My parents retired to the Outer Banks, enjoying the low taxes, ocean fishing, and warm weather. However, medical care at that time (1990s) was non-existent. My mother often had to drive 90 minutes each way to Virginia Beach for appointments.
My wife and I were influenced by that experience when we considered retiring in the Methow Valley (WA). We love it there, best XC skiing in North America, great gravel and mountain biking and a terrific community. But, many people there have to drive 2 hours each way to Wenatchee for health care (the closest hospital is an hour away, but has serious financial problems).
So, we sold our cabin in the Methow Vallley 2020 and bought a Sprinter van. We either stay with friends there now or rent a place for a few weeks. We are sticking with Tacoma for now. Yes, our climate is not “sunny and warm”, but (spolier alert) it doesn’t rain any where near as much as the media would have you believe, and we get sun even on rainy days.
We just completed a two month, 9000 mile trip around the US, visiting 30 states. While there are many places (Finger Lakes, the “music triangle” south of Memphis, Flint Hills (KS), and western CO/eastern UT) that we’d like to spend more time, we love Tacoma. We bike to do all our errands, we have an excellent restaurant an cultural scene now, and SeaTac airport is just 35 minutes drive (also frequent bus service) away. Between Alaska and Delta, we can fly nonstop anywhere we want to go to visit family and for holidays. Turkish recently started non-stop service to Istanbul, and likewise Finnish Air to Helsinki.
Yes, traffic sucks here, but we can avoid it. And, we found that traffic sucks in many places in the US (surprisingly Bentonville area, AR, and there’s no mass transit there so you have to drive everywhere).
We’d consider long-term apartment rental in Andalusia, Spain, where we have friends or around Nice (ditto). Rentals there are very affordable as long as you are a block or two inland from the water.
For me, I looked at several factors to settle on my vacation property purchase and ranked them against various locations to pick a winner (in no particular order):
Weather – Sunny and warm
Currency as compared to my home currency
Walkability
Culture
Bike-ability
Amenities (dining, bars, grocery)
Airport connections to North America / world
Safety
Language spoken (Presence of some ex-pats who speak English)
First, visit location at different times of the year. Check for nearest medical facilities as well as grocery stores and how long it takes to get there…
Familiarity is important. I’ve lived here since I was 13. It’s my home, and it’s an amazing place to live. I don’t know if I can be totally happy living somewhere else. The plan is to travel everywhere, and come back home.
at 30 i followed my wife from ohio to colo. neither of us were close to our respective families[ who have all now passed]. we chose not to have children. when she died 4 years ago, i knew i would retire at 65 and head to land in [ my father’s home state] TN. in no particular order:
rain. humidity. clean [not dusty] air. quiet. low taxes. constitutional carry. space around me.
My parents retired to the Outer Banks, enjoying the low taxes, ocean fishing, and warm weather. However, medical care at that time (1990s) was non-existent. My mother often had to drive 90 minutes each way to Virginia Beach for appointments.
My wife and I were influenced by that experience when we considered retiring in the Methow Valley (WA). We love it there, best XC skiing in North America, great gravel and mountain biking and a terrific community. But, many people there have to drive 2 hours each way to Wenatchee for health care (the closest hospital is an hour away, but has serious financial problems).
So, we sold our cabin in the Methow Vallley 2020 and bought a Sprinter van. We either stay with friends there now or rent a place for a few weeks. We are sticking with Tacoma for now. Yes, our climate is not “sunny and warm”, but (spolier alert) it doesn’t rain any where near as much as the media would have you believe, and we get sun even on rainy days.
We just completed a two month, 9000 mile trip around the US, visiting 30 states. While there are many places (Finger Lakes, the “music triangle” south of Memphis, Flint Hills (KS), and western CO/eastern UT) that we’d like to spend more time, we love Tacoma. We bike to do all our errands, we have an excellent restaurant an cultural scene now, and SeaTac airport is just 35 minutes drive (also frequent bus service) away. Between Alaska and Delta, we can fly nonstop anywhere we want to go to visit family and for holidays. Turkish recently started non-stop service to Istanbul, and likewise Finnish Air to Helsinki.
Yes, traffic sucks here, but we can avoid it. And, we found that traffic sucks in many places in the US (surprisingly Bentonville area, AR, and there’s no mass transit there so you have to drive everywhere).
We’d consider long-term apartment rental in Andalusia, Spain, where we have friends or around Nice (ditto). Rentals there are very affordable as long as you are a block or two inland from the water.
For me, I looked at several factors to settle on my vacation property purchase and ranked them against various locations to pick a winner (in no particular order):
First, visit location at different times of the year. Check for nearest medical facilities as well as grocery stores and how long it takes to get there…
Familiarity is important. I’ve lived here since I was 13. It’s my home, and it’s an amazing place to live. I don’t know if I can be totally happy living somewhere else. The plan is to travel everywhere, and come back home.
at 30 i followed my wife from ohio to colo. neither of us were close to our respective families[ who have all now passed]. we chose not to have children. when she died 4 years ago, i knew i would retire at 65 and head to land in [ my father’s home state] TN.
in no particular order:
rain. humidity. clean [not dusty] air. quiet. low taxes.
constitutional carry. space around me.