If you had to move to another country but could choose any other country in the world, which country would you choose, and why? Which would be the runner-up? In order for your answer to make sense, you might want to tell us which country you are moving from.
I may have to change this later, but always felt the The Netherlands, because I read how well they take care of their older people. It has been a while, so hope its the same, From the USA to Netherlands. Oh wow, here we are about to move from Texas to Kansas - scary.
Maybe Japan or Okinawa. My aunt's husband was stationed lin Okinawa, she said the people there were nice. I would have preferred Scandinavian, but it got too WOKE or that's what I hear and fast filling up with immigrants who refuse to assimilate.
There are so many places that I am running through my mind, trying to decide the answer to that question ! The place that i would want to go would be Hawaii; but since it is already part of the United States, it probably does not count. Europe appeals to me, and my grandmother came from Germany, but I think that i would have too much trouble adjusting to a place where English is not the first language. Somewhere in the Caribbean would be nice, but they have a lot of hurricanes, although @Martin Alonzo seems to make it though the hurricanes just fine and he loves living where he moved to in the Dominican Republic. The warm weather, and the tropical growing season would be wonderful. I definitely would choose a country where I could live close to the ocean, and one where it was not too far north and had snow and cold winters, so Canada is out …….way too cold there, although beautiful ! After consideration, I would probably move to the Netherlands, too; but because my daughter, Robin, lives there, and she loves living in the Netherlands. She manages the language, so there must be enough English spoken for me to get by, and those old buildings that are hundreds of years old seem to resonate with something inside of me.
Scandinavian nations have many qualities and much beauty. I like this woman who lives in Sweden, but I couldn't take the long night seasons. I really like her video's. My dentist is from Finland which is also very beautiful place. Closer is Greenland and Iceland, which they say history got the names wrong, Iceland is actually greener than Greenland and vice versa. @Yvonne, you may be enjoy this short story with landscape,
I have never been in the Netherlands, but one of my daughters was on a Netherlands tour last month and she thought the people were wonderful. My current opinion based on what she said and what I already have read is highly favorable. When I think of the Netherlands, I think of words like open-minded, tolerant, friendly, straightforward, and transparent. If I had to move out of the United States, the Netherlands would be my third choice. My top two choices are based on my having lived in a place or having been there for a while.
About 10 years ago, I subscribed to International Living magazine. I recall it said Ecuador was the top choice for safety, low cost, health, etc. So, I would rate Ecuador as my fourth choice to live after the Netherlands. Incidentally, If anyone is considering moving overseas, I recommend subscribing to the International Living magazine. Also, google the expatriate communities in the country. The ex-pats are great for telling you about their moving experience to the country, pros and cons, cost of living, etc. For instance, Amsterdam has a very large expat community as well as the other large cities in the Netherlands.
My son has been in almost 70% of the nations and he said out of all the places he's been, Norway is by far the cleanest nation he has ever seen. Of course, I love my country and would stay here. I like the Scandinavian nations the best, land of most of my ancestors, but they are fast becoming too multicultural for me, Japan is still basically Japan last I heard, no warring tribes so to speak. Big plus is unlike America and most nations Japan knows what it is like to be nuked, so don't think they will play that game again.
I watched the second video "From Dream to Reality". Thanks Marie for this video. It is one of best short videos (about 5 minutes) I have seen. Jonna Jinton is an incredible human being. She is a great example of what the best of our species is capable of. Her story is fantastic and should be made into a full-length movie. What an inspiration that would be! Loved it. Again, thanks for link. And here is a link to her web site:https://www.youtube.com/c/jonnajinton/videos.
So what have you read about Costa Rica, John? For some reason, that comes to mind as a top spot for ex-pats. Funny, but when I hear "Ecuador" I think drugs, not stability & safety.
A lot has happened on the drug scene in the past 10 years. Even my beloved Ireland has increasing drug problems. I just googled "Drug Problems in Ecuador" and you are absolutely right. Ecuador does have very serious problems. Thanks for the heads up! Maybe it is a regional issue. My specific place was Quito, Ecuador. So, if I was still serious about moving there, I would go online and check out what the expat community has to say about the drug problem in Quito. Usually, any overseas place worth moving to has a large expat community that help with boots-on-ground information.
For many years I read The Economist as well as a thick quarterly titled Foreign Affairs. Lots of places (if not all of them) are ends of a spectrum. Heck, the southern end of the Philippines was/is controlled by terrorists. I imagine someone visiting American would have one opinion if they visited some random rural town versus visiting the south side of Chicago. It's all regional, huh?
On the Costa Rica question, I did no research. However, my wife and I did a Panama-Canal cruise about 15 years ago and Costa Rica was one of the ports of call. We went ashore and I remember thinking it would have possibilities for overseas retirement. The only other thing about Costa Rica is that Dr. John McDougall (famous doctor specializing in Vegan nutrition in CA) used to lead tours to Costa Rica. I think he liked it a lot, so I believe Costa Rica might be a great overseas retirement place.
Dr McDougall is a great speaker about eating healthy foods, and I have several of his books. I don’t want to throw this thread off topic; but If you are doing plant-based WOE, we do have several threads about that in the health or diet section of the forum. I don’t remember reading that he took groups to Costa Rica, but that sounds interesting, so I will have to check that out. I know he said that he started out as a doctor , working in Hawaii, and that is where he started looking into plant based eating, after seeing how it affected the generations of Hawaiians and Japanese tho lived there.