France And Portugal – Which Is Actually Better for EXPATs, Retirees, Digital Nomads

14 Comments

1. 

   @ItllBeFun 1 year ago

   Bom dia! France, Portugal! Which one is for you!!!!! OMG It is impossible to choose. We know. Come join us for our monthly online meetups at http://www.patreon.com/itllbefun or via our website at http://www.itllbefunretirement.com.

2. 

   @jeffzaucha3834 1 year ago

   Ummm two great choices for someone looking for their new adventure. For me, Madeira has been a great choice but boy you sure could not go wrong with France. No bad choice here. Go for it!

3. 

   @tamaramadelin4831 1 year ago

   I think you nailed it in all categories! I lived in Aix en Provence for 4 years and the SW of France for 10…Portugal for the win, but France is a beautiful country full of history and culture, but it is way more expensive! We could not afford the same home there that we own in Portugal! Groceries and taxes are through the roof in France…California too! We're staying in Portugal! ❤️🇵🇹 Our French family is always complaining about prices/tax increases and we never complain and are super content! We are way more comfortable in Portugal!!

4. 

   @anniesshenanigans3815 1 year ago

   how does the cost of food compare to the US in grocery stores? I ask because I spend less than 300 a month, as a single person. I don't eat out at all. Your figure is very high compared to mine, but giving an average of what it would cost you in the US would be helpful.

5. 

   @martinomovies 1 year ago

   France is more central for travel to other parts of Europe where Portuguese island is way off the beaten path. Both great places though. Portugal has great surfing.

6. 

   @nancywagner-anamericanexpa8709 1 year ago

   Well, I know I love Portugal, so now I just need to travel to France to check it out! Thanks for your experiences and insights.
   Btw, Wolf, I love your little quick step dance in the intro’s 🥰

7. 

   @erickarnell 1 year ago

   On Madeira I would expect to need a car to get around. In an urban area in France like Bordeaux, Nice, or Paris, less so.

8. 

   @groovysecondhalf 1 year ago

   Love that you’ve add a bits about France in your videos. Very doubtful that we would ever leave Madeira but we love extra ideas about our travels thru France.

9. 

   @ruinunes8251 1 year ago

   Very unbiased/neutral video. Spot on. People now can make the choice.

10. 

    @ConanNYC 1 year ago

    I heard France doesn't tax you social security ? Is this true?

11. 

    @betterwhere 1 year ago

    Let me preface this by saying that I've been to Madeira (and loved it) and parts of southern France. I've lived on small islands (not Madeira, though) and on the continent.

    I'd say that comparing Madeira and southern France is very, very tricky. It's a completely different lifestyle due to one key factor you haven't mentioned, or at least not in more detail: living on an island vs living on the continent. I believe that first, a person wishing to retire/move to an island should ask themselves whether they can REALLY live on an island. It sounds romantic and great in theory but not always in practice. Only after you're 100% sure, THEN you compare the other factors like weather or cost of living (and they can still be dealbreakers).

    There are a lot of drawbacks of living on an island as opposed to the continent:

    1. You can only go around the island. Otherwise you have to rely on flights or ferries. This means that people who love traveling can't do easy weekend trips or shorter vacation without having to fly. If you live on the continent, and particularly in Europe, road trips are super easy. Depending on where you live, you can have access to several countries within a few hours drive (or even a bus or a train). The same goes for landscapes – again, depending on where you live you can drive to the sea, ocean, lakes, mountains, big cities, small towns, etc. While Madeira is super varied, it's still just one place. If you're fine staying on one island and you're completely sure that you'll enjoy it, then that point is of course not that important. And I understand that some people maybe don't mind flying everywhere. But it's still an inconvenience, it costs more, and it takes much more time.

    2. Islands are usually more expensive because a lot has to be imported. This goes beyond just food (that grows super well on Madeira, I have to admit that). Imagine your washing machine breaks down. Yeah, you can buy a washing machine locally but it'll cost you much more than if you lived on the continent. So you pay extra OR wait several weeks to have it delivered from the mainland. Not ideal (that's actually a true example shared with me by a person living in Madeira). The same goes for everything else – appliances, furniture, cars, construction materials, etc.

    3. This is a generalization but I've found it to be true on almost every island in the world – island standards are virtually always lower than the standards of the continent. Why? Because there's not much competition. If you don't like something, it's not like you can drive a few hours and get it somewhere else. So without that fear of someone else doing a better job inspiring the entire area to do better, it's harder to find someone who really cares. A friend on Madeira told me that healthcare is much better in mainland Portugal so when he needed a knee surgery, he needed to fly to Lisbon because local doctors weren't trustworthy or maybe even capable of performing a more complex procedure that could decide his future (he was a surf coach and couldn't risk losing the ability to coach).

    4. If you frequently order something online, islands are notoriously tough for delivery companies. If e-commerce stores on the mainland even offer shipping to Madeira (many don't), it may take a couple of weeks to get there. I once ordered something from mainland Europe to the Canary Islands and it took WEEKS to get there (normally within mainland Europe it takes maybe 3 business days) and I had to drive one hour to the only distribution center on the island to get the package. If you need frequent access to some specific things you can only buy online, it's very tough to live on an island. And it's not like you can get what you want locally – so that's double the problem as you may need to make do with subpar quality or maybe even rely on DIY.

    5. Islands are romantic, beautiful, scenic, etc. but this is also what makes them so popular among tourists. If you don't mind living in an extremely touristy area, then maybe that's not a problem. But after a while it gets tiring to always be considered a tourist by locals, even if you've lived there for a long time. And it's also tiring and a little sad to see how most locals have to work all the time just to cater to the tourists and don't have any other industry in which they can work. I've seen this very clear difference in Greece – go to a typical touristy Greek island like Corfu and then go to mainland Greece, for example to the Mani Peninsula. On the island, almost everyone is employed in tourism and in the tourist season they work entire days, weeks, and often months without any time off. Go to a less popular area of mainland Greece and suddenly there's normal life there, various careers, and locals who can actually do something else than just provide services to the tourists (not that tourism in itself is bad – just that relying on tourism alone is not a great position to be in for any island/country). Not that Madeira is that mass tourism oriented but it is a problem that often comes with island living.

12. 

    @ToastandJam52 1 year ago

    Enjoy it while you can. These places are getting more and more expensive as time goes pricing out locals and adding to the already existing housing crisis. To quote a Portuguese friend: "How can some one on Portuguese wages compete with fat Americans with fat wallets?" Spain is about to impose a 100% on property purchased by foreigners. Won't be long before this is adopted in other European countries. Ironic that people went to America to escape oppression and they are now leaving America to escape oppression. At the moment, Europe countries are welcoming to immigrants. Pity that can't be said for the US.

13. 

    @feliciaflinders 1 year ago

    ❤ great insights

14. 

    @bertieferreira 1 year ago

    I think france 🇫🇷 is better with bureaucracy, customer service(pretty much any service), landscape, house quality and prices, food, trains, roads… you gotta check it for yourself 😂 💯% France 🇫🇷