This week, Jim Santos talks to International Living Go Overseas Mentor about her article in the July 2023 issue of International Living magazine ‘Use my Expertise to Move Overseas with Confidence’.  In her article, and in her discussion with podcast host, Jim Santos, Kristin explans how she developed her unique expertise... and how it can help you settle into a new, better life overseas. Kristin’s Ready to Relocate program will open to new members in a few weeks... so if you’re already an...

This week, Jim Santos talks to International Living Mexico Correspondent Bel Woodhouse about her article in the March 2023 issue of International Living magazine ‘Escape to Bacalar—Mexico's Lakeside Oasis’.  Mexico’s Riviera Maya—the stretch of coastline and tropical forest from Cancún in the north to the border with Belize to the south—is, for many, their first experience of Mexico. It’s a heavenly part of the world, with the wavelets of the Caribbean Sea lapping against fine sand beaches...

This week, Jim Santos talks to expat Tricia Pimental about her article in the June 2023 issue of International Living magazine ‘Sweet on Sweden, an Inside Look at Scandinavian Life’. Tricia was the Portugal correspondent for IL for several years, having lived in the country for eight years, before she and her husband, Keith, decided to broaden their horizons with a move to Sweden. Why would two Americans leave beautiful Portugal, and head for the rural interior of a Scandinavian country?...

Lifestyle Editor Sean Keenan joins the podcast from Bilbao, Spain, on-location as he researches his next feature story for International Living magazine about an off-the-beaten-path area of Europe that’s ripe for the picking. Green Spain... Just 100 miles north of Portugal, the stretch of coast between the Basque city of Bilbao in the east, and the Belle Epoque resort of Ribadesella in the west, is a breath-taking area of lush woodland, high mountain peaks, genteel fishing villages, hidden...

Suzan Haskins recently spent time in an area of Mexico that, she affirms, has been misrepresented by mainstream media for decades. Baja California, which includes cities such as Ensenada, Rosarito, and Tijuana, is, as far as she’s concerned, a place where you can live a California lifestyle at half the price. The region is usually thought of as dangerous, lawless, poor and chaotic. That’s the way it’s usually portrayed on the news, at any rate. What Suzan found when she went there to...

Keith Hockton brings us a tale of mystery (and maybe foul play?) in the lush hills of upland Malaysia. But the real story isn’t about who may or may not have had a hand in the disappearance of a silk magnate back in the 1950s. The real story is the unspoiled rainforests, the exotic flora and fauna, and the unexpected gentle beauty of colonial Britain’s homespun R&R resorts. "If you can imagine the upper crust British regime that ruled Malaya at that time," says Keith Hockton, "they...

Bekah Bottone brings us a much-appreciated update on how her adopted hometown—Tamarindo in Costa Rica—has evolved in recent years. The Pacific coast surf town first came to prominence in Bruce Brown’s 1994 surf movie, The Endless Summer II. At the time, Tamarindo was little more than a village, some great waves, and an airstrip where ground crew had to shoo the cows away so that planes could land. These days, things are different. With much better logistics, development for tourism, and a...

Karen Lefebvre followed her childhood dream and moved to the idyllic island of Syros, Greece.  A chance discovery way back in the 1980s led her parents to an unexpected family stay on the island. Now, prompted by a pandemic, a breakup, wanderlust, and an urge to return to the simple Mediterranean life she experienced as a teen, Karen finds herself harvesting olives, pressing oil, and happily renovating a new home on the very same island that stole her heart all those decades ago. “I wake up...

Podcast host, Jim Santos, meets expat Glenda Cole, who quit the stress of a high-powered career in corporate America for a new home, new country, and new life in International Living’s top-rated retirement destination—Portugal. Glenda describes herself as a typical type-A personality, but her drive to succeed almost killed her. A serious health scare brought it all home to her—she was living to work, not working to live. Having a job that was so pressing that she couldn’t even get a...

Podