Please help me plan our exploratory trip to plan a retirement-in-Europe second home

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the timeline? Can you wait? The anti-American sentiment is incredibly strong right now all over Europe - European here. It's borderline hate.

Do.you have evidence of that directed to actual individuals? Have a few friends who have gone over the last few months, said it was fine. Sure may have gotten a couple of comments about Trump, etc, but not directed at them in any way, and only in passing. Other posts here have said the same.

I spent a week in Italy and Switzerland. No negativity directed at us personally, but we had several conversations with sympathetic Brits, Germans and people of other nationalities bemoaning the chaos and weird policy choices Trump has foisted upon the world.

Sounds like some of my daily conversations here!

[Anonymous]

Can I throw in Malta? We just visited and absolutely loved it. It’s one of the few countries where you can buy citizenship through investment. I don’t imagine that we’d truly live there for retirement— mostly just use it as a long term vacation location. We’d buy a place and we’d use it with family and friends throughout the year. Big expat community.

I mostly want the EU passport. We are seriously considering it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't. There are enough of you all here already.

That isn't uo to you, pp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I throw in Malta? We just visited and absolutely loved it. It’s one of the few countries where you can buy citizenship through investment. I don’t imagine that we’d truly live there for retirement— mostly just use it as a long term vacation location. We’d buy a place and we’d use it with family and friends throughout the year. Big expat community.

I mostly want the EU passport. We are seriously considering it.

Thanks, yes, we were thinking about Malta also. We want to be accessible to visitors, and that's why we are a little shy about moving to Malta, Mallorca, or another island that's just a little more difficult for family and friends to reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re second guessing you because some of this sounds like a crazy way to choose a place to live for the last years of your life.

We're choosing where to spend 4 months annually, not the last years of our lives. We've been in DC since 1990 and will keep our home here, also have a beachhouse, and we have plentry of friends in these countries. Is that really any crazier than all the people fleeing DC for mid-western or southern towns? It's entirely rational to us. We're proactively searching for a beautiful place to spend time, go on adventures, take up new hobbies, etc. We're really excited about it!

Dp I agree with you, op. If I had the means I would do it!

[Anonymous]

European here. Word of advice OP: don’t tell people in Europe that you’re “extremely well traveled traveled.” That would be social suicide and exactly the type of braggadocious behavior we’ve come to expect from Americans. And compared to us, I guarantee you’re not well traveled anyway. Maybe by American standards. Also don’t discount the difficulties you will have with language acquisition over the age of 50. I see Americans here all the time bumbling around with absolutely unintelligible Spanish and French. You don’t want to be that person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I throw in Malta? We just visited and absolutely loved it. It’s one of the few countries where you can buy citizenship through investment. I don’t imagine that we’d truly live there for retirement— mostly just use it as a long term vacation location. We’d buy a place and we’d use it with family and friends throughout the year. Big expat community.

I mostly want the EU passport. We are seriously considering it.

Thanks, yes, we were thinking about Malta also. We want to be accessible to visitors, and that's why we are a little shy about moving to Malta, Mallorca, or another island that's just a little more difficult for family and friends to reach.

I don’t know that these places are harder to reach. Unless you’re somewhere like Paris of Milan you’re going to have to change planes somewhere anyway. Malta and Mallorca have busy airports.
Malta is great, but it is conservative.
I like San Sebastian because the food is the bedt in the world, it’s beautiful, and not as hot as the Mediterranean. It’s extremely expensive by Spanish standards though. The whole coast is nice, plus it’s very close to France and accessible to places like Pau and Biarritz.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here and just checking back for the first time. Thanks for all the responses!

Based on your responses, so far we have: Toulon, Ghent, Porto, Lille, San Sebastian. Please do keep them coming!

Yes, by well-traveled, I do mean that we've visited all these countries several times (among many others), and have narrowed our list. I don't need more than 2 days in each place to know if it's something to make the list for the next round of much longer visits. As for medical care, I'm late 50s and my husband is a little older. None of our parents needed medical attention before their 80s, which is why we feel okay about a 15-year plan to own. But yes, we'd like to be no more than an hour away from a good hospital. We don't mind heat, but will probably avoid being there in August.

I used to be well-traveled but haven't been for a while. With that said, I loved Cascais in Portugal. It's a little coastal town just outside Lisbon. Seemed like a lot of expats there, in addition to Portuguese people. Maybe it's too touristy after a while - I can't say.

Your plan sounds wonderful and I don't know why there are 15 pages of people sh***ing on it. If you move to a place and don't like it - guess what, you can leave. In the meantime, this sounds like a great adventure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here and just checking back for the first time. Thanks for all the responses!

Based on your responses, so far we have: Toulon, Ghent, Porto, Lille, San Sebastian. Please do keep them coming!

