Dreaming of escape?
Imagining your life somewhere welcoming, friendly, peaceful, and safe…
Where the sun shines, your days are filled with adventure, and your dollars stretch far?
You know what we say…
No problem!
Ours is a big, beautiful world. The rich and fulfilling life you seek is out there waiting for you.
Here’s our short list… the world’s nine best places to live well, retire better, and leave the worries of our age behind…
In The Old World…
Greece is the cradle of Western civilization, the birthplace of philosophical, political, artistic, and literary concepts that have shaped the world. Located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, Greece’s history is long and storied. Centuries-old ruins and monuments abound. If you’re a lover of history seeking to ground yourself through a connection to the past, you won’t find a better base than Greece.
Then again, Greece is also a dream destination for beach-lovers. The country boasts the longest coastline in Europe, and all of it is lapped by the pristine blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
This is the southernmost country in Europe, with a mild climate and some of the sunniest weather anywhere on earth. If your interests include lazing on the beach, basking in the sun, scuba diving, island-hopping by boat, or splashing around in the sea, again, Greece is ideal.
But life here is not all about the beach. Greece’s mountains on the mainland and on islands like Crete are tall enough to see snow in winter, creating opportunities for skiing, snowboarding, and other snow sports. Year-round, the country’s terrain attracts hikers and cyclists. On remote islands and away from the cities, you find rugged wilderness, endless olive groves and vineyards, and untouched villages with hand-laid drystone walls that transport you to another time.
Greek food is one of the world’s most widely celebrated cuisines, and in Greece it’s at its freshest and best. You could become healthier just moving here and indulging in all the delicious dishes that make up the original Mediterranean diet. Greece is home to Ikaria, one of the world’s five blue zones. One in three Ikarians lives past the age of 90 because people here are free of the chronic diseases that plague North Americans. This is down to the healthy diet and the relaxed, community-focused lifestyle.
Greek people are warm and welcoming, with deep-rooted traditions of hospitality and a culture that values family above all. The younger generations speak English well, and locals are generally friendly and happy to chat with anyone. Wherever you go in Greece, you’re all but guaranteed to find a handful of expats living there.
These communities are active, organizing activities and events to meet newcomers. There’s also plenty of year-round entertainment options across the country, including festivals, concerts, museums, galleries, shopping, architecture, historical attractions, restaurants and cafés, and cultural events.
Greece is safe, costs of living are affordable, and health care standards are high. All in all, Greece offers a laid-back, unhurried, stress-free version of the European experience.
Montenegro is a land of awe-inspiring natural beauty. Picture towering gray mountains that plunge down into waters so crystalline they could be mistaken for fjords… sleek white yachts bobbing peacefully in protected harbors… and medieval villages of white stone and terracotta decorating the shoreline.
The country’s long stretch of Adriatic coastline is indented dramatically in places with deep, craggy inlets that extend its length and, juxtaposed against the background of the surrounding elevation, create jaw-dropping vistas.
The scene is straight out of the pages of a fairy tale. Perhaps the English poet Lord Byron captured Montenegro’s magic best when he said, “At the moment of the creation of our planet, the most beautiful merging of land and sea occurred at the Montenegrin seaside. When the pearls of nature were sworn, an abundance of them were strewn all over this area.”
Montenegro is a small country in Central Europe, directly across the Adriatic Sea from the east coast of Italy. Aside from its gorgeous views, it offers a luxury Mediterranean lifestyle for less, with fascinating culture and exciting upside potential for expats and investors.
Montenegro is a young country, having gained independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 2006. But this fact belies a rich history that goes back centuries and muddles many cultural influences. Across time and because of its strategic location near the mouth of the Adriatic Sea, Montenegro has been occupied by many groups, from the Illyrians and the Romans to the Slavs and the Ottomans. European influence can be seen in its Gothic, Venetian, and Romanesque architecture, while its traditional cuisine is a reminder of its past under the Ottoman Empire.
