We love traveling but have come to the realization that we love being home. As wonderful as it is to see new places it does get tiring. Also home to me must mean family nearby. I’m lucky to have all my kids live in my state and two in my town. We have a travel trailer and even with that we have found that we enjoy going to several spots each year that aren’t a long drive.
Our close friends are soon closing on the sale of their Portugal home. They lived there for 8 years and built a nice community of friends. They lived north of Lisbon and their community had a lot of ex pats from different European countries. When we visited his Portuguese was pretty good but he is also a fluent Spanish speaker. The husband loved it but his wife missed her family. He had EU citizenship but she did not. I think they both had private health insurance but he also qualified for public healthcare. Cost of living was much less and he will miss that.
I also love the ‘Retire There’ podcast (recommended years ago by Colorado_mom I think!). Interestingly, I think the hosts (Gene and Gil) decided to retire in PA and travel a few months of the years. It’s been fun listening to their discovery/discussions.
We are starting small. Trying to get H to take the lead with a short trip to FL (I said anywhere except the villages - you pick).
I can see how not committing to a trip could slide into the kind of travel lethargy we’ve had for many years (letting extended family schedules/plans decide our activities).
They are renting for now I think outside Philadelphia and I’m hoping they will do an episode or more about their experiences in that area as it is a place we are also considering for years in the future depending where the kids put down roots. Love the possibilities of taking a train to other cities and being around multiple colleges.
@Colorado_mom some reason I can’t see WSJ article without registering but Portugal is on my list to visit! A work colleague said she is retiring in April and spending 6 months slow traveling through Europe - Portugal is the first stop and he husband’s only ‘must see’!
Can I ask if anyone knows of an area in FL that is inland enough to be somewhat protected from hurricanes (or elevated enough) but still about 20 or so minutes from the beach? ChatGPT keeps giving me oddball answers.
The above criteria are from H since he also wants to buy a house (and we don’t want to lose life savings in storm!).
St. Petersburg and St. Augustine seem interesting to me (mix of ages, culture, pretty architecture, things to do) - but won’t work for property purchase because of flood risk.
Struggling to be positive about an FL ‘next stage’ exploratory trip - even though it’s too hot there to have the type of dog I love
There is one subdivision that is hurricane proof in Florida. I’ll look it up, but otherwise no, there is nowhere in Florida that a hurricane couldn’t potentially hit. I live in North Carolina and Hurricane Helene, which hit the Big Bend area of Florida first, slammed our mountains 450 miles from where it first made landfall in Florida and caused a ton of damage and more than 100 deaths.
See if you can talk him into visiting Georgia. Savannah is lovely! Because of the geography Florida gets sooooooo many more hurricanes than other states. The most hurricane prone states are actually Florida (unsurprising), Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina in that order, with Florida receiving twice as many wallops as any other state. Georgia and South Carolina receive significantly less direct hits compared to Florida and NC. And Georgia much less than SC.
St Augustine is the area of Florida that we frequent. We’ve been looking at real estate there for years and are pretty set on where and what we want but I’m not sure we’ll ever pull the trigger and actually buy for a few reasons. Cost of living there is high. Insurance (car and house) and food prices are all higher than home. Property tax is also high. We aren’t too worried about hurricanes. I know you can get hit anywhere in Florida but we won’t look at anything that’s not in flood zone x unshaded. And then there’s politics. Since this thread is not in that forum I won’t elaborate, but we don’t like the direction things are going there.
Naples and Fernandina Beach (North of Jax) - but stats don’t necessarily protect. But Naples typically seems to escape the worst of the worst. I imagine building codes play a huge part.
You are a good researcher… but probably seeking same parameters as many others. So if you find what you are after, likely it will have pricey cost of living. Still it will be cool if you find the perfect compromise, share with the group once your settled
Thanks all for the wonderful insights and helpful links.
I found a real estate agent in FL whose website listed several neighborhoods near St Pete in the ‘x’ flood zone (don’t need flood insurance - less likely to be damaged by storms, apparently). So looks like we will be booking a late Jan/early Feb trip down there.
I just want to take some action on this project vs languishing in the status quo (which I could see extending for years as I continue to work!).
