The “working snowbird” experience goes beyond tourism. You get to live in the culture.

Living in Valencia, Spain, for three months last winter was not just a welcome retreat from the cold Canadian winter… but great fun, too. Fallas, a city-wide, week-long party in March, served as the fitting and noisy climax.

Scores of neighborhood groups erect huge, cartoon-like sculptures (the fallas), in the streets. Fantastically attired locals parade about, and there are fireworks morning, noon and night.

Most people wait until they retire to fly away from the northern winters. But for the last three years, my wife Karen and I have escaped to southern Italy or Spain for the worst months of the Canadian winter… and just worked from there. We return home, tanned and invigorated, just in time for spring.

In Valencia this year,  it was a rare day the sun didn’t shine, and daytime highs mostly stayed above 60 F, even in January. (Of course, if you crave even hotter weather, southern Europe won’t cut it, but in Europe you’ll pay more for balmier climes.)

If you’re one of the growing number of knowledge workers who “telecommute” to a job or work for themselves, as I do, becoming a working snowbird and living abroad for the winter is feasible.

I can do my job as a freelance journalist, writing articles about technology-related subjects for Canadian and U.S. online and print publications, anywhere I have an Internet connection good enough to support VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) phone service. I conduct telephone interviews with sources back home and file my stories by email.

Who else could do this? Web designers, programmers, consultants, commercial artists… more and more people are working in areas where telecommuting is possible.

Finding accommodation for the winter has never been a problem. In most places we’ve gone, apartments and houses are available for tourists to rent by day or week, usually fully equipped. Landlords will rent for longer in the off season and almost always for less. (Don’t be afraid to ask for a discount.)

You can find properties easily on the Internet. Not all will have high-speed Internet, but if you’re renting for several months, landlords may be willing to install it for you.

No one can guarantee a good experience renting online, of course, but Karen and I have been doing it for over a decade now for vacations and longer trips. We’ve almost always had excellent experiences, and never a really bad one.

This year, we paid a little over $2,000 a month for a large, fully-furnished and -equipped two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on the top floor of a six-floor building three blocks from the sea. Next year, we’ll be paying less for a nicer flat in Valencia.

Bank-rolling our 13-week winter sojourn cost about $13,000 this year for everything, including airfare. But that’s not a lot more than we’ve paid in the past for much shorter European touring vacations. And, of course, that includes day-to-day expenses we would have had at home: groceries, meals out, and entertainment.

Home is London, Canada, where we were both born and have lived most of our lives. We own a small home, a suburban bungalow.

Food costs overall are slightly less at home, although some things in Spain—local produce, alcohol and meals out, for instance—are much less. We paid about $120 a week for groceries, including alcohol. A weekend lunch out with three courses and one drink each cost about about $35 for two.

Our landlords, in every case, have been delightful, going above and beyond to ensure we were happy and comfortable. Last year, the landlady’s charming English-speaking son dragged himself from bed after an all-night party to let us into our apartment when we’d locked ourselves out.

This year’s landlord was in Scotland but always available on Skype. He had installed a brand-new, 42-inch flat-panel TV and new heating systems just before we arrived.

This is not to say everything will always be perfect, or has been for us. European apartments are often chilly in winter by North American standards, for example. (Look for properties that advertise central heating.)

In Valencia this year, we used the superb new subway system to get to and from the airport and around town. It costs less than $1 a trip. We also used the low-cost, city bike-sharing system—less than $25 a year—and Valencia’s network of off-street bike paths.

The “working snowbird” experience goes beyond tourism. You get to live in the culture. And when you stay in a place long enough, you also have a better chance of catching the special events like Fallas.

And if you get lonely, there are English-speaking expat communities you can connect with in many southern European countries. We kept busy with work, walking, biking, photography, painting, sightseeing, hosting visitors…and there was  plenty of opportunity to learn the local lingo. Karen took an intensive two-week beginner’s Spanish course last year.

In the long evenings, we sometimes played movies recorded on a portable hard drive before leaving home, or streamed from the Internet. Or we broke out the Scrabble board. We found life enjoyable in Spain… and blessedly free of snow.

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Editor’s Note: This article was taken from a past issue of International Living’s monthly magazine. To get full access to all past and future articles and to receive the magazine in the mail or online each month, you can subscribe here.

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