Today, Montenegro is an up-and-coming tourist and expat destination. Those who have discovered it enjoy its mild climate, beautiful scenery, low costs of living, and relaxed lifestyle. Kotor Bay is the most sought-after location in the country, with the most spectacular scenery and the widest selection of lifestyle opportunities.
Here, you could settle in the historic ambiance of the medieval Old Town or opt for the glitz and modernity of its private residential developments and marinas. Down the coastline, Budva and Bar offer a similar coastal appeal, plus sandy beaches and well-appointed resorts.
Inland, you find humble villages and mountain escapes. Montenegro is a haven for nature-lovers and adventure-seekers. Its rugged geography provides opportunities for year-round recreation—skiing and snow sports in winter and swimming, boating, hiking, camping, canyoning, and white-water rafting in summer.
Montenegro has a strong economy. It’s a stable democracy currently awaiting acceptance into the European Union. Real estate is affordable, taxes are low, and residency is easy. Montenegro is on the brink of greatness, about to leap onto the world stage.
Start Your New Life Today, Overseas
To visit Portugal is to find yourself among its growing list of admirers who understand why this country has become one of the most sought-after expat destinations in the world.
Portugal’s geography packs a punch despite its small size. The country includes the Hawaii-like Madeira archipelago, islands marked by sharp green cliffs and overflowing with bright tropical flowers… the dry, chaparral-covered hills of the Algarve that are reminiscent of Morocco… and the verdant peaks of Northern Portugal, where the conditions are just right to produce the world-famous vinho verde wine. Portugal’s 1,115 miles of coastline are tranquil in some places, with soft, golden sands and placid waters, dramatic in others, with turbulent waters that produce the biggest waves ever surfed anywhere.
Portugal has a mild, almost Mediterranean climate with over 300 days of sunshine per year, allowing people who live here to maximize and enjoy their time spent outdoors. Its history is rich, with Roman, Celtic, and Islamic influences. As one of the oldest countries in Western Europe, architectural marvels and landmarks hide around every bend in the road.
The sunny Algarve region in Portugal’s south boasts beautiful Blue Flag beaches with sparkling waters and limestone grottoes reachable only by boat. Its coastal areas are dense with tourists, but you can easily slip away and find yourself surrounded by peaceful countryside or the white-washed cottages of a traditional village where you’ll feel transported back in time. The Algarve is also a golfer’s paradise, with some of Europe’s finest championship courses, as well as nature reserves, hiking trails, beautiful mountains, and coastal paths waiting to be discovered.
Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, is one of Europe’s best-kept secrets. This is a city of awe-inspiring landmarks, grandeur, and charm perched elegantly on the banks of the Tagus River, a strategic location that allowed the city to flourish. Its immense plazas are bordered by pastel stone structures and jacaranda trees.
In the north, Porto beckons visitors with its colorful historic center, cobbled streets, lavish food and wine, and riverfront scenery. Known for its enchanting Douro Valley and exquisite port wine, this is the oldest demarcated wine-producing region in the world.
Nearby is Braga, an attractive, well-loved city, with narrow lanes and lively plazas hemmed in by historic buildings and elegant baroque churches. It’s culturally vibrant, with events, festivals, concerts, and exhibitions year-round.
The Portuguese people are gracious and unassuming and speak English at a high level. Their modern culture is eclectic and innovative, producing forward-thinking social policies and unique styles of fashion, music, gastronomy, and art.
Portugal is one the world’s safest, most peaceful countries, and it’s as turn-key as Europe gets if you’d like to establish residency. For these reasons and more, Portugal’s popularity has expanded dramatically in recent years, as news of its undeniable appeal has finally spread across the globe.
From tapas and flamenco to beaches, bullfighting, siestas, and language, few countries have such widespread global acclaim as Spain. The country boasts rich heritage, beautiful landscapes, delicious cuisine, and vibrant festivals and celebrations. It’s an all-around fantastic place to spend time.
