International Living Community

Hi Ray, I faced this issue when cancer restricted my wife's mobility. On a trip to Hawaii, we found a rental company that had a small powered scooter waiting for us at our hotel. That worked fairly well, as we were in Honolulu and the buses were all equipped for accessibility.
On a trip to France, we rented a travel chair in the US and checked it at the airport. I provided the power on that trip. This was less than Ideal, as the travel chairs tend to have small tires - great for the smooth hallways of the Louvre, but tough on gravel walkways at the Versaille Palace. We did find that the French were extremely accommodating; pushing us to the front of the line at passport control, free entry to museums for both my wife and myself, and so on.
If your powered chair has the FAA-approved gel-type batteries, it can also be checked on the flight. Your airline and chair/rollator mfg could tell you more about that.
The main issue will be where do you want to go? Our experience traveling in the old towns in Europe and in parts of South America is that many places are just not setup for mobility issues. For example, aggregate sites like Expedia, Booking, etc. have filters you can use to search for only accomodations that are wheelchair accessible. I just did a search for hotels in Lisbon, Portugal and once I applied the filter, it did find some nice hotels, but it also eliminated 97% of the ones available in my time frame.
So to sum up, a lot depends on your particular needs and choice of destinations, but travel with power chairs or rollators can be dome but definitely requires careful advance planning and research.
Hope that helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.

Hi - you have a couple of options here. When we travel, I sometimes ask my doctor to write the 'script for six months rather than three. The downside is that sometimes means only the first three months are covered by health insurance, and I pay the regular price for the other three. The other option, in many countries you don't need a prescription for most drugs, unlesss they are opiate-based or other psycotropic drugs. What I do is look for a website for a major pharmacy in my target country. For example, in Mexico "Farmacias del Ahorro" is a major chain. Their website https://www.fahorro.com has a search field at the top. Search for your medication(s) there to see if it is available and whaat it costs. I searched for "metformin" for diabetes, and found 60 500mg tablets for 167MXN, or about $8.20 USD. One last tip - if you don't find the brand name, try the generic name.

It has been our experience traveling in other countries that most people can draw a distinction between the government and the citizens of your country. Like Suzan says, as long as you treat others with respect (and don't try to start a political debate), you should have no problems.

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!

Hi - you have a couple of options here. When we travel, I sometimes ask my doctor to write the 'script for six months rather than three. The downside is that sometimes means only the first three months are covered by health insurance, and I pay the regular price for the other three. The other option, in many countries you don't need a prescription for most drugs, unlesss they are opiate-based or other psycotropic drugs. What I do is look for a website for a major pharmacy in my target country. For example, in Mexico "Farmacias del Ahorro" is a major chain. Their website https://www.fahorro.com has a search field at the top. Search for your medication(s) there to see if it is available and whaat it costs. I searched for "metformin" for diabetes, and found 60 500mg tablets for 167MXN, or about $8.20 USD. One last tip - if you don't find the brand name, try the generic name.

Hello,
I've been able to get more than a 90-day supply with the drs approval in the states before leaving, but my insurance would not cover anything over 90, had to pay out of pocket. Depending on what drug you need, I would see if it is available in that (or those) countries without a prescription. For example, I was able to get metformin for type 2 diabetes in Ecuador just by asking for it at the counter.

