How to Choose Where to Live in Portugal
When we first started talking about really doing this, our idea was to apply for the Portugal Golden visa and buy a Golden Visa property to turn into a bed and breakfast. In a classic me being me move, I immediately got online and started searching for bed and breakfasts for sale in Portugal. Within 10 minutes I had found the perfect place. The list price was $1.25 million, and we were only about $1.2 million shy. While I knew that property was a pipe dream, I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering to what if…
What if we lived across the river from a tiny village? What if our kids went to the local school and spoke Portuguese, and we had an organic garden and fruit trees, and raised goats and made goat cheese, and chickens and alpacas, and a boat to take our guests on the river? What if we could have all that, wouldn’t it be amazing??? Let me tell you, this pandemic has had me thinking some crazy-ass thoughts, y’all.
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The condensed timeline plus the added stress of starting a business before we could really acclimate and get settled started to feel very overwhelming, so after lots and lots of talking it through and playing out different scenarios, we decided to pivot. We would make the move and just live there for six months to a year before diving into any kind of business activity. This would give us time to get our bearings, immerse ourselves in the Portuguese culture, research and scout locations and properties, and learn about the real estate landscape. Oh, and decide if we really liked living in Portugal, pretty important, don’t you think?
All this to say that with our new plan in mind, our driving factor in choosing where to live would be where we wanted to put Mia in school. As I mentioned in the Selecting a School post, you can either choose a location and then find a school or find a school and let that dictate your location. And since we wanted Mia in an international school, we were bound to the locations that offer those options.
We’re looking forward to exploring a new town/neighborhood. One of Dustin’s favorite things to do when we visit or move to a new place is to walk around and call out all the stores/restaurants/bars/amenities available to us. I don’t even know if he knows he’s doing it. “Oh look, there’s a grocery store.” 😆 But it’s cute and just shows how exciting it can be to discover a new home.
Our housing search will commence over the next 6-8 weeks, so check back for more about that! And don’t miss these resources to help make your move abroad easier.
Want to know more about what it’s like to live in Cascais?
If you’re interested in an in-depth look at Cascais, join Live and Invest Overseas to snag a copy of the November edition of their Portugal Letter digital magazine in which the feature I wrote breaks down everything you need to know about life in Cascais.