For these reasons, plus its affordable costs of living, diverse lifestyle opportunities, excellent health care, and safe, welcoming communities, Spain is one of the world’s most established expat havens. But, while you may think you know this country, there’s much beneath Spain’s surface to be discovered.
Spain is the second-most mountainous country in Europe after Switzerland. Across time, its geography has created natural barriers between groups of people leading to independent communities left to develop without outside interference or influence. The result today is that Spain has pockets of distinct populations scattered around the country, each with its own culture and language. Spanish is the official language, of course, but there are also eight recognized regional languages from Aragonese and Galician to Occitan and Valencian.
Northwestern Spain has Celtic roots, and celebrations feature the local equivalents to bagpipes known as the gaita. Due north, you have Basque Country, famed for its Michelin-starred cuisine and its language, Basque, which is so unique it has no relationship to any other language in existence. To the northeast, there’s Catalonia, the autonomous community that’s most famous for Barcelona, one of the biggest and most vibrant metropolises in Europe, located directly on the Mediterranean Sea.
The stronghold of central Spain’s culture is Madrid, the booming capital city renowned for its world-class museums, plazas, and parks, as well as being the seat of Spain’s royal family. On Spain’s east coast is Valencia, the City of Joy, famous for its architectural prowess, innumerable festivals and fiestas, and soft Mediterranean beaches.
To the south is the arid Andalusia region, where many of the cultural tenets we associate with Spain—flamenco, tapas, and bullfighting—originate. Here, Spain’s Moorish history is evident in the whitewashed villages and historic palaces.
Spain is also home to strings of offshore islands, including the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa with a distinct culture and dialect, and the Balearic Islands, an archipelago in the Mediterranean most famous for Majorca and Ibiza, luxury travel destinations.
In Spain, you’re spoiled for lifestyle choice. The country feels much bigger than it is. It offers a never-ending feast for gluttons of discovery. A handful of elements tie all Spain’s cultural pockets together. Across the country, Spain is safe, its people are friendly, the weather is mild to warm, the health care is excellent, and the overall standard of living is high.
In The New World…
Belize is an under-the-radar, sand-fringed, English-speaking country in the Caribbean that offers a warm climate, affordable cost of living, lifestyle options ranging from sunny beachfront to quiet inland retreats, as well as safety, stability, privacy, independence, and, above all, freedom.
With its beaches, coral reefs, jungles, and rivers, Belize boasts an embarrassment of natural riches and is a global standout for biodiversity. These life-sustaining resources, plus the search for land, water, gold, timber, oil, and freedom, have long led people from around the world to Belize, starting with the Maya thousands of years ago.
Belize once supported a population of one million Maya and was the site of several of the civilization’s greatest cities. Maya heritage lives on in present-day Belize through language, culture, and tradition, and ruins from that era still stand, punctuating the dense jungle of the mainland as impressive reminders of the Maya’s golden age.
Europeans arrived not long after Christopher Columbus made landfall along the Gulf of Honduras in the early 1500s. Pirates and buccaneers from Peter Wallace to Blackbear followed to ply their pirate trading out of view. Then Mennonites came from Germany and the Netherlands, so they could be Mennonites without anyone bothering them. The British came so they could bank in private. Folks from the surrounding countries have migrated to Belize in search of opportunity for generations.
Recently, they have been joined by growing numbers of Americans and Canadians drawn to the opportunity the country offers for a sweet, simple life bathed in sunshine and rich in good times.
Belize is a safe, welcoming, and unassuming country where the population values personal privacy, self-determination, and freedom. It’s a tax haven, an investment haven, and a premier expat haven. It’s also one of the world’s easiest places to become a resident.
It’s a tiny country, but it offers very different lifestyles. The indisputably most popular is the sand-fringed, Key West existence available on Belize’s most famous islands, Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker. The cayes feature white-sand beaches and swaying palms with hammocks strung up between them—everything required for a quintessential Caribbean experience. Natural wonders, like the Belize Barrier Reef and the Great Blue Hole, lie just offshore, waiting to be explored by divers and snorkelers.
