We had ZERO expectations. It BLEW us AWAY! (Matosinhos Portugal) 

What a surprise that you are now in Portugal. I lived in Porto for two years back in the early nineties working as an English teacher. Americans were a rare sight in Portugal in those days and it was easy to get a resident visa, which I later changed into citizenship. Now there are thousands of Brazilians applying for residency and many more trying to turn that into citizenship. My wife and I were EFL teachers and when our two-year contracts were up we drove around the country looking for the ideal small city for setting up our own English language school. We had to find a place that had a fairly large population but still had no school to compete with. We finally settled on Chaves, way up in the north on the border with Galicia. We had always wanted to live in a small semi-rural town, but one that had all the amenities and a population interested in learning English. We started in Chaves in 1993, then expanded to Vila Real in 1995. Porto, for me, is an interesting place to visit but not for living. It is just too congested and rents have skyrocketed in the last few years. It now has the same cost of living as Vigo and A Corunha, mainly due to the high rent. The problem is that the Spanish purchasing power is 25% higher than that of the Portuguese. I have been to Matosinhos several times and I would never ever contemplate living there. Portugal has so many medium-sized cities like Aveiro, Viseu, Viana do Castelo, Coimbra, Figueira da Foz, and Évora, where life is less stressful but you are still close enough to go into a large urban area like Porto and Lisbon for entertainment and cultural events. My wife and I are also Spanish speakers so living on the border with Spain gives us the chance to keep our Spanish (Galego though is not that easy) at a fairly fluent level.

Ola Amelia and JP. We have been following you for the past couple of years. We currently own a home in Cuenca (which is for sale), but have now lived in Portugal for almost two years. We purchased our home in Cuenca in 2012, with the intention of retiring in Cuenca. It's a longer story to explain why we decided to NOT move to Cuenca (from California), but suffice it to say Portugal is fantastic! We live in Castanheira de Pera, in central Portugal (90 minutes south of Porto). If you ever want to hear more about how we have compared life here with our 20 trips to Cuenca between 2010-2020, and our love for Ecuador and particularly Cuenca, then send a message. All the best to you as you continue your travels.

I love that your priorities are usually safety, cleanliness and walking around - that's exactly what I like to learn about! 👍

I’m from Ecuador and live in Portugal. We love Portugal. It’s beautiful, safe, the people are lovely. Please come and visit us!

Ecuadorian living in Portugal here! I love this country so much but I’ll probably go back in 1-2 years because it is getting so expensive 😢 I’m looking forward to Argentina or Uruguay

Before you guys get too excited about Portugal as a long term residence you need to understand the tax ramifications for expats from the loss of the NHR at the end of the year. In my case, my effective income tax rate under NHR went from 18% to 48% without NHR! Portugal is a beautiful spot but I certainly cannot justify increasing my tax burden significantly to live there now. Hopefully the Portuguese government will come to their senses sometime in the future to reverse their decision.

Welcome to Porto! My husband and I are Americans who have been living in Porto since September. Next month we are going to Olon, in part because of your videos. Portugal is indeed a beautiful country. And you are right, Portuguese is a lot more difficult than Spanish for native English speakers to pronounce. But the people are so patient.

We'd traveled to Europe three times about 20 years ago (once for 5 months) but not including Portugal. We invited relatives to help celebrate my 80th birthday in Lisbon. We spent a week in Porto then had an airbnb in Lisbon, in the Baixa for the month of June. With visitors, we needed to sleep six so it was a splurge, especially downtown. We looked for a volume discount and found a place that was about 300 euros a night, but 3,000 for the month. We had three families join us during the month - two daughters and a nephew. It was a spectacular location and a super facility, upstairs over a coffee shop, too. Finding that 30 days was cheaper than 11 made it feel like a heckuva deal to find the space we wanted. We loved both Porto and Lisbon. The hills in the main part of Porto were a challenge. I'd heard of Matosinhos but we didn't check it out (a tour of the Douro Valley was our Porto excursion.) Thank you for video. Looking forward to your European adventures.

