alentejo joe

im wondering how many people made the move and wished they had not and how long it took to admit it too themselves

Mattiespeople

Almost 3 years and not a single regret and can not think of why anyone would have any regrets. Great weather, people, climate, houses, prices, new pals, food, wine, beaches, sea, lakes etc etc etc

Only people I know who have any interest in a visit back to UK is to see grandkids (this is mostly the Grandmum's that feel this pull and does not apply to all of them - as a summer holiday in the sun is great for kids and a good swop for a visit bk to UK)

Go for it! It may be like starting your own business best done ASAP and being as young as poss is great!

Forgot - my comments are on retirement to the sun NOT on trying to find work which is so not easy and people who need jobs do go back to the UK.

Paul Andre

Count me in.

gazz

relative newbie, only been here 8 months but haven,t felt the need to go back once during that time.

Cleri

Aww Joe,are you not happy?

TaviraTrog

So far it exceeds our expectation even if we have had to tighten our belts a tad as a result of the deteriorating exchange rate. But we can still afford the essentials such as wine, food, wine and more wine.

max0603

Just bought a new house near Vilamoura and hope to be out by March Its bloody freezing over here and its rained non stop for months we can't wait!

Cleri

CHOPPER

Been here 10 months now and I have loved it from day 1, it has taken my wife longer to settle but she is getting there slowly.

scrubbedexpat008

Been here a little over a year. Have fleeting moments when I wish we were back in the UK, usually as a result of language issues which prevent me communicating either formally (e.g. bl**dy car matriculation ) or informally (e.g. local bars and restaurants ).

And when my end-of-year electricity bill came in I briefly longed for our old gas central heating which kept me twice as warm at half the price

And when I look at the price of cars here versus on autotrader.co.uk and suddenly the UK looks cheap

And I second Troggo's remarks above about the Euro going South and add that interest rates here are soaring, neither of which are good news .

But then my wife (who goes over quite often because of grandchildren as mentioned above) calls me from a rain-soaked traffic jam on the M4 and I realise we made the right decision.

And she goes out to the pub for lunch with the kids and it costs nearly £100; my lunch that day cost €18 and lasted twice as long; and I realise we made the right decision.

And I look at the weather in the UK from my laptop by the pool and I realise we made the right decision.

And I hear about the kids in the UK being killed by knives and guns for no real reason in the cities; I look at them here showing off their noisy bikes and quad-bikes to the girls with questionable fashion tastes and I realise we made the right decision.

And when Gordon let's-screw-the-middle-classes-a-bit-more Brown got to No.10 I realise we made the right decision.

And . . . And . . . And . . .

Is it easy moving over? No Are we as well off as we thought we would be? No Is my liver regretting the move? Probably

Will I go back? NO I even slightly regret the births, deaths and marriages that oblige me to give money to British Airways but have kept it to 4 days in the last 400 so that's not so bad.

Like Chopps, it's taken my wife much longer to settle and she's struggling even more with the language (and some other challenges that were thrown at us), but we're here with no plans to return.

Cripes - I feel a tear coming on . . .

gazz

me too, come on stiff upper lip old boy

alentejo joe

grc thats the sort of honest reply i needed. i work in tulse hill nr brixton and cannot find a reason for teenagers killing each other.im in the construction industry and teach aprentices my last one was from gahna and he cant belive it either but he says in his country they keep pitbulls to protect there property from robbery if he has moved here then this sounds like the right move

jdr

Don`t know about you lot in PT, but the only regret I have is not doing it sooner than I did. ,-)

Cleri

I did it at 44 bloody brilliant!!!

max0603

And I'm still in my thirties! Sorry I Forgot I turned 40 last year.