On the mainland, the rivers, ruins, rain forest, and caves of districts like Cayo and Corozal appeal to nature-lovers and anyone looking for adventure. If you’d like to call this part of Belize home, you have your choice among humble Belizean villages and private residential communities with American-style homes designed for expats.
Regardless which path you follow here—local or expat—Belize offers one of the world’s best opportunities to bug out. At home in Belize, you can turn down the noise and tune out the troubles of our age.
Start Your New Life Today, Overseas
Colombia lies where the Andes converge with the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, providing a dramatically beautiful country with two coasts and tremendous geographic and cultural diversity alongside strong regional identities.
The queen of Colombia’s Caribbean coast is Cartagena de Indias, a Spanish-colonial city bursting with vibrancy and color. Bougainvillea drapes over wrought-iron balconies of pastel-hued homes… boutique shops, trendy cocktail bars, and high-end restaurants are hidden inside classic historic structures… and salsa music seeps into the cobblestoned streets that meander for more than eight miles.
The whole neighborhood is hemmed in by centuries-old stone walls, protected by UNESCO World Heritage status, and bordered by white-sand beaches and azure waters.
However, if you ask a Colombian about their favorite beach escape on this coast, they’ll tell you it’s Santa Marta, 150 miles to the northeast. Santa Marta is one of the oldest cities in all South America, founded by the Spanish in 1525. It’s favored for its affordability, perpetually warm weather, soft golden sands, and warm Caribbean waters. Santa Marta is backed by snow-capped mountains, with highland retreats tucked away in the hillsides and national parks in its backyard.
Inland, the City of Eternal Spring, Medellín, sits at 5,000 feet in the Aburrá Valley. It has risen to become one of the world’s most highly sought-after destinations, in part because of its perfect weather and in part because of its cosmopolitan charms. Medellín is Colombia’s culture capital, competitive with the world’s brand-name cities.
Bogotá, the actual capital, is a trendy and metropolitan high-altitude city of seven million people. It boasts charming historic districts, outstanding dining and nightlife, vibrant café culture, and interesting shops, museums, and landmarks.
Cali is the salsa capital, offering the best nightlife in the country with countless bars and clubs. It’s still making a name for itself, like Medellín fifteen years ago, so it’s bursting with potential. Cali is the City of Eternal Summer, with always-warm temperatures that help keep the party going.
Connecting these three cities is the Cocora Valley, Colombia’s coffee region. It’s famous for its traditional homes and villages, its small farms and pastures where cows roam lazily, and its ultra-skinny palm trees that add an otherworldly feel to the otherwise pastoral landscape.
To the north and west, Colombia has tropical beaches… to the northeast, there’s desert and sand dunes… in the center, you have the snowy peaks of the Andes Mountains… there are grasslands in the east… and in the south is the Amazon rain forest.
The country is one of the few on our Earth considered megadiverse, and it offers a range of lifestyles to complement that biodiversity… plus world-class health care, low costs of living, straightforward residency policies, and strong investment potential. Pretty and pleasant, sophisticated and chic, welcoming and affordable, exotic and exciting, Colombia is a South American gem nothing like you’d expect it to be.
Panama is blessed with two coastlines—one with crashing Pacific waves, the other with tranquil Caribbean waters—as well as tropical island getaways, lush rain forests, and mountain retreats.
This country is abundant in natural beauty, but it also offers cosmopolitan attractions, including a buzzing capital city, well-appointed small towns, and high-level infrastructure across the country. For anyone looking for a sunny, affordable place to launch a new life abroad, Panama is a great option. But Panama is not homologous. You have to thin-slice your choices on this little isthmus.