I spent last Nov/Dec in the Porto/Braga area and the rain was relentless. Pouring buckets for days on end. I hope you got a chance to visit Braga...it is beautiful and very walkable, with a lot of culture for its size, and good access to nature (though a bit far from the beach).

proud of how you pronounced ''matozinyosh'' at the beginning,

Also, be sure to check the stats of smokers in specific countries and cities. It's not true that all Europeans smoke more -- many EU countries have had bans in place for a while in restaurants and bars. It really depends where you're at. I worked all over Scandinavia and rarely encountered smokers in the places I frequented.

Great video. My wife and I retired to portugal 5 years ago. Purchased a house and live in a village about 1 hour north of lisbon. Has worked out well and we haven't looked back.

This is so cool that you’re in Portugal and giving us your review of it. 😊

How fun! This is an exciting undertaking for you. Thanks for taking us along. Can’t wait to see the next two location choices. Much luck 🍀

Thank you for your smiles, happiness, and togetherness in your videos!!! You look great!!

Stayed in Portugal in 1988 for a couple of months , very inexpensive at that time . Easy to get around by Bus . favorite Cities , Nazare`, Cascais , the Algarve . so many great little towns inland . The Portuguese are so Wonderful and Kind .

Great to see you in Portugal! If you want to see some incredible surfing, come down to Nazaré. They have a large number of expats from around the world. We chose São Martinho do Porto just down the road, much calmer and family oriented. Hope to se you walking along the marginal. 😊

Thanks, and looking forward to more! I hope you’ll be examining living in Spain as well. That’s where my heart is.

Good stuff! Thank you.

We are very excited to follow along as you look for a new city. We appreciate your information about whether a place is walkable, public transit, affordability, and how they compare to other places you have visited. We too prefer to not own a car or listen to traffic. Your videos will help us to narrow down where we should check out next as we too look for the best place to live or to be a snowbird. We can’t wait to see more places in Portugal! Hope you also check out Spain.

You are both adventure seeking junkies and good for you. Have a wonderful adventure and enjoy hearing your comments and observations. Very nice.

Looking forward to seeing more of your time in Portugal.

Huge history especially exploration buff. Finally went to Portugal last April. Loved Portugal, esp the history and safety. TAP Air refused credit on covd but other than that, it was great. Tip: get a 72 hour transport pass in Lisbon as hills are killer(worse than SF) ride to top and walk back exploring. Love your channel. Have been to Italy 10x so beware, it is addicting!

Thanks was very informative!

Great informative video

The Porto metro has stations in Matosinhos which makes for a convenient and inexpensive way to get to the city center. The bus system is also usable. Walk down the beach to Foz do Douro to see another wonderful community on the coast to consider.

Great to see you're on the move. I think this will give your channel a boost as you compare the pros and cons of different countries and regions.

Love love love Portugal. So glad you’re there. Definitely a goal living destination. Thanks for all your insights. 🇵🇹

No place in the world is perfect but Portugal is pretty damn close. Its the most peaceful country ive been to and ive been to many. Lisbon is just spectacular as is Peniche.

Love you both ! Look great! Thank you , you WOWED me!

Northern Portugal is really beautiful, and close to Spain as well. But oof, the winters are depressing and the beaches too cold for swimming at any time of year (though you'll still see a few brave locals swimming in the summer time). A much prettier city (imo) in Northern Portugal is Viana do Costelo. Happy travels.

We are arriving there next week. Spending a couple of weeks in Porto before beginning our several months stay in Europe. Love to follow along thank you ..

Oh snap! my wife and I are going to Porto in January! This video is some super awesome timing. lol. :-) Thanks for sharing.

Too bad your not there during the best weather late April through early October.... love love Portugal and the people are what make it

I was on a redeye flight from the East Coast and liked it as usual. I did not have any jet lag and hit the ground running. Glad I left in early Oct before the rain, ironically. Glad you're getting around out there.

Excited to see you're Portugal videos. We are visiting in April & watching the NHR changes to see about retirement. If you go back, would love to see the Algarve or Madeira or Azores! Great video!

Well done guys, lovely video.

Hit the Azore Islands on the way back to Ecuador! My wife grew up there. It's beautiful

Love Portugal❤

My daughter and her family moved to Lisbon in February and I visited in April. In their neighborhood there was dog poop all over the calçada. I absolutely loved it there, despite stepping in a land mine, haha! It was São Sebatião, if you might be interested. The shopping and restaurants were fantastic, as were access to the Metro and buses. And I ALWAYS felt safe, which was important to me traveling as a solo woman. They have since moved to Porto so I'm looking forward to exploring there next time i visit! Enjoy your exploration, I'm looking forward to seeing your travels!❤

I am soooo happy you're visiting Portugal! I can't wait to see where you will settle. Since the NHR is ending, this will drive many retirees away.😢

Yay !! Amelia and JP great to see you guys in Europe...looking forward to some great vlogs from Europe

So happy for you two! Europe looks good on you. 😉

Croatia is definitely interesting.

Thanks for sharing and, welcome to the old continent!! I just came home last week, from a visit in the wonderful Azores islands (100% worth a visit - all 9 of them) and, as I can read someone else here wrote, please be aware of the Portugeese NHR!! Likewise, before you decide to settle permanently, check out the Portugeese minimum wage and, compare with house prices and rentals...!!! This may not have any direct impact on you....for the time being but, as the minimum wage is very low compared to both rentals and prices for houses in Portugal, it could have a long term...(sure shocked me this time in Portugal) impact...definitely worth following - especially because it's up in the government there right now! And finally....don't forget Lisbon and, enjoy 🤗 Portugal us beautiful 🌹🌹🌹

thank you

When you get to Porto (and Lisbon) there are some very strict building codes. All the buildings have tile facias and (sometimes fake) stone lintels around the windows and doors. And watch out for the little black and white stone sidewalks, they get really slippery when wet.

I have heard Portugal has houses that are just really damp and cold in the winter and hard to get heated up. Be good if you reported on that as you go along while you are there.

Great video. Not unlike the Costa del Sol except here in the Costa del Sol it hardly ever rains. The Torrox area is the place where there are the most sunny days in a year in the whole world.

Thank you

Go to Aveiro they have Costa Nova Beach

Lindo Portugal 🌹🖐️🇪🇨

So nice to see y'all doing this! Portugal's on my list sans the 🚬 areas.Anticipation is extreme for me to see where you two will settle in ☺️

Cool, great choice. Surf break looked really crowded and cold. Looking forward to more of Europa.......Aloha

So glad you guys came to check Portugal out! 🙂 I've been living in Lisbon for the last 5 years, but with the increasing rent and housing prices and the tourist crowds I wouldn't recommend Lisbon these days. Another negative of Lisbon is that you will find plenty of dog poop on its streets. Fortunately there are many smaller, charming (and cheaper) towns in Portugal. I hope Leiria was on your radar.

Oh the tiles in Portugal (particularly Lisbon, but also Porto) get very slick on inclines as well. It can be pretty treacherous at times.

WHOAH! You flew from Ecuador to Newark and then onto Portugal …

There's a RU-vidr who moved with his family to Portugal. Residency was easy. They loved the health care system and they found that going between public and private a seamless experience. They were paying $1,500 a year to privately insure a family of four. Not bad compared to the U.S.

You both look So Good!!!! Gorgeous couple! Safe travels....yeah Spain next I think their taxes may be better than Portugal's...go for the smaller towns for sure.

Which countries are on your list? I know Portugal has had some recent changes in policies for expats, so it is not on my list any more. I am curious about how you selected the countries you are considering for living abroad? Personally, I am looking for a place that has policies in place that encourage expats. But weather, taxes, and cost of living are also high. So excited to follow you on this adventure.

I love this! I'm so glad to see you in a new location. You said that we could suggest a place to check out - Poland would be on my wish list. My son and daughter-in-law live there, and I've wondered whether it would be feasible for me to retire there!

