February 10, 2022
Although I am planning to go ‘kick the tires’ on Portugal first, I have looked at other places – France, Costa Rica and Panama to name a few. I know that my daughter, Jordan, is rooting for Europe but there are things about Costa Rica and Panama that probably make them worth a look. I am not a big ‘hot and humid’ kind of guy so that gives me a bit of pause but I know that you can find places at higher elevations in each of those places that will mitigate that somewhat. On the plus side, they are very easy to get to. San Jose, Costa Rica is a 5-hour flight to JFK in New York.
Whatever happens and wherever I end up, I read something today from a lady who moved with her husband and two young sons to Costa Rica 4 ½ years ago that pretty much sums up my attitude going into this. After stating that she always gets questions along the lines of, “Do you like it here?” and “Will you stay here?” from the tourists and others she encounters she wrote the following:
“I believe down to my toes that nothing is guaranteed and nowhere is perfect. But if this doesn’t end up being our forever home, I would prefer to be sitting with my husband on our front porch reminiscing about that amazing time we lived in Costa Rica, rather than never having dared this adventure at all.
Costa Rica is beautiful and a special kind of wonder. Life is slower here, and people are friendly, and when you live in a tourist town, everyone is having the time of their life. And isn’t that what life is for? To have the time of your life?
So, if you’re thinking about moving to Costa Rica, my advice is simple: Do it. Worst-case scenario, you’ll have the best vacation of your life. Best-case scenario, you’ll live in Costa Rica.”
For me, you could substitute “Country X” for Costa Rica and it would pretty much be applicable to the other places I am looking at. As I have stated previously, the question for me is not “Why?”, it’s really “Why not?”
I have had a couple of people ask how I went about planning this trip to Portugal given that I’ve never been to Portugal and know zero Portuguese. So, I’m just going to outline what I did. I’m sure there are other ways to do this but this is the path that I followed.
When I first started thinking about this, I subscribed to International Living Magazine. Reading about other people’s accounts of moving abroad to various countries lets you know that many others have done it and it is eminently doable. The magazine provided access to resources that I found useful. There is a whole series on ‘Portugal 101’ which provides information on all things Portugal including a number of videos discussing various parts of the country. They even have sample itineraries for exploratory trips depending upon how much time you have. I wanted to see much of the country so I am planning to be over there about 3 ½ weeks.
Although you could probably get by using public transportation – busses, trains, etc. – I chose to reserve a car except when I am in Lisbon. Lisbon has good public transportation and a car, like in most large cities is more of a pain in the butt. Once I leave Lisbon, I will be driving. I’ve driven in a lot of different countries so I figure I can manage. [If I can spend about 5 weeks driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road in New Zealand, I can hopefully manage Portugal]. However, one of the tips that I learned in my Portugal 101 package was that some rental companies will not rent to drivers over 70! I am 70 so now on my ‘to do’ list it to call and make sure that I will have no issues when I pick up my car!
Once I sketched out a rough itinerary based somewhat on the suggestions provided in the package, I got busy on Expedia looking for accommodations. It’s possible to find relatively affordable places to stay. I am staying at hotels everywhere except when I am down in the Algarve in the south of Portugal. There I booked an Airbnb for 8 days in Lagos, which will be my base of operations in the Algarve. I made sure all of my bookings are refundable just in case of another COVID lockup.
As far as the airfare, I knew that I was going to be flying out of and into JFK so I found that it was less expensive for me to book a round trip ticket from JFK to London Heathrow (LHR) and then buy two one-way tickets on the Portuguese national airline, TAP, to and from Lisbon from London.
I’m sure there are other people who would have done things differently, but that’s what I did and so, as of now, everything is booked, and the countdown clock is ticking. If, for whatever reason, I find that Portugal isn’t for me – at least I’ll know, and then it’s on to the next adventure!