Panama City is the country’s biggest city. It’s the hub of Latin America, the place everyone from across the region comes to shop at modern, American-style malls, to meet their international bankers, to safe haven their money, and to relax (or party it up) on vacation.
Here, you can choose the French-colonial romance of the old quarter, Casco Viejo… high-rise living with fantastic ocean views in the city center… or a slice of suburbia in a big, American-style home in one of the city’s recently developed surrounding neighborhoods.
Panama City is a global business hub, a boom town attracting investors, entrepreneurs, executives, and opportunity seekers from around the world. All this global attention and demand has increased the cost of living, but it has also spurred Panama City’s development and improved the standard of living. Panama City today deserves a place among the world’s brand-name cities for the bona-fide luxury-level lifestyle it offers.
For those after a beach lifestyle, you’re spoiled for choice in Panama. The closest stretch of coast to the capital is the City Beaches Area, which offers five-star comfort and privacy at a fraction the cost of a fully appointed coastal good life most anywhere else.
Farther along Panama’s Pacific Coast, the east and west coasts of the Azuero Peninsula offer a more rustic coastal lifestyle. The east coast of the Azuero has been popular with expats for twenty years, but the west coast is untouched, rugged, dense with untamed jungle and wildlife. There are fewer services and amenities along this coast, but the trade-off is total privacy and the best of nature.
Among Panama’s highlands, you find the most famous retirement haven in the country—Boquete. Targeted for development for U.S. and Canadian retirees, it’s home to restaurants, hotels, and a golf course, as well as one of the biggest communities of foreign retirees in the world.
Panama’s Caribbean coast is notoriously undeveloped, but expats have nonetheless made their way to Bocas del Toro, a scattering of islands in the country’s northwest. Bocas has lazy palm trees, powder-soft white sands, and sun-kissed, bright-blue waters, creating scenes straight out of paradise. Residents love this area for its laid-back Caribbean-Calypso vibe, fresh seafood, and daily offers of total relaxation or boating, water sports, and fishing.
Mile for mile, coast to coast, Panama offers more lifestyle choices than most countries its size. It’s a land of opportunity where tens of thousands of expats have already reinvented their lives, chased adventure, and retired well at a dramatically reduced cost. It’s where foreign investors continue to make money from both long-term capital growth and immediate cash flow. We call it the expat’s do-everything haven.
Start Your New Life Today, Overseas
In Asia…
There’s a lot to like about Thailand from breath-taking beaches, lush mountains and jungles, ancient temples, tropical islands with bright-blue waters, a welcoming culture, locals so friendly, they’ve earned the country the nickname “Land of Smiles” to high-quality infrastructure, excellent health care at sometimes one-fifth the cost of U.S. health care, and easy visa options.
Thailand is such an undeniably appealing place to live that hundreds of thousands of expats from around the world have settled here. It’s rare to find any town in the country that’s not home to at least a few.
Bangkok is a popular choice among expats who appreciate its cosmopolitan flair, frenetic pace of life, vast variety of entertainment venues, shopping, and warm, tropical climate. The city’s proximity to beach resorts is another plus. Pattaya and Cha-am are just two hours from the city, and tranquil Hua Hin is less than three hours away.
For those who prefer a slower pace of life, there’s Chiang Mai, the “Rose of the North,” a cool-weather city perched in the mountains of northern Thailand with an easy-going yoga-hippy vibe. Phuket, known as the “Pearl of the Andaman Sea,” Thailand’s biggest island, is extremely popular with expats from around the world. It has some of the most beautiful beaches and coastlines to be found anywhere on the planet, plus incredible golf courses, a mountainous countryside, and nearly a dozen unique and welcoming towns, all with sizeable foreign populations. Koh Samui is another of Thailand’s island paradises—a world-class holiday destination with high-end resorts, incredible restaurants, plus beaches, jungles, mountains, and waterfalls.
Expats have no trouble enjoying life in Thailand thanks to its award-winning spas, resorts, and golf courses, great international schools, excellent medical and dental care, and all the other services and amenities you could want. Plus, the geography offers everything from misty mountains to pristine beaches.