Snowbird here. Retired youngish. I once detailed in this group our search for a place but the short summary is we vacationed in sunny states, narrowed to one state, then one geographical area, then evaluated condo vs house, beachfront vs inland, community vs not in an organized community. 55 plus community or not, country club community or not. When we thought we were close, rented a Airbnb similar to what we thought we wanted in the general area we wanted for 3 weeks. This was not work, as it was part of vacations over a handful of years. Then we worked with a real estate agent in our chosen area for just a few weeks. We love where we chose and live. We have many friends, have been here a few years.
As far as earlier comments- we would not have not wanted to live in the villages. To us that is an extreme in the continuum of community living, but also too far from beaches. There seem to be woodworking/ maker workshops in some towns (I know of some in various states). That could be part of a search.
There are politics everywhere, and politically unpleasant things seemingly everywhere. We do not engage in political discussions, and unless you search them out there are not many. There are more of them to avoid, and more political signs and editorials in our summer state.
There are weather risks of some sort most places. We do what we can to mitigate what is wherever we live/where we own. We do not like snow and consider it a hazard, so would rather deal with the much smaller chance of very bad (hurricane/flood/tornado/earthquake) weather and enjoy being able to spend our time in generally warm sunny weather.
Thanks for sharing, @lb5. Your analytical, step-by-step process is right up my alley. I’m one that likes to do lots of research before making a decision. Glad to hear it worked out for you in the end, as well.
However, after being focused on getting kids launched and years of extended-family-only vacations, I am trying to truncate the visiting/analysis into a much shorter timeline.
I believe my H would be happy to move to a place that checked his main boxes with the only other research being his brother lives in the vicinity and likes it. That’s not going to fly with me (when charting the rest of my life!). So we’ll figure it out.
Today H also agreed to a trip to Portugal - it doesn’t check all my ‘next stage’ boxes (I can’t speak the primary language) but wanted something a bit further along the adventure continuum!
@MMRose, Tybee Island is Savannah’s beach town and it’s 20ish minutes away from downtown Savannah.
@Jolynne_Smyth jealous of your Portugal trip. Friends of a friend retired there and I’d love to check it out. I think there are a LOT of American retirees there and lots of English speakers.
FYI - Portugal is seriously considering changing its path to citizenship requirements, extending the residency requirement from 5 to 10 years. So keep that on your radar.
PS Once we settled on a state, we did a couple options each in one vacation. Condo on the beach for a week, house not on the beach the next week. And so on. Family/ friends visited during our search/ research- that has been part of the equation of this lifestyle now too.
No such place. All of Florida is a hurricane zone. Closer to the shore, the more likely to have a hit.
I love St Augustine and St. Augustine Beach (even more) but the storms are real and it is ‘a ways’ from things you might need like hospitals and airports.
A co-worker lived in a 55+ community in Ponte Vedra and loved it. He was probably 70 and worked full time but his wife had always been a homemaker and needed a lot of support and liked having people around all the time (although I’m sure they had a single family home). He was a masters swimmer and used the Olympic sized pool every day. Close to the beach. Not as bad a hurricane area as others.
I lived in Jacksonville for 3 years and never had one, just some strong rains and lots of warnings. My daughter lived in Melbourne (Space Coast) for 4 years and had to evacuate 3 times, but at least one of those she evacuated to Orlando and where did the hurricane hit? Orlando. The rule in Florida is when you see Al Roker, Ginger Zee, or Jim Cantore in your front yard, evacuate.
I so appreciate the additional information on all fronts!!
Now just trying to figure out how to approach ‘travel reconnaissance’! lol
I’ve barely traveled internationally and my last trip (10 days in Italy) was v. stressful and exhausting planning every detail for the family myself. So was thinking - a tour would fix that (anxiety over unknown, etc lol)! But …. Portugal tours seem (naturally) geared to short-term, holiday visitors (‘see all the cool sights’).
I’m thinking those wouldn’t give a feel to assess whether it’s a good place to live (whether for a few months a year or a few years).
Curious - for others who have done ‘travel recon,’ how you handled it? (I can certainly book an Air BnB in St Pete’s for a few days - it’s the investment/unknown of another country that’s throwing me!)
So was thinking - a tour would fix that (anxiety over unknown, etc lol)! But …. Portugal tours seem (naturally) geared to short-term, holiday visitors (‘see all the cool sights’).