She knew she was ready to leave the US the moment she retired in 2022. For a long time she thought it would be Mexico. Then Ecuador. Then Panama. She researched all three.
But the more she thought about it, the more she realized where she really wanted to be was Europe. Renée loves the culture, the history, and the ability to travel freely across borders.
In 2016, she attended a conference in Portugal’s Algarve region and everything shifted. She fell in love with the coast. Ferragudo, Lagos, Tavira, Vila Real. She came back to Portugal in 2022 and explored Setúbal and Lisbon. The decision was made. It would be Portugal.
But where exactly? The Algarve summers were too hot. Lisbon felt like too much city. Vila Real, which she’d loved, had gotten too expensive. So her relocation lawyer suggested somewhere she had never been before, Porto.
Renée gave her lawyer her non-negotiables. She needed an elevator. Health issues with her legs meant stairs were out. She wanted a balcony, AC/heat, a washer, a full-size fridge, and a one bedroom. It had to come at a price that worked on her Social Security budget. And it must allow dogs.
The apartment that checked every box was in Paranhos, a university neighborhood she knew nothing about. She didn’t choose the location; she chose the apartment. The neighborhood turned out to be a gift. It’s quiet and a wonderful place to land, but she has to take the metro to reach downtown.
In December of 2024, at 68 years old, Renée arrived in Porto with her dog, her suitcases, and no one waiting for her on the other end.
It was not seamless.
She got to her apartment and the water hadn’t been turned on.
The SIM card she first purchased turned out only to be good for one month, and she didn’t know to go to Vodafone for a proper plan. She couldn’t call cabs. More than once she stopped young women on the street and asked them to call her an Uber, and every single time, they did so without hesitation.
That’s the thing about Portugal. For every logistical headache you find yourself in, the country hands you a kindness you didn’t expect.
On one of her earlier visits, a stranger in the Algarve drove her to her hotel. She didn’t know the man but asked him where she could catch a cab, while lugging a suitcase.
“Hop in, I’ll drive you there,” he responded cheerily.
When Renée told her friend what happened her friend screeched, “you got into a car with a stranger? That’s crazy.”
But on the way to her hotel the man ran into his wife walking down the street and introduced the two. Portugal is safe in a way that’s difficult for most people, especially Americans, to comprehend.
In Porto, Renée started yoga classes and met people. She joined the group Internations. She made a good friend at IKEA, a Spanish woman she still sees regularly. I met Renée through YouTube.
She watched some of my videos and reached out to me. We’ve become very good friends because of it. Renée is a self-proclaimed introvert and her circle is small, but it’s genuine.
Her daily life is simple and full. She has no car. She takes Uber, Bolt, the metro, and buses, or she walks. Her neighborhood has everything within reach: supermarkets, a mall with a health food store and a bookstore, pharmacies, and restaurants that stay open late for the university students. For healthcare, she uses a wonderful concierge service called Serenity, to help her navigate the Portuguese system. She’s walked her dog at 2 a.m. and felt completely safe.
When friends back home hear about her life, they always say the same thing: You’re so brave. I could never do what you’re doing.
Renée flips it around every time.
“I couldn’t do what you’re doing, staying in one place. We’re not trees,” she says.
“I’ve always been a voracious reader. You travel to all these places in books and I wanted to go to those places. I wanted to actually smell the air and hear a different language. I wanted an adventure. I wanted to grow as a person.”
She pauses, then adds what might be the simplest and most convincing endorsement of all: “I have no regrets. I’m not crazy about the winter rain, but it’s better than the East Coast snow I left behind. And it’s a very small price to pay.”
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