International Living Community

Hi Jim. I'm Jim Santos, IL's Roving Correspondent, and we have had to deal with this issue ourselves. You hate to pay for insurance when you are not using the car, but on the other hand, car rental prices in the US have increased greatly over the last two years. So a lot comes down to how long you will be gone on each trip, and where you can keep your vehicle.

We have found that if our car is garage-kept, being away for up to three months at a time isn't a problem. We complete any regular service required, and make sure the car is clean and the gas tank full before storing. I've read that reducing the tire pressure a bit helps, but we haven't tried that. We also once kept our car in a rented outside space (with an all-weather car cover) for 5 weeks while we were in Mexico and it started right up on our return.

Last April, we did sell our car, because we planned to be traveling for two or more years. However, a medical issue forced an early return, and we ended up having to buy a car again. In the future, we plan to keep our car, and like yourself, travel 8-9 months of the years in 2-3 month increments.

Hope that helps, and happy travels!

Thanks for the on-the-ground input, Jess.

For others with the same question for locations around the world, I find that Wikipedia has great charts that show monthly temperature ranges, preciptiation amounts, sunlight hours, etc. Just go to their site and look for the climate section; somtimes it is under geography. Michael

Hi Bekah,
Thank you for your reply and the links. We currently own a lake front home in North Florida and are looking to duplicate this in Costa Rica. A condo with nice amenities may be a good choice however we are open. Lake Arenal looks very nice but a smaller lake may be a better option IF actual lakefront property is available at a reasonable cost. There is an almost overwhelming amount of listings on the net for Lake Arenal but seemingly nothing on "other" lakes. We would be selling our home here and likely buying but would like to keep a purchase at or below 300k. We will be at Playa Flamingo in June for several days of world class fishing and some exploring. You can contact me separately at JDStansberry@aol.com if that is more appropriate.
Thank you again for your reply!
Best,
John

Hi John & Sheri,
We have literally just returned from Penang ( & Langkawi) as part of a 6 week Asia trip.
We basically wanted to ascertain if there was any place in Thailand or Malaysia that would woo us away, for part of the year, from a very nice (but expensive) life in Australia.
Alas we did not find anywhere that suited.
We gave it a good crack, staying 4-6 days in airbnb's in each town/city experiencing/engaging in both expat and local areas.

The response from IAMSHANMAN is mostly correct. While official sources may tell you that you technically need a "work permit" to work, even if all of your work is remote, outside of Belize, the real story is that there are plenty of expats working remote jobs here while staying in-country on their tourist visa.

Once you have lived in Belize for 50 of 52 weeks you can apply for permanent residency. This process can take a year or longer. Once you are resident, you will get a Belize social security card that will allow you to be employed within Belize at a Belizean company, or run your own business doing business in Belize.

Shane Kenny International Living's Correspondent in Belize