The real kicker is the price. Thailand is arguably the cheapest place in the world to live well. It’s possible to retire up in a big way. You can live a bona-fide luxury lifestyle on a shoestring, and an uber-mini budget buys a comfortable, rewarding standard of living thanks to $1 pad Thai lunches and $11-a-night hotels that include breakfast and free Wi-Fi. You can dine out every day of the week, twice a day if you like. Why not when you can enjoy a nice meal for just a few dollars?
Thailand is both almost unbelievably affordable and culturally rich, exotic, and adventure-filled. The weather is tropically warm year-round. Nearly 2,000 miles of coastline fringe Thailand’s mainland and offshore lie more than 1,400 islands and islets. This country has every kind of beach you could want, from the black pebbles on Koh Lipe Island to the powder-white sands on the Railay Peninsula and tranquil beach coves at Maya Bay.
The temples are magnificent, the food tasty, the people friendly, the nightlife famous, the culture vibrant. It’s not hard to understand why Thailand has become one of the world’s most popular expat destinations.
Vietnam dazzles the senses with delicious cuisine, colorful festivals, incredible landscapes, buzzing metropolises and traditional hilltop villages, historical sites, and beautiful beaches. It’s a land of cultural complexity, to be sure, with a youthful population and a special energy that permeates everything as its people strive for growth and prosperity.
Nowhere is this energy more apparent than in Vietnam’s dynamic big cities—Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. While different in spirit, both feature bustling streets, constant traffic, quick-moving scooters, vibrant markets, and street hawkers. Hanoi’s chief attraction is its Old Quarter, a labyrinth of a neighborhood that features a mix of architectural style, from French mansions to Chinese temples and Buddhist pagodas. It’s a dense area of landmarks, restaurants, and cafés best explored on foot.
Ho Chi Minh City, referred to by the French as the Pearl of the Orient, is Vietnam’s biggest city and the economic powerhouse of the country renowned for its excellent street food and its friendly people. Peaceful pagodas contrast sharply with the constant traffic and otherwise rapid pace of life. In both cities, everything you could possibly want—nightlife, cultural attractions, malls, restaurants—is at your fingertips.
Da Nang is a coastal city in central Vietnam with long stretches of clean, fine-sand beaches. The city has the look and feel of a comfortable, safe, and economically viable place to live. Skyscrapers make it feel modern and cosmopolitan, but there’s less of the hustle-and-grind culture of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Da Nang is within 100 miles of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the ancient towns of Hoi An and Hue and the Hindu ruins of the Champa Kingdom at My Son—making Da Nang a perfect base for the history buff. The city also offers a huge selection of restaurants, spas, and golf courses.
Da Lat, a city perched in the Central Highlands, delivers a decidedly different lifestyle. Its elevation creates conditions for year-round temperate weather, lending Da Lat its reputation as the City of Eternal Spring. It has French-colonial roots, developed in the image of an Alpine chalet by the colonists. With its French architecture and natural scenery—misty peaks and pine forests—it has an otherworldly feel to it. Outdoor recreation from hiking and gardening to cycling and kayaking is popular. The city has a small but vibrant expat community whose members enjoy the tranquil atmosphere.
Across the country, Vietnam offers extremely low costs for everything from housing and health care to transportation and meals. You can live well on a modest budget. Vietnamese cuisine is world-famous for its healthy ingredients and bold flavors, and hearty local dishes cost the equivalent of a couple of dollars.
Foreigners living in Vietnam—and there are thousands of them—agree on one thing: They never want to leave. Here, you can be footsteps from one of the most beautiful bays in the world or a short drive from some of the prettiest landscapes in Southeast Asia while embracing adventure, discovery, and all the trappings of the good life on a pensioner’s budget.
What are you waiting for?
Your new life is calling your name. Time to get moving.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