You said it - it varies from country to country. I can tell you that when we lived in Ecuador, we were able to skip having to take a driving class by showing our US driver's licenses. However, we still had to take a multiple choice written test (in Spanish), hearing test, eye test, and coordination test in order to qualify. I think you will find most countries will accept your US license as proof you know how to drive, but expect the tests to all be in the native language. Which isn't really a bad thing - it is important that you be able to read and understand the street signs, for example.
Jim Santos
International Living Roving Correspondent
Currently in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Good day,
You've described exactly what my wife Rita and I are doing now. Although we did live in Ecuador for 6 years with a residency visa, we are now exploring the world just by traveling on our passports, and staying from a few weeks to a few months. Most countries will let you stay up to three months on a US passport. Costa Rica and Mexico allow up to 6 months, and Albania an entire year. It will get trickier for us later this year when we go to Europe, as we will have to deal with the Schengen Area rules. Rather than finding it tiring, so far at least we have found it to be exhilarating.
As for residency visa rules, they do vary from country to country, and some do require that you stay in your adopted country for a certain period of time. Ecuador for example at the time required that we not leave the country for more than a total of three months the first two years. Panama and Mexico are two examples where the requirements are less strict.
Jim Santos
International Living Roving Correspondent
Currently in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Good day,
The importance of maintaining a mailing address in the US varies with your particular needs. It used to be more important in general, but since so many things are handled online now, physical mail has become less important. However, there are still some things that require a mailing address.
For example, do you plan on returning to the US from time to time and renting a car? If so, you will have to keep your US Drivers License, which in most states requires a physical address to renew. Your credit cards may also require a US mailing address, and so on.
Some expats use the address of family or friends to collect their mail, and there are also virtual mailbox services that can send you a scan of the envelope, then either open and scan the contents, shred, forward to another address, hold for pickup, etc. A Google search of "virtual mailbox" will give you several from which to choose.

Jim Santos
International Living Roving Correspondent
Currently in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Good day,
My wife Rita and I have been spending a month or more in several locations as we explore a "roving" lifestyle. We have had good success using tools like AirBnB and VBRO to find long-term stays at reasonable rates. Most aggregates have filters you can use to narrow your searches, so you can set your price range. For example, we found a month stay in Panama City Panama for just over $1100, and a month in San Miguel Allende Mexico for $1200. Since your accommodations can include a kitchen and even laundry, you can save money there as well while you explore your options.

I have a special needs grandson (autism), but unfortunately that does not qualify me to make recommendations for your son's needs. I would suggest talking it over with his doctor or other medical professionals to see how he might respond to new and different environments. In general, I can say that outside the US we have often seen there is no social stigma attached to special needs or disabilities.

Best wishes,
Jim Santos
International Living Roving Correspondent
Currently in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

My wife and I have 4 children and 9 grandchildren, so this was much on our minds as well. During the 6 years we lived in Ecuador however, we found that we were able to keep in touch via social media and video chats. When we visited the US, we had more of their attention and time than we did when we were living nearby. We also were able to bring our family out to visit us, introducing them to a larger world. One of our granddaughters just decided to spend her senior year abroad in Denmark, and one of our sons is taking his daughter to Japan for a month this summer, so I think our travel has had a positive effect on their lives.
-Jim Santos
IL Roving Correspondent
Currently in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

I'd like to add to Bel's comment - my wife Rita and I have been spending a week here in Playa del Carmen, and I agree completely with Bel. We have felt completely safe walking around the area, logging 5 or more miles a day. We've ventured out of the tourist area to check out other parts of the city, shopped in the local Chedraui grocery store and cabbed back, and have never had any problems at all. Other than sometimes-annoying hawkers in the tourist zone trying to get you into their shop or sell you their tour, we've found the locals to be very pleasant and helpful. We would definitely visit here again, and in fact have talked about hosting a gathering of our kids and grandkids here someday.

Hi - My wife and I are looking into pet/house sitting overseas as part of our slow travel life we are starting later this month. We've registered with trustedhousesitters.com to look for opportunities. So far we've applied for several, but haven't snagged the first yet.

Just about all of the house sitting opportunities I have looked at so far have all included at least one pet. I guess folks aren't as concerned about leaving an empty house, in these days of Ring systems and monitored alarms.

You should know you will have to complete a bio and provide verified identification before being accepted. You also need at least one reference before your availability goes public. Pictures of pets you have owned or sat for are also helpful. You may find that you need to accept a few local shorter term sits before you appeal to the overseas clients.

Hope that helps!

Hi Dave. My wife and i are currently in Coronado. We booked a condo in Panama City for January 5-February 2, then the one here in Coronado from February 2 - March 15 using AirBnB. I would suggest also asking in the Facebook groups “Expats in Panama” and “Expats in Coronado, Panama”.

One thing to add to the previous answer that my wife and I discovered the hard way when we first moved to Ecuador. Plumbed gas lines deliver at a higher pressure in Ecuador than in the US, so if you have a gas appliance made in the US make sure a qualified tech installs it and adds an adaptor to correct the pressure. We allowed one of the guardians in our building to do the installation, and we melted some polyester clothing in the first load!