IL Magazine: Discover the World's Best Retirement Haven for 2023 + 15 more
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Being the largest Greek island in the Ionian Sea, and also the birthplace of Odysseus, I was surprised that I had never heard of Kefalonia. I blame Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Corfu, Paros, Antiparos, Naxos, Lesbos, Kos, Zakynthos, Rhodes, Hydra, Aegina, and the dozen other Instagram favorites for stealing its thunder. But this lack of social media exposure may...
Funchal is a great city with tons of restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, and shopping. Flower markets and fruit stands are selling tropical passionfruit hybrids and avocados the size of your head; pastel-pink mansions built on the steep hills by Portuguese settlers centuries ago; a long, wide avenue (Avenida do Mar) that’s similar to Champs-Elysees...
Growing up under the dark sky of the Sonoran Desert, I thought I had seen the Milky Way in all its glory, but then I spent a week in Valle de Elqui, Chile. The blinders had been removed. Who knew the Milky Way had dimensions? I could see the swirl of it, millions of miles long. I could see the inside of it, and the inside of the inside. I saw the layers of lightyears.
The beach isn’t something that comes to mind when you think of Athens. But I love to swim and couldn’t imagine spending winter in a place without a warm beach to go swimming. Glyfada—the Greek capital’s seaside offering—is an absolute stunner.
I had been traipsing around the jungles of Southeast Asia for so long that my adventure cup overflowed. Too many weeks in the forests and temples of the Golden Triangle had me feeling like Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. It was time for a change of scene, so I booked a flight to Bali for some R&R.
White sand and azure water. Stone castles and Turkish coffee. Cosmopolitan cities and organic vegetable markets. Art museums and concert halls. This is Albania. But alpine lakes and glaciers? I must be confusing it with somewhere else. But I’m not! They’re called the Accursed Mountains or, less ominously, the Albanian Alps, and they are the southernmost and highest...
If a city break lasts longer than three days, you run the risk of tangling yourself in the gears of “progress” and “development” otherwise known as “stress” and “noise,” two things you broke free from and vowed to never experience again. So only stay in Budapest for three nights and then get out. This gives you plenty of time to see the sights and enjoy a dozen...
Albania. Research this little country just north of Greece and you’ll see photo after photo of world-class beaches, imposing Ottoman architecture, smiling old men, and herds of shaggy goats. I was sold on it immediately (and not just because of the goats). It’s a small country—about the size of Massachusetts...
“I moved here blind,” says Paul. “I hadn’t even really traveled much outside of Canada before I decided to retire [he worked in insurance], sell my house, and head south. Fifty winters of ice storms were enough. I went searching for the sun and stumbled upon the Garden of Eden.”