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Boomers Abroad Home
CountriesCosta RicaMexico Nicaragua Panama Uruguay Avoiding the "Ugly American" Stereotype |
Does a perfect climate matter?We live in Northern California and appreciate its moderate weather, so my first search was for locales with similar climates. Most of California experiences a Mediterranean Climate, so I looked for other regions in the world within that same climate category. I found a total of five. All have mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, and are located between 30 and 45 degrees latitude, in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They include:
For a variety of reasons, but primarily the distance from our relatives in California, we eliminated all of the Mediterranean Climate areas as possibilities and started looking for other regions, the primary requirements being low-cost, warm, and preferably on the water. (California has the warmth and water but it also has an outrageously high cost of living— which is one of the reasons we're looking to leave it.) We've decided that what we consider to be the perfect climate, i.e. the Mediterranean climate, is secondary to other qualities—and other climates. I should apologize to Euroboomers and residents of other regions of the world who are looking for a destination, because my focus has been very North American-centric. Living in North America, I've focused primarily on countries that are reasonably convenient to Canada and the United States. For that reason, the initial sections of this web site will focus on Mexico and Central/South America. While all are home to large numbers of European expats as well as North American, I recognize that Europeans tend to head toward Mediterranean countries when they seek new places to live. Considering the climates that Britons and Northern Europeans are leaving, I can certainly understand their attraction to the warm and sunny Mediterranean climates that beckon nearby in places such as Spain, Portugual, Italy and Greece. Of course, it helps that they're all also part of the EU. If we were currently in that part of the world, we'd be looking in that direction too. We hope Europeans and residents of other parts of the globe find this web site useful too, particularly if they're looking to the New World for refuge. And we may eventually add information on European, Asian and Pacific areas as well. What if I don't want to leave the U.S.?If you currently live in the United States, you might want to consider simply moving to another state rather than going abroad. Things generally get much cheaper when you move away from the coasts, and the quality of life can be very good. Plus, they speak English there and you can usually get all the stuff you're probably used to.There are a number of excellent web sites to help you in your search for a place to move to. Moving.com's city profiles provide information on hundreds of cities. The profiles include cost of living, taxes, home costs, insurance costs and quality of life factors such as population, crime, weather and education. Moving.com can also help you find real estate and arrange for moving logistics. You can even compare the profiles of two cities of your choice. BestPlaces.net lets you compare two cities from a list of over 3,000 places in the U.S. You'll see a comparison of nearly 100 categories. BestPlaces offers neighborhood profiles for every zip code in the U.S., in-depth profiles on over 85,000 schools, a cost of living calculator that compares cities and determines what salary you'd need at a new location to maintain the same standard of living as you have now. Plus you'll find crime rates for over 2,500 U.S. cities, most and least stressful cities, and climate profiles for 2,000 cities worldwide. You can even take a "Find Your Best Place" quiz to determine your own recommended best places to live. BestPlaces also publishes Cities Ranked and Rated, with detailed information on over 400 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and Canada. You might also find Most Livable Communities helpful. Our favorite is FindYourSpot.com. It offers a fun quiz (it'll take you less than 10 minutes) with great questions, and it produces a list of two dozen cities that fit your quiz answers. Results for each city include an attractive downloadable four-page report with an insightful overview of the character of the area and information on climate, arts and culture, recreation, education, housing and cost of living, crime and safety, health care, and earning a living. You'll also find links to currently available jobs and housing, roommate services, recommended city-specific books, and travel deals if you'd like to personally visit the city. Where is the best country for me?We suggest that there is actually more than one "best country". You find them by 1) visiting every possible country and seeing which ones you like best, or 2) researching every possible country, zeroing in on those you feel most attracted to, and then visiting those countries. You can start by exploring (on the Web) the countries we cover at this web site.Bottom line? Visit a country and spend some time there before making the actual move. Most experienced expatriates suggest living at least six months in your target country before permanently moving there. And remember, you're not going to live in an entire country, just in one specific place in a country. You don't have to love the entire country to be able to find that one special place just for you. You're looking for a region, a city, a town, even a neighborhood where you can find the qualities you want in a new home. How do I research other countries that you don't discuss?Use the Web. Nothing else compares. No matter how hard we try, we can never provide everything you need to know on just this web site alone. (Although we're sure going to try.) We will, however, do what we can to aim you toward sites with useful information about the countries we feature. You can determine from the information you find here and on those sites which of that information is most useful to you. Knowing that, you can then search on the Web for similar information on other countries that are not featured here.If you'd rather sit down with a book, consider the books we list on this page and our country pages. Or visit your local library and bookstores. Don't forget to ask friends and neighbors about their own knowledge and experience. You'll be surprised how many people you know who have lived abroad, or even have second homes in other countries. Good luck with your hunt. Getting there is half the fun. (But of course actually being there is what counts. And it's more than half the fun.)
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