TIP: Portugal has just launched a 50 Euro monthly national rail pass. You can travel the whole country non-stop for 50 Euros, fantastic deal. So save yourselves some money guys. The rail system is spot on!

Would love to see you add Bansko, Bulgaria and Sarandë, Albania to the list of places you'd be checking out and see those videos!

Try Braga, Portugal. It’s less than an hour’s drive from Porto.

Glad to see you guys making videos and exploring new countries. (I hope it's not because Ecuador is not safe now!) Keep up the great work A lot of effort must go into your videos. You guys are a good example of what American expats should be like.

Go to Spain next but not the the touristy Madrid or Barcelona.

I have been looking at Mexico for 3 years, and Portugal for 2!

Great video. Portugal is intriguing... other than the changes in the tax code that impact expats. I do think that there are many areas of the US with similar or lower rental prices to the ones you noted. Not Denver.... NYC... LA, ETC.. and I have heard that Porto prices overall are much higher than what you qouted.

Just came back from Portugal back to the US. Mainly spent time in Porto and Lisbon. My first impression about most of the Portuguese people I interacted with is that they were really rude, mainly my wife and I had bad experiences with people such as restaurant servers, customer service at the train stations, airports, etc. In Porto we actually saw human feces on the road, next to a dumpster. For years my wife and I have been planning on a retirement abroad, Portugal has always been on the top of our list however we are reconsidering based on our recent experience. We found Spain to be much cleaner and a friendlier place to be at. Also, be cautious with the services such as Bolt or Uber, for some reason drivers accept the order and then cancel it right away, we spent 45 minutes at Porto airport trying to get transportation but they kept canceling the order for no reason.

I hope that you both enjoy your first European destination.

We were intent on moving to Portugal in 2026, but with the latest changes to the tax code our immigration attorney let us know our rate would go from 10% to 28%. While you can't blame Portugal taxing expats at the same rate as locals, it does make retirement there more questionable. For those that are curious, Portugal's official tax rates are listed online.

Matoshonhos is awesome just like other parts in Portugal, especially the boardwalk area close to the beach. But Portugal has issues especially high taxes. But then their health care is among the best. I miss the awesome Bifanas all over Matosinhos.

Median rental prices in Florida are a couple hundred higher.

We just moved to Braga while working on oir residency visas. It is near Porto and quite a beautiful city, and much more affordable than the city you visited. Been watching your videos for years and Ecuador is still a place id love to visit. Have safe travels!

Try Antas, very residential

check out austria and Vienna

I did forget about many people smoking in Europe. One thing I like about Ecuador is that almost nobody smokes. The few people I've seen smoking have always been outdoors.

Obviously, this trip is a big investment for your channel I hope the weather cooperates Turkey and Bulgaria, too, perhaps?

Hi guys have a good time listen JP about your breathing problem at high altitude problem when i first went to Ecuador 51 years ago i had the same problem but i found out a way to get around it you ever wonder how most people in the Andes survive high altitude they chew on plants that will give your body nitric oxide which in turn gives the body lots of pure oxygen not only that great for overall health another thing try to breath through your nose all time it will fill your blood with lots of nitric oxide which is needed in your blood it works for me and thousands of people well guys enjoy take care.

Might be a bit too wet and cool for an ideal permanent base. Annual average rainfall is around 1,200 mm and mean temperature is 15 celsius. Might ok for some, but coming from Australia I am used to generally good weather.

Surfers in 60 degree weather is just a typical mid-summer day in San Francisco

Nice to see you that close. It's funny to see life from other people's views. Ancient pavements are a nightmare here in Europe.

Check out Croatia

I'd be very interested in a vlog from Figueira da Foz along the silver coast.

We're very interested in Portugal and this video was especially helpful! Although I've wondered how the Portuguese feel about all the expats and wonder if there is resentment of U.S. and possibly other expats, because of the housing prices being driven up. We're also wondering about Timișoara Romania. Thanks so much for all your videos! We really enjoy them and can't wait to see where else you explore.

