Fellow steemians.
We all know someone that moved, to southeast Asia, to a country like Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, to live a easy life, healthier do to all the good organic quality food/fruit and good weather. I have been in southeast Asia also, concretely in Thailand. I do agree, that life there is pretty good, with the only cons being the huge amount of tourists (not to mistake with travelers) party people, huge amounts of traffic and pollution associated to it. But what if there was a solution, closer, as cheap, but without most of those cons!?
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I'm talking about Algarve, the southernmost region of continental Portugal. The region has as its administrative center in the city of Faro, where the region's international airport (FAO) is located. This airport is one of the major perks of the region, since a direct flight from London to Faro costs less then 60 euros with a little bit more then 2 hours of flight. Once in Faro you can take a train basically everywhere, and they do allow bicycles on the train! So we got transportation covered.
Climate:
The maximum temperatures in Algarve fluctuate between 25 °C in winter and 48 °C in summer, with the temperature rarely falling below zero in the winter months. So is a extremely warm and inviting weather, that makes it possible to go to the beach basically all year round.
Note, that this temperatures are for the region of Faro, more to the center in the region of Albufeira, Armação de Pêra, Carvoeiro and Portimão the temperatures are always three degrees warmer all year round.
Food:
Production of fruit like oranges, figs, plums, carob beans, almonds, strawberry's, melons, avocados makes it a really tasty destination. The starches like potatoes, sweet potatoes - the yummiest from Europe - corn are also available.
Pomegranates.
Almond tree flowers.
Cost of living:
The cost of living depends where you want to settle. To be on a city near the beach, can be extremely costly. Thankfully the inside of Algarve, and by inside I mean being only at 7klms from the coast is pretty cheap. You can find extremely good deal like renting a self sustainable farm for less then 400 euros a month. Or if you don't want to run your own farm, renting a room in one of these farms can start from 100 euros, with everything included plus the benefits of getting some biological food (my landlord gives me everything from sweet potatoes to oranges!) no extra charge! So with this mind, is pretty easy to live a comfortable life with less then 300 euros a month just for yourself.
Sports:
All sports, except cold sports, can be practiced in algarve. From surfing to rock climbing, a paradise for cyclists, water sports, or just trekking trough the famous Via Algarviana.
One of the most famous trekking paths in peninsula Iberia.
Some wave checking for a surf session.
And if you love cycling just like me, we have Fóia,with is highest point in 902 meters (2,959 ft), is the mountain range of Monchique.
People & Work:
People are friendly, everyone speaks some sort of English. There's a lot of Portuguese customs that are very interesting to get to know. You can find all sort of services very easily. The internet is good, every place as wifi available. All sort of works are available for foreigners. Specially Nordics or german/french speakers. You can be a hostess in a Hotel, play some guitar at the streets/bar, be a waitress, or just go full entrepreneur mode and explore one of the many agricultural projects available on the region.
My summer job - pool boy.
Security:
Portugal is one of the few country's in Europe that haven't suffered terrorists attacks. Besides that is pretty safe to live in Portugal. The sense of security is always very present, of course with normal common sense. As an example, I used to live in a auto caravan for a while and most of the days, when parking in the public roads, I fell asleep with the windows and main door open.
I will leave you guys with some pictures.
The famous sea caves by the coast.
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Winter sunsets.
Hidden gems.
Beach sessions in January.
Arrifana surfers paradise.
Summer sunsets.
Bodyboard session.
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Some secrets lakes on the interior of Algarve.
Climbing school Rocha da Pena.
Still not convinced, so let me tell you that the worldwide famous and prestigious Forbes magazine, elected Algarve has the best place to retire in the world, but why wait to retirement come live your dream life now! You can check the forbes article here.
Note: All photography's published in this post are my original work.
