to get to know the people around you when you don’t speak the same language. You can be speaking the same native language and not understanding each other. Words have meaning, but if you think about it, how many times have you said something to someone who interpreted it entirely differently than you intended? And you had to say, “That isn’t what I...
Getting in Trouble in Panama
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In every place I live in, I like to walk around a lot to get the local 'feel'. When I first came to Panama City, it was a boring Sunday so...