We managed to get an amazing rate at the Four Points you stayed at, and are enjoying the area for 8 days. We like the area so much, we may do some apartment shopping.

Hello Amelia and JP! Thank you for this video, I have what I hope you take as constructive criticism about it. I have not seen your videos since before the summer, and when I saw the thumbnail for this video of the both of you in Portugal, I had to watch. My wife and I have had our plans changed by the real world forces at play, for the two places we were considering becoming expats in (one of them was Ecuador). We have seen many lists of the "best places to retire", and besides Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico or Ecuador, Portugal is usually on those lists. We just don't have a lot of background on Portugal, as we have not seriously considered it (yet). Okay, here you go: 1) I felt most of the things discussed in this video should have been in a second or third video. What I mean by that is there was not much to go on to seriously consider moving across the Atlantic for. 2) For an introductory video showing why Portugal should be considered a retirement option, there should have been more cost-of-living information. You discussed some rents, and a meal (the two Poke bowls and juices), but that was about it. 3) To seriously consider Portugal, the first thing I want to know is what is the Visa situation? Is there a retirement Visa? What is the latest on the Golden Visa program? What are the requirements for monthly income to retire there? 4) The second thing would be what is the health insurance situation? Are there private as well as public options? What is the cost for a couple for the year? How good is the medical care there? 5) Then you get into the day-to-day, month-to-month costs. Cost of renting, cost of buying, utilities, cell phone, internet and groceries are the main things I would like to know about. It is a lot of information, but as I stated, these are the first things I research for another country. Especially the Visa and Retirement program requirements, as well as the medical care situation. I'm looking forward to the rest of your videos about Portugal, thanks again! Marc and Mary

It looks really pretty there! How do you feel about expat taxes rising in January in Portugal?

Hey, una pregunta que hotel y que ciudad recomiendan a ir, nombre del hotel y el costo. Y logico seguro

Good to see you here. I retired and moved to Lisbon last year. It's a great place, just not super cheap, but when you count medical care and transportation it's a good deal. You may have heard, Portugal is going to end the discounted tax scheme (NHR) soon, and Portuguese taxes are quite high. I'd like to see what you find in Greece if you have a chance on this trip. Enjoy your stay!

Hola gracias por compartir..Y el predio de un dormitorio.Ra rentar cuanto cuesta..???

Croatia is supposed to be a nice place with beautiful beaches across from Italy. Water is beautiful in the Med. I think Croatia is on the Adriatic sea but not sure.

Portugal is a huge surfing destination.

Hey guys, my wife and I are long time listeners if you guys have thought about going to Ecuador we live in Portugal. Would love to meet you guys for coffee if possible. We are about 45 minutes away from Lisbon can meet you guys in Lisbon if you are ever 1:27 1:43 thank you

Please check out Poland sometime! I haven't seen any information saying that it is a good place for expats, but my son and daughter-in-law live there, and I can't help but think I might emigrate there someday!

Thanks for sharing video, we missed you in Ecuador. Hopefully the incoming administration will get a handle on the crime problem that’s been killing the economy. But thanks to you, I’ve been living in Cuenca for over three years. Safe travels and look forward to your next video. Take care.

Portugal seems like a nice place to visit and the food looks delicious too. Have you both ever been to Bolivia or Korea? Thanks for the great tips about each location. David. ✌🏼❤💋

Being one of the EU countries that also uses Euro, it's a plus for Portugal but also a disadvantage for its own development. Due to freedom of movement within EU, as soon as the university students graduate, they are going to work and live in Germany, France, northern Europe for higher salary. Same as in Bulgaria and Romania, I met quite a few university students from Bulgaria, they have no intention of staying in Bulgaria but to work and live in those wealthier countries. They said they are taking the advantage of Bulgaria being EU country, in fact since joining EU, Bulgaria population has declined from 8 million to 6 million, and will be loosing more. It remains me of the US state of West Virginia.

Hope u try others zonas like Coimbra Lisboa ,Alentejo end Algarve ofc lesser Rain , have fun gl, mas é Madeira island o Azores

Wet Suits!