Re: Where to start
 

As I said. You become social hermits here. On a few occasions you may bump into English speakers here but not into our age group.

We arrived in June and that is the in season so we had to do hotels and air B&B stuff for a month until our estate agent found this flat. It was in my view miraculous that they found it.
Winter is the best time for long term rentals.
We can read Portuguese from the shop labels and understand it but only in English pronunciations..

Re: Where to start
 

Thats Why areas like the Algarve are far more popular with Brits ,also having a much higher percentage of Portuguese wh speak and understand English..
This is reflected in property prices .

Re: Where to start
 

Nah - there are vast tracts of land north of Porto in the provinces of Minho and Tras-Os-Montes, each with hospital facilities, public and private, dotted about the various cities.

On other matters, I would second what has been said about owning a car if you're going to be any distance from a major hub / away from a rail link. Public transport in rural areas can be ok up to a point but 4 buses a day in either direction can be a bit restrictive. Not having taxis running at night is a bit of a bummer, too. I speak as a former non-driver who passed a UK driving test 1 day prior to emigrating - best thing I ever did.

I would also agree that learning the language is an absolute must but in actual fact I have quite a number of fluent English speakers around me - this was an area of very high emigration to all over and a number of the returnees are back from Canada or the States. You wouldn't want to be restricted to talking only to English speakers, though. The good news is there seems to be a very high proportion of Portuguese who like an opportunity to talk the hind leg off a donkey, so in-the-wild listening practice is always on tap and they don't seem to mind one little bit if you're not holding up your end of the conversation.

Good start :thumbup: North of Porto, swearing definitely counts for a great deal - you just have to learn which exceptionally rude and unacceptable-anywhere-else words are ok here and which are not.

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Nah Eric. No hospitals north of Porto. Some clinics come nursing stations with ambulance services only. Even Braga transports patients to Porto.The hospital here in Viana is as busy as an airport with the emergency section handling about 20 patients at any given time. I spent a full day there.

Re: Where to start
 

Patients get transported from one hospital to another on occasions for a variety of reasons.

I know what Viana hospital is like from personal experience, too, my wife and I having had occasion to use its services more than once. We have also used other hospital facilities , public and private and there are plenty we haven't which I know for a fact offer a more or less full range of services in house.

This Wikipedia entry on the subject gives an idea : Hospitals

Re: Where to start
 

What about living on a yacht it motorboat in a matina, maybe Lagos? Relatively inexpensive.

We live in Lagos ( villa) but have several liveaboard yachtie friends. Many of them were on a circumnavigation but got to Lagos and stayed put,; such a nice plsve.

Re: Where to start
 

Hi SaffyRosie,

I like your idea!!! Can you tell me more, or point me in the right direction, about living on a boat in Lagos?

Thanks!

Re: Where to start
 

I am in a similar position to Saxon52 - considering moving to Portugal, and having given up my car a few years ago.
I came to the conclusion that I should look at the suburbs of medium size towns that would have the important facilities (medical, recreational etc.) close to hand. In this way, local transport would be available to get you to most places you needed to get to.
Is this a feasible strategy?

Re: Where to start
 

From post #11 above:

Public transport: Busses running hourly to every corner of the town. Intercity busses and regional busses run on a regular basis even on weekends.
Trains run about hourly as well and include regional and inter regional trains. There are rapid trains that do low flying to Lisbon and Paris as well from Viana.
No need for a car here.

Re: Where to start
 

Google Lagos marina. Prices for berths in their website.
Buy a boat or yacht abd moor it in the marina

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Some really useful information for us guys planning to move to Portugal on this thread .Thank you all .
I am driving to the South from the UK early October . My car insurance will give me 3 months international cover so I can decide then if to register in Portugal or bring it back to the UK . Can't imagine doing this move without a car .
Winter lets seem to pretty much run from 01 October and there are letting opportunities on websites but choose your starting point , get there , do the b and b thing and go see the longer term rental choices before signing an agreement .
I wish you well with your planning .

Re: Where to start
 

For all the folks looking at Portugal, what's your current ability with regards to the language ?

Re: Where to start
 

Well i can read it reasonably enough to get the gist. Can speak well enough to get by on the basics of buying food and letting agents know what i want regarding buying property(piscina nao precisa etc). My problem is when the conversation moves away from the basics and the conversation lengthens and i start to lose concentration and give up. My understanding of the language is way way better than my speaking ability. Watching TV is a great help,especially news items.