A Food-Lover’s Guide to The Mexican Riviera
This past summer, I spent about three months exploring the Mexican Riviera. I cycled along coastal roads. I walked along seemingly endless white-sand beaches…
Best Places
For over 30 years, International Living has searched around the world for retirement destinations that are right for you. We have explored all manner of dream locales, assessing how well they can provide for all your retirement needs—including cost of living, retiree benefits, climate, healthcare, and much more. The result is a comprehensive resource of essential information to help you find your dream retirement overseas.
Where can you find the best quality of life in the world…the best places to live…the best climate…the healthiest places to live…the cheapest? Which countries make it into the lists as the perfect destinations for your retirement…and why? We have all the answers.
From bustling beach towns to small fishing communities, stunning stretches of sand to lush rainforests teeming with life, there’s a huge variety of choice on offer for expats. In all of the destinations we speak about, you can enjoy a relaxed lifestyle, with established expat communities, friendly, welcoming natives, good healthcare, and an ideal climate.
Each destination is desirable in its own way, but they all offer something increasingly hard to come by at home: A good quality of life for a reasonable price.
What are you waiting for? Go ahead and dive into our selection of articles to learn more about the best places in the world to retire.
Best Places Archives
Put Some Magic in Your Life in Mexico
My husband Barry and I love visiting different parts of Mexico, our second home. Every year we explore a different region…and we always search out that area’s pueblos magicos (magic towns). Pueblos Magicos is a government program to promote tourism in towns that offer natural beauty, cultural richness, archeology, folklore, history, cuisine, and the arts...
Croatia’s Six Best Island Havens
Long held as one of the best kept holiday secrets in all of Europe, in recent years Croatia has emerged as one of the most attractive summer destinations. Considering the beauty and the diversity of its sprawling coastline, it truly comes as no surprise...
5 Reasons Slovenia Should Be On Your Bucket List
Not enough people are talking about Slovenia.We’ve all heard of Italy—with its perfectly poised pizzas and its hilltop towns—and France—with its fancy cuisine and Medieval castles.But somehow this small Alpine country tucked away along the Italian and Austrian borders isn’t on as many people’s radar.Which is a shame...
5 Fascinating European Castles You Might Not Know About
Castles...There’s just something magical about them—about their beauty, their strength, the ancient history we can all imagine within their walls. For me, they’re one of the big draws of Europe and one of the reasons I keep taking trains to small Swiss towns and cycling along back roads in the French countryside and hiking up Croatian hills to tumbledown ruins...
Playa Avellanas – A Tranquil Off-the-Beaten-Path Beach Community
Avellanas (which means hazelnut in Spanish) is a virtual paradise tucked away 30-minutes south of the bustle of Tamarindo, on the Nicoya Peninsula. Ask any surfer in the province of Guanacaste if they know of Playa Avellanas and you will get a resounding, “Por supuesto” (of course). But ask the multitude of tourists in the region and you might see mostly head scratches...
Video: Top Mexican Colonial Towns
As a center of Spain’s colonial power and wealth in the Americas for centuries, Mexico has many stunning historical cities. With well-preserved architecture, and narrow cobblestoned streets, you feel as if you’re stepping back in time here...
Off-Season Charm in Perast, Montenegro
It was a beautiful afternoon in Perast, Montenegro, a village tucked away in the heart of Southeastern Europe. Snow-capped mountains pierced the sky over the periwinkle blue bay, oranges and lemons swayed from tree branches, and bees zipped from one wisteria flower to the next. Finding a wooden bench next to the Bay of Kotor...
Where to Find the 5 Best Beaches in Portugal
With more than a thousand miles of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal offers a variety of beaches to suit every taste, for sunning, surfing, kayaking, windsailing, you name it. Here’s a look at five great destinations in various regions of the country.
A Hidden Pacific Ocean Jewel Where You Can Live for $1,000 a Month
I first came to the laidback fishing town of Zihuatanejo (pronounced “zee-watt-an-a-hoe”) eight years ago, to visit an old friend. At the time, I didn’t even know its exact location, until I looked it up. I guess you may not know it either: it’s on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, about 150 miles northwest of Acapulco...