GeniB

Keep posting Rak....and will catch up with you on here good luck

sandyeo

Hello Rak
I have just returned from a short visit to our house Castro Marim. Have you decided to buy there?

Rak1947

No we did buy in Tavira Miramar area.

We went to Castro Marim 15 days ago it seems like Hiroshima.

Jonny22

Hopefully that got lost in translation. Are you sure you were In Castro Marim? It's a quaint town especially in summer when they hold the medieval festival.

ItsNeverTooLate

Hello all,

Re the discussion about Castro Marim/Hiroshima I must admit I've never been to either place.

However if Castro Marim is the place depicted in this video, it doesn't really appear like I would expect Hiroshima to look. Certainly not in the centre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC5VZIaJU14

Well done Rak1947 on your purchase and I hope you enjoy the house. It's good going to have completed the task within a month of starting the thread.

Rak1947

I am sorry I admited that the house we went to look for was in Quinta da Cerca
Devasted Nagasaki part of Hiro no sorry Castro Marim.

When we went trough Castro Marim to reach Quinta da Nada we had a poor vew of castro Marim.

But try Quinta da nada and you will see the desolation

sandyeo

Hi Rak
You certainly made me laugh !!! We actually like the fact that we do not have lots of noisy people around and enjoy hearing the bees buzz and the birds sing!
Yes we would like to see all the houses finished but then there will be more people ( and dogs ) !

Smartcar

Can anybody think of the downsides that there might be living in portugal? Really want to retire there but very worried I might catch a cold :-( Have read books.......still not sure. Please help :-)

carvoeiro

cars are expensive
thats about it for me

Smartcar

Hi Carvoeiro well is that it cannot be bad :-) how long have you lived in Portugal? Have heard hospitals are not so good unless you pay private.Nurses have walked out recent due to lack of pay.This was reported on the tv news last week. :-(Any body else got any concerns about everyday living in Portugal?

GeniB

Hi Smartcar...Healthcare in Portugal is excellent! don't know where you heard otherwise?..Like all things though it is subject to variations according to where you live and access etc...Plus what you can afford...The basic healthcare I would say is better than the UK..the private care is top class ...at least where I live which is close to Lagos
Portugal isnt a huge place so I would advise you to at least visit two major areas before you finally make up your mind...because you require quite diverse things...Lisbon and the coastal areas around will provide you with plenty of places to find sea and sand,golf,and excellent shopping centres..It is however more expensive and the weather is colder in the winter..less English is spoken
The Algarve is about hour and a half drive from end to end...That is faro to Sagres...so you are never really that far from the airport in Faro wherever you choose...Shopping however is concentrated mainly at the Faro end..but with shopping centres in Guia,Portimao, and of course the towns of Tavira,Loule, and Lagos have good shops...could mention a few more but those are the main ones
In the end it comes down to personal taste .I always would advise someone to rent for six months before they buy/make a decision..We did and ended up buying in the one place people advised us was a bit 'clique' Turned out not to be at all and we are delighted with our choice..It can be quite difficult to get long term rent in Portugal...usually out of season..so might take awhile..but well worth it....Good luck

carvoeiro

We found the hospital and local doctor system here excellent
I have cancer and in comparison to the UK i can't praise it highly enough
Here its a caring profession, people have time and compassion
20 minute chats and thorough health checkups are the norm
In the UK 5 minutes with doctors who'd clearly rather be on the golf course counting their money was the norm

Nettienut

It's almost impossible to actually get a face to face appointment with my GP in the UK unless I want to wait for three weeks - although they're now doing telephone consultations, bookable a fortnight in advance, wonder who thought that one up If it's an emergency, I can phone up and go on the triage list and hope they can fit me in with a locum GP Glad to hear that if the need should arise in PT, I'll be in better hands and at least be able to actually see someone when I want to

coleio

In the south east UK last week phone GP and get appointment for the same afternoon or next day. Saturday in Portugal near Pombal the firemen were stopping all the traffic and asking for cash. Which in context means bugger all. You cannot generalise by taking one single incident and expanding it to cover a country, beware of postings on here where data is not supplied to support an argument. People, organisations, estate agents try and sell properties for a variety of reasons with a variety of time scales and some will accept offers and some will not and some are undecided and change their minds. What does one sale where the accepted offer was 12% lower than the asking price prove other then there was one sale where the accepted offer was 12% lower than the asking price?? You are wasting your time on here if you take any notice of any of the un supported opinions - even the racially motivated ones. And I am not going to use spurious “I spoke to an Estate agent inna bar and he told me house prices blaaa blaaaa” crap.

newintavira

Has the whole of the East Algarve disappeared since we went on holiday?


My wife is pregnant. After ten phone calls (in fluent Portuguese), and four fruitless visits to Tavira Centro do Saude which each took upwards of 3 hrs, we ended up paying for our first ultrasound privately as it was overdue.

Don't expect too much from Tavira surgery. It's great care once you get seen, but the admin side is a disaster.