We Found Our Perfect Retirement in Tavira, Portugal

We Found Our Perfect Retirement in Tavira, Portugal
Tavira’s charming streets, cafés, and relaxed pace of life helped Patty and Dean feel at home from day one.|©iStock/jimfeng

When Patty and Dean Hahn-Carlson flipped through the pages of International Living magazine, they let their minds wander as they wondered where they might like to spend their golden years. But it was a Fast Track Europe conference that they attended in 2024 in Albufeira, Portugal, that sealed the deal.

“We checked out several locations in north and central Portugal but knew that winters for us would be too cold and rainy,” said Patty. “At the conference, we chatted with Terry Coles, IL contributor, and her husband, who invited us and other attendees to an expat meetup in Tavira a few days later. Later, as we walked around the adorable town of Tavira, we knew we’d found our next home.”

Dean explained that they wanted to be fully immersed in the culture, history, and language instead of living in a tourist bubble.

“I have always loved taking long walks alone in the mornings,” he added. “In Tavira, I plan out my walks so that somewhere along the way, there just happens to be a pastelaria where I can stop for coffee and a pastry for a cost of two to three euros. I’ve become such a regular that the waitress knows what I want even before I place my order.”

To live full-time in Portugal, Patty and Dean needed to apply for a resident visa, which required them to secure a 12-month rental. During their visit, they arranged to view several apartments, carefully eyeing them for mold due to Patty’s asthma and sensitivity.

“We even looked at one apartment that was for sale and fell in love with it immediately,” said Patty. “But since we still had a house to sell back in Arizona that was not even on the market yet, we decided to wait.”

Patty and Dean considered other European hotspots like Spain and France, but each time they visited, the locals seemed less friendly than the Portuguese, who are so welcoming.

“Whenever I go to the local hardware store, the clerk, who speaks English, is so helpful. If he does not have what I’m looking for, he tells me where I can go to find it,” Dean said.

Patty and Dean Hahn-Carlson traded Arizona for Tavira, where they embrace Portuguese culture and a slower pace of life.
Patty and Dean Hahn-Carlson traded Arizona for Tavira, where they embrace Portuguese culture and a slower pace of life.

When starting out in a new country, it is always a good idea to rent for a year or more before deciding to buy property. This gives new expats the chance to see if they like the country, the town, the climate, and whether they can handle the bureaucracy, learn the language, and deal with living out of their comfort zone daily.

After several failed attempts at long-term rentals, where Patty experienced breathing problems due to mold, mildew, lack of ventilation, and heat, they decided to purchase an apartment.

Situated in the Porta Nova neighborhood of Tavira, their spacious apartment features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, double-paned windows, and terraces with sea views in the distance. Compared to prices back in the U.S., they were more than happy with the price of €425,000 ($493,000).

Immediately, they hired a handyman who could make a few changes to the bathrooms to make them more age-friendly by adding walk-in showers in place of bathtubs. A fresh coat of paint throughout was something they could handle themselves, so Dean meandered off to the local hardware store.

But he was a bit bewildered to discover that the large vat of paint he purchased did not come with a wooden paint stirrer like in the U.S. And when he questioned the clerk, he was met with a dazed and confused look, only to be told that no such item exists in Portugal. The clerk suggested he go outside to break a branch off a tree to stir the paint.

According to Patty, this is heaven on earth!

“I absolutely love it here,” Patty said with a big smile. “I’ve joined a knitting group where I sit among elderly ladies, and only one speaks English.”

Besides her knitting group, Patty attends several expat meetups, and sometimes Dean goes along if he’s not working on a project at home.

“And I’m really trying to learn Portuguese,” Patty said, “but it is hard, and I realize that I will be studying the language for many years to come.”

Patty loves going into the local butcher shop, called a talho in Portuguese, where the owner knows her by name. They are choosing to live without a car for the time being and prefer to shop at tiny family-run stores called lojas, and the daily mercado, trying to give back to the community.

“Our lives are so calm and peaceful here,” Dean explained. “Everyone I pass on the street makes eye contact and says, ‘olá, bom dia.’

“Even though I love to cook, sometimes I call our favorite restaurant in the morning to order lunch for two to be picked up at 1 p.m. and send Dean to retrieve it,” says Patty. “And the cost of that meal for two that includes soup is just €8.50 ($9.86). And we adore the wine because it tastes so good and costs just $3 to $6 a bottle.”

My interview with Patty and Dean has filled me with a new perspective and the realization that my familiarity with Portugal has blinded me to some of its beauty. Although their apartment is just around the corner from ours, we are living completely different lives. We no longer walk to the local mercado but instead drive to a large supermarket where we stock up on a week’s worth of groceries. Even though we speak decent Portuguese, we typically revert to English when addressing locals out of pure laziness because we know they understand. Perhaps this seasoned expat, who has lived abroad for 15 years, with eight of those being in Portugal, can learn something from new arrivals who want to immerse themselves in the community instead of hanging out with English-speakers.

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