Yes, by well-traveled, I do mean that we've visited all these countries several times (among many others), and have narrowed our list. I don't need more than 2 days in each place to know if it's something to make the list for the next round of much longer visits. As for medical care, I'm late 50s and my husband is a little older. None of our parents needed medical attention before their 80s, which is why we feel okay about a 15-year plan to own. But yes, we'd like to be no more than an hour away from a good hospital. We don't mind heat, but will probably avoid being there in August.

I used to be well-traveled but haven't been for a while. With that said, I loved Cascais in Portugal. It's a little coastal town just outside Lisbon. Seemed like a lot of expats there, in addition to Portuguese people. Maybe it's too touristy after a while - I can't say.

Your plan sounds wonderful and I don't know why there are 15 pages of people sh***ing on it. If you move to a place and don't like it - guess what, you can leave. In the meantime, this sounds like a great adventure.

Portugal is completely overrun these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the timeline? Can you wait? The anti-American sentiment is incredibly strong right now all over Europe - European here. It's borderline hate.

Do.you have evidence of that directed to actual individuals? Have a few friends who have gone over the last few months, said it was fine. Sure may have gotten a couple of comments about Trump, etc, but not directed at them in any way, and only in passing. Other posts here have said the same.

This is the problem with Americans, 100% delulu. You have at least 2 Europeans here telling you that everyone can't stand you and you say it's fine because someone traveled for a week there. Of course it was fine, they want you to spend your money and gtfo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. I spent a few weeks in Nice a couple of years ago, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed being there. Granted, it wasn't July or August and swarming with tourists. But really relaxing and a quick drive to so much. Would we get tired of it, I wonder? I was thinking we'd check out Villefranche-sur-Mer so as not to be smack dab in Nice but a very quick drive in.

Villefranche is gorgeous in the summer. Fairly depresssing the rest of the year. I think you need to revisit these places in the shoulder seasons, too. Maybe Lyon?
Palma is ok but over run w/ package tour groups in the summer. There are some cute, small towns on Mallorca, but it’s desolate in the colder months. Maybe just a coastal suburb of Barcelona?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the timeline? Can you wait? The anti-American sentiment is incredibly strong right now all over Europe - European here. It's borderline hate.

Do.you have evidence of that directed to actual individuals? Have a few friends who have gone over the last few months, said it was fine. Sure may have gotten a couple of comments about Trump, etc, but not directed at them in any way, and only in passing. Other posts here have said the same.

This is the problem with Americans, 100% delulu. You have at least 2 Europeans here telling you that everyone can't stand you and you say it's fine because someone traveled for a week there. Of course it was fine, they want you to spend your money and gtfo.

Okay, well, how do you think we feel about Europeans who come here? People travel now. They don't really care how people feel about it in the countries they settle in. It's not up to them. We don't anticipate that we'll be magically accepted, but we're living in a burgeoning dictatorship, so, you know, we're looking for options. Get some compassion.

[Anonymous]

This is very hard to answer as it’s so specific to your tastes! Finding a community of people who will accept you (not that people will be horrible to you anywhere, but realistically you are mostly going to be friends with expats) is going to be the hardest part and you’d need a bigger town for that. I would also say that most people who do this already have the place in mind, so I think you need to do much more research - as in, many more trips - before you should even think about buying. Having owned a home in France for a long time, there are so many things that are still surprising and unexpected, and that is with having spent 1-4 months of my life there every year since I was a child!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the timeline? Can you wait? The anti-American sentiment is incredibly strong right now all over Europe - European here. It's borderline hate.

Do.you have evidence of that directed to actual individuals? Have a few friends who have gone over the last few months, said it was fine. Sure may have gotten a couple of comments about Trump, etc, but not directed at them in any way, and only in passing. Other posts here have said the same.

This is the problem with Americans, 100% delulu. You have at least 2 Europeans here telling you that everyone can't stand you and you say it's fine because someone traveled for a week there. Of course it was fine, they want you to spend your money and gtfo.

Why are there Europeans in a DC-focused web forum? Perhaps they, um, moved away from Europe and are living in another country, the very thing they are telling Americans not to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again. I spent a few weeks in Nice a couple of years ago, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed being there. Granted, it wasn't July or August and swarming with tourists. But really relaxing and a quick drive to so much. Would we get tired of it, I wonder? I was thinking we'd check out Villefranche-sur-Mer so as not to be smack dab in Nice but a very quick drive in.

Definitely look at villefranche and Beaulieu sur Mer. Beaulieu has a good size English population. Villefranche can get a bit overrun with cruisers. The train line runs through both so very easy to get to Nice/airport from there. We have an American friend with a condo there.