Portugal living vs visiting?
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Hello IL community! Has anyone lived in Porto or any other part of Portugal where they can share their experiences pros and cons. We just came back from a lovely time in Porto, but were only there a week and didn't get to explore Caminha as intended. We noticed that rent as well as housing has gone up significantly, and are looking for similar qualities as Porto with more affordability in these areas.
Thank you, Diana -
Hi @UNIVERSALPOWERSCEO Thanks for your question!
We have checked in with Terry Coles who has lived on the Silver Coast near the city of Caldas da Rainha, Vilamoura in Central Algarve, and Tavira in the Eastern Algarve. Here is her response,
Dear Diana,
This is Terry Coles, long time contributor to IL and now a long time resident in Portugal. If you are interested in connecting with expats in and around Porto, I'd suggest that you join some of the many Facebook groups pertaining to Portugal, like Porto Expats, American & Friends PT, Americans Living in Portugal, just to name a few. I'm not familiar with Caminha so I cannot be of any help with that location.
Our lives in Portugal began on the Silver Coast near the city of Caldas da Rainha. This location is 1-hour north of Lisbon, in the Central region of the country. But after two years with lots of rain, cold winters and little to no summer, we opted to move to the Algarve. It was EASY for us to make this transition because we were renting furnished apartments. I highly recommend that wherever you settle that you rent for a while before you buy to try out the location year round, and to see if you really want to live in Portugal long term.
Our next location was in the Central Algarve, in the resort town of Vilamoura. Ten months out of the year our complex was quiet, but come summer it filled with noisy tourists that partied day and night. Since it was a very touristy area we had NO expat community or friends, so we would attend meetups in Tavira. After two summers of wild tourists we decided to move once again, to Tavira, in the eastern Algarve.
Porto is a lovely city but winters are rainy, cold and damp, so do keep that in mind. But as I mentioned earlier, I've not lived there so it would be best to connect with Facebook expats who have or do.
Take care,
Terry Coles -
@UNIVERSALPOWERSCEO We have also checked in with Cindy Sheahan who has lived in Porto. Here is her response,
I lived in Porto on a D7 retirement/non-lucrative visa for a year. I had an apartment in the Bonfim neighborhood, near the "other" train station, Campagna. I adored being a European - buying fresh and inexpensive produce at the corner market, strolling the cobblestone streets admiring the colorful azulejo tiles adorning the ancient buildings, enjoying delicious wines by the bottle for under 6 euros, and taking the metro, buses and train all over the city and the country!
For me, the "pros" far outweighed any cons - living in one of the safest countries in the world (coming from the USA) was a big relief, and having inexpensive and sometimes free access to medical services and ridiculously inexpensive prescriptions (for example, one medicine was 30 euros per month in Portugal, and sells for $300 per month in the States!) was incredible.
Porto offers many international restaurants - amazing Thai, great Korean food, a new Georgian bistro, delicious Vietnamese and BBQ, steaks, seafood and organic cafes. This isn't something you can find in every city of this size.
Porto is also well connected to the rest of Europe and the world via the Porto International Airport or even the Lisbon Airport, just a few hours south.
Although the rental and purchase prices in all of Portugal (really, in all the world!) have risen in the past 3 or 4 years, it's not difficult to find a nice 1-bedroom apartment in Porto for under 1000 euros.
If you're interested in finding a more affordable place to live, Coimbra and Braga are two smaller cities but still have lots of amenities on offer such as cultural events, good transportation, easy access to the airports and great restaurants.
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I suggest you download Idealista and you easily draw a map of where you want to live and they notify you of all rental properties in that area. You will easily find an apartment in Caminha for between 600 and 800 Euros per month. Good Luck it's a great place to live