Oh wow thank you SOOO much for sharing! This sounds like a dream destination 💖 A couple of days ago I was talking to a friend and she also recommended Algarve/Portugal as one of the best places to live in Europe. So after reading your post, it is definitely on my list :)
Glad to help! If you decide to come, give it a shoutout, we can do some cool collabs!
That would be awesome ♥
Wow. You worked something for this post. Thanks for sharing your experience and keep up with the good work!
Thanks my friend. Good luck on steemit.
Thanks for sharing mate! I will definitely add it to my places to visit when I go to Europe this year. I will be in Portugal between August-September. Will you be there during that time?
Hey dude, I think so, yeah... Those are some of the best months to be here. He can meet up, bring your bike, we can do some collabs and I will show you around!
Sounds great man! I will be bicycle touring so my bike will definitely be with me haha
Ohh my goodness @vegantales, you made me so excited, thank you sooo much for sharing your experience! I'm from Hungary, and I love travelling, especially escaping from the cold winter. I'm aways searching for new loctians where I should spend those cold months. I came to Mexico last February and I basically got stuck here since then coz I fell in love with it, but I'm going back to Hungary for the summer and then want to go somewhere else in September again. I was thinking about Asia, but now I concider going to Portugal instead. You really inspired me with your post, thank you so much again!
I resteem your post too, to promote it on Steemit, becuse it's a very helpful and intereting post that many Steemians should see. Keep up the good job!!
I'm also posting about some of my travels, by the way, but I mostly share my healthy vegan recipes. Check them out if you want :)
Take care!
Thanks. your reply is very sweet and filled with love! you made my day, It's always good to get recognition to our work. Me and some friends, we are trying to start some sort, of vegan farm to plant food and welcome vegan travelers. I will check your blog gladly! Much light in your journey!
It's so beautiful, i never see that before it's so natural. . .
You take a nice and beautiful photo, nice job. . .
Thank you. Good luck on your steemit journey!
Thank you. Good luck on your steemit journey!
It is a lot more likely to be killed by a lightning strike, yes for real, are there any thunderstorms in Portugal? Don't let mass media induced fear paralyze you and influence your actions.
You resumed all my entry to a single paragraph. You could have complimented my work instead. I made an informative post about Portugal, that was it. You should read some of my other entries, like why I chose the red pill, if you do, you would know that I don't even own a TV, or that other people limitations are not for me. Preaching is cool for the ego but even cooler is to be truly nice and don't jump in conclusions. Much love!
Sorry about that, but I think constructive criticism Is as much as valuable as compliments. Your post about Portugal is informative, true, but still, you depict a thread in Europe which in fact is a lot smaller than to be hit by a thunderstorm, way out of proportion. And that is not information but spreading false perception of reality and fear. By holding back with my opinion and complimenting your work it wouldn't make me truly nice, but a boot licking conformist. Mass Media doesn't mean TV only but a single source transmitting information to a large number of receivers, affecting the behavior, attitude, opinion and emotion of them. So in a sense we are both part of it, me telling you as part of the plural you how to act, and you telling me and therefore all others with constructive criticism, how to react to your information. So sorry about that what you perceived as conclusion, It was meant as encouragement for the public, and that is again the limitation of the english language with the word you having a singular and a plural meaning.
Sometimes one single paragraph Is all what is needed to ruin a whole article, no matter how perfect it is, and this did it for me, no offense was meant.
I would love to read your article about you taking the red pill (I would have taken both), it's a pitty that you only accept praise though and I will honor that.
Sending much love to you too, without demanding any submission of your will to me ;)
algave is amazing, i went there as a kid and have vague memories. i moved from england to costa brave, 1hr from barcelona, for me barcelona is a very useful city at arms reach. otherwise id be somewhere like here. still the weather, food, people all nice but even tho the sea is crystal clear there is much pollution from the contamination from agriculture, the rivers that run into the sea smell disgusting! i only swim in the sea in the summer when the river dont flow. join our vegan chat room btw u can promote ur posts there...
https://discord.gg/WFEg7k