International Living Community

Ola from Portugal,
My husband and I have lived in the Algarve for many years and also pay €1200 per month for rent. We spent between €2500 to €3500 per month for our total expenses. $2000 or less would be doable, depending on your lifestyle. Keep in mind the dollar to euro ratio that changes and you will need to carry private health insurance since Medicare does not work here. There will also be costs associated with getting settled like opening a funded bank account and more. A great source of info is a Facebook group called Americans & Friends PT that has plenty of PDF documents with all things pertaining to Portugal.

Hope this helps.
Terry Coles
Portugal Contributor

Healthcare in Portugal is excellent, especially in the private sector. The only company that covers those over age 70 is called MGEN. You can go online and request a quote to give you an idea of cost. Just to to give you an idea my husband is 70 and I am 64 and we pay around 550 euros per month for the two of us, and the coverage is excellent. We are with another company because we have been here for 6 years.

Hi Deborah,
There are many Facebook groups that pertain to Portugal like Americans & Friends PT, Expats Portugal, Silver Coast Our Home and many more. Reach out to expats who live in those areas to find out when their meetups are or to meet with individuals one on one to chat. The first group mentioned is based in Cascais near Lisbon so they can be of help.

Happy Travels,
Terry Coles
Portugal Contributor

English is widely spoken in Portugal's Algarve.

Train travel is throughout Portugal and the ocean is never far away.

I forgot to mention that you can only stay for up to 90 days without a visa, unless you have an EU passport.

Beach areas in Portugal just like the rest of the world get tourists in the summer, and we just need to deal with it., there is no way around it. We live in the Algarve, the area I am talking about here and we put up with summer tourists to enjoy the best weather in EUrope the rest of the year.