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Hello,

We arrived to Portugal almost 8 months ago. We went on lots of road trips and stayed in many cities. The south of Portugal is very warm and the north cold and lots of rain, it is so gorgeous near Porto, lots of gorgeous vineyards, and farms and ocean towns. We were mostly interested in living near the beach. So it depends on what type of lifestyle you are hoping to retire in. Do you want land to farm, or a beach side condo?

I'm thinking near the beach but not beachfront or tourist town, I was looking around Porto it seemed a happy medium.

Silver coast is a lovely area near to caldas da Reinha.
Mixed weather but more on the cool side with a slight breeze on hot days.
Caldas has everything you will need but regarded as a small cultural city.

We will be relocating to St. Martinho do Porto in a few weeks.

Feel free to contact me.

Buds

In addition to the three  grand a month income ( around twice the Portuguese average income - so generous ) do you also have sufficient capital to  pay for a house / flat outright ? 

Or will you be paying house rental  out of the  three grand a month ?

Very important difference between the two situations. ( You might need to spend  around a thousand dollars a month to rent somewhere  pleasant with a bit of outdoor space.  And don't think utilities are cheap either - they are not !

If this move is not to be for a  couple of years then you have time to investigate locations thoroughly.

Suggest  base yourselves for a month at Caldas, as has been suggested, or Óbidos.   You will need a car to explore the area.

if you are looking to purchase, rather than to rent, your home, then check out various areas and various  realtors.  Hopefully you will establish a relationship of trust with a realtor and then you can leave her / him with the task of keeping an eye out for a house or flat which would suit you - whether inside a town, or outside with more space, and so on.   Exploration is essential but so also is guidance from a trusted interlocutor who KNOWS  the area and what is possible on whatever budget.

Very good advice almirantereis. It is a huge difference between renting and buying.

I believe that Americans have the disadvantage that everybody will try to really rip them off. They are all rich, aren't they? I think the Silver Coast is a good idea. We like the Torres Vedras area, because it is so close to Lisbon and not too close to the Atlantic (20 minutes drive). Still also only 30 minuts to Caldas.

In my opinion Portugal is a car country. Without it you will be stuck in your place and not be able to see all the good sites that there are in this small country.

We just moved to the Algare in Tavira about three weeks ago and  we don't have vehicle and find that the train is a great way to explore the other cities.  We may eventually have a vehicle shipped so we can explore the sites away from the train station and the country side.  Cars are very inexpensive to rent here though so you can use the train system to get to each city then rent a car for further explorations.  You can also buy a home/apartment and still be within your $3000 budget however,  our dollar doesn't go as far here so that would be my task to look at so that you can try to get the best conversion for your money. We wanted to be in a warmer area so we chose the Algarve but we have also been to Porto and it is a beautiful city. Utilities are not too bad.  Cell phone plans are about the same as the US  We have to buy propane here to heat our water and to cook with so you may want to ask those questions when looking for a place.  The bottle is about 26 euros.  I think water and electric are around $60 but that too depends on how much you use. We don't have ac in our apartment and only use fans and its been fine.  We also don't have a clothes dryer and hang them which has been nice.   If you want help with finding a place,  I will help you as long as its in the Algarve area close to Tavira,  as I was in property management in Nevada and have a couple of agents here I work with.

Yes it's somewhat a car country. I do not have a car in Portugal and rely on public transportation all the time. It may be easy to go to Lisbon or Porto from where I live but as far as Nazarre for instance, it's ridiculous, there is only 1 bus a day in the middle of the afternoon which is ridiculous.

I don't want to buy a car so yes I am limited but I try to deal with it the best I can.

Julia