Where would you retire?

[BrummieDave]

Haven't we already effectively done this thread before, albeit under the guise of "If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?" https://lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=21865

I think I weighed in with Wanaka (NZ), or Sonoma CA (USA), Sedona AZ (USA), Santa Barbara CA (USA). I am still hoping to visit St George UT (USA) in September, a town growing in popularity with retirees, but who knows if that will happen.

I seem to be dismissing suggestions on here. But Santa Barbara? That place is rammed full of drunks, living rough on the streets, many of them ex servicemen. Some of these people are extremely aggressive openly hassling you for booze money. In fact much of the West coast suffers from the same problem. But Santa Barbara is the worst, rivalling places such as Santa Monica (LA) and Santiago. Not a nice place in my view.

I wouldn't suggest anyone retires to beachside of the 101 or lower State Street, but Upper East towards Mission, or out to Montecito is much more genteel and has lots to offer IMHO, inc. weather, outdoor activities, arts, restaurants, and decent community spirit.

[Lanark]

Well we were considering a partial retirement to our house in Sweden, I say partial as we would have likely still kept a flat in Edinburgh and only spent part of the year over there. Whilst it is still a possible if we just do a complete permanent move there (subject to getting leave to reside there) the complication/cost for us of longer term health insurance coverage post Brexit and next January have rather taken the shine out of the plan.

We bought the property fifteen years ago as a holiday house and have visited it 2-4 times a year since then, usually two weeks at Easter, three weeks summer, possibly a week in October and a week at Christmas.

Whilst I will see how travel develops in Europe before making any definite plans, I think there is a pretty strong chance we will sell it and buy something rural up here in Scotland, instead.

For anyone thinking of running two households, I recommend really thinking about the travel time and costs.

I have two friends with parents that have a second home:
One is in northern France, it takes them about 12 hours to travel there and so they only visit about once per year. There have been years when the only visitors have been the children using it. When they do visit they spend a lot of time just cleaning the place.
The other family have a cheap second home about 90 minutes away (I think it cost them about £30K back in the 90's),when they were still working they used it every other weekend, since retiring they alternate between the two houses. Right now they are isolating in the cottage full time.

So the second family are getting vastly more use from their cottage, even though it is half the size of the French house. Location matters.

[Snorvey]

I fancy a but n Ben, in the style of the Broons family*. Somewhere on the west coast. Maybe a fixer upper. Wood burner stove. Compost lavvie. Solar panels.

Close enough that I can look at the weather and decide on the day whether to go or not. V. Important in Scotland.

If not in Scotland, Spain, Portugal etc, has thousand of this type on thing for a small investment you could probably afford to lose if it all goes wrong.

*It's a Scottish thing

[Lootman]

I am still hoping to visit St George UT (USA) in September, a town growing in popularity with retirees, but who knows if that will happen.

I have been there a couple of times. It's a great little town with a "proper" downtown area, and has good weather.

From there you can head north to the Zion and Bryce national parks. Or head east to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

It is popular with retirees as you say. And a fair number of mormons. Only problem is that it doesn't have a proper airport, just a regional one. You need to drive to Las Vegas, a couple of hours south of there.

[BrummieDave]

I am still hoping to visit St George UT (USA) in September, a town growing in popularity with retirees, but who knows if that will happen.

I have been there a couple of times. It's a great little town with a "proper" downtown area, and has good weather.

From there you can head north to the Zion and Bryce national parks. Or head east to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

It is popular with retirees as you say. And a fair number of mormons. Only problem is that it doesn't have a proper airport, just a regional one. You need to drive to Las Vegas, a couple of hours south of there.

Yes, all that's in hand. We're flying into Vegas, car to St George then hiking Zion, Bryce and Grand Staircase Escalante, with lodgings booked accordingly, then back to St George, and home via Vegas. Booked for mid-September so who knows!

[tea42]

In the 16 years since my wife and I retired we travelled from our home a taxi ride from Heathrow and an hour by bus and rail to Central London. We enjoyed the museums galleries and theatres in London and made dozens of trips by air all over the world. Locating to another country with a different language it might not be so easy to have so much fun. I am very glad we did it as we did because my wife now has dementia and is in a Care Home and I am buried in the West Country missing my life in the South East.

[Mark]

There has been some comments about how nice Provence is, which I would wholeheartedly agree with.

I have travelled to a number of nice places in the area, but given its size I would be very interested to hear views on what the most pleasant villages/towns in Provence would be to retire to, or to have a holiday home.

Thanks


Mark

[bungeejumper]

I have travelled to a number of nice places in the area, but given its size I would be very interested to hear views on what the most pleasant villages/towns in Provence would be to retire to, or to have a holiday home.

No direct suggestions to offer, because Provence itself doesn't interest me as such as Languedoc-Roussillon. But I'd definitely start checking out any recommended locations with a detailed look at their weather records. The point is well made by other posters that southern France can get absolutely freezing in winter - notably because of altitude, I suppose.The following is not intended to put you off, but just to caution on the need for good research.

A friend bought a charming hillside cottage and smallholding close to Arles, for an absolute snip of a price. With one previous owner, an old lady who had drunk herself slowly to death. No piped water supply, but the broadband was amazing. It was only when the hard winter frosts started extending into May and June that my friend and his wife wondered whether they might have made a mistake? Everything they planted died of the cold. And then there were the summer forest fires to think about. And the boar hunters tramping through their land with heavy weaponry...

Another friend bought a large townhouse in an extremely attractive town a little further north, and subsequently found out to his cost that the sun quite literally didn't rise on his half of the town for four months of the year! (It just didn't make it over the mountain ridge between October and February.) That was why it was cheap. Brrrrrr!

How's your French? Acquire the habit of reading the local papers. It'll all help. There are any number of French-living UK expat websites, of course, and they're packed with useful information,

BJ

[Eboli]

I always find this question loaded.

FWIW I considered retiring outside the UK when I retired many years ago. In the end I decided that my tap root was too deep to move too far away from London - I downsized from a large house (6 bedrooms) within London to a nice (3 bedroom) flat within a gated estate in Epping Forest just outside London (and this proved to be by far the most important decision of my life). I can still be in the city in 40 mins and the West End in 55 mins (though I have not tried it since COVID-19). The most important consideration, however, was that security on the estate will look after the flat whilst I'm away and so the downsize afforded me freedom so few people truly enjoy because they are tied to their houses and gardens that become like prisons.

With security at home sorted I now stay in England from about the second week in April until the clocks go back in October. From October though to April I retreat to all or some of the south of Spain, or Turkey, or Thailand or New Zealand (spending more and more time in the last two in recent years). The freedom to be able to travel when I want for as long as I want is far more satisfying to me than the idea of living elsewhere. And I can indulge in all the things I like about the UK during the spring and summer when I rather like England and its countryside. I return for about 2 to 3 weeks around Christmas and New Year (mainly to see family and friends and because I like twinkle lights) and for some anniversary dates that are important to me in the 2nd/3rd week in February. But I was away for a total of 16 weeks in the autumn/winter of 2019/20 and enjoyed every minute of it. The most important consideration, I suppose, is the ability to do long-haul comfortably and, I suppose, COVID-19 may impact on that, we'll have to see.

Eb

[TahiPanasDua]

Everybody is, of course, different and has individual requirements for a retirement location.

Having spent 42 consecutive years in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Slovakia, Romania and Sri Lanka, my wife and I felt we could have retired in any of them. Well, not quite. The one exception was the Philippines due the high crime rate. Indeed, we did retire to Hong Kong for 7 years but were eventually driven out by the horrendous pollution. Hong Kong will appear to most as a strange choice but we had lived there previously for 22 years and still had kids there. And we love it. The massive cost of living alone would rule it out for most people. You need to live there to appreciate it. (or hate it, it's a marmite choice).

We would never consider retiring to a country we hardly knew solely because it has a nice climate, great beaches or low taxation. In recent years we have been visiting our favourite places, Vienna twice a year and Penang and Hong Kong once each. Of course, all that has been hit on the head by the virus.

So where did we eventually retire? Anticlimactically, we ended up back in the sticks of our native Clackmannanshire. We inherited a house and moved in temporarily on our return to the UK. To our utter surprise we loved it and stayed. Each to their own!!!! (the best laid plans of mice and men...... etc., etc.)

TP2.

[Snorvey]

Hong Kong.....Vienna.....Kuala Lumpur.....Clacks.

Superb!

[Snorvey]

Actually it days like today where although I've enjoyed the weather of the last few days (and tomorrow going by the forecast) I'm actually looking forward to the cloudy cooler conditions later in the week. And.....rain! Woo-hoo!

Just a dour Jock I guess. Only happy when its pishin' doon.

[Lootman]

I am still hoping to visit St George UT (USA) in September, a town growing in popularity with retirees, but who knows if that will happen.

I have been there a couple of times. It's a great little town with a "proper" downtown area, and has good weather.

From there you can head north to the Zion and Bryce national parks. Or head east to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

It is popular with retirees as you say. And a fair number of mormons. Only problem is that it doesn't have a proper airport, just a regional one. You need to drive to Las Vegas, a couple of hours south of there.

Yes, all that's in hand. We're flying into Vegas, car to St George then hiking Zion, Bryce and Grand Staircase Escalante, with lodgings booked accordingly, then back to St George, and home via Vegas. Booked for mid-September so who knows!

About half way along the drive from Las Vegas to St. George is the Valley of Fire State Park. Not as grand as Zion, Bryce etc. but a nice place to stop on the journey. There will be a small vehicle fee to enter.

When you cross the state line from Nevada to Utah, there is a small town that has a huge licquor store. It is on the Nevada side of the border because buying booze in Utah can range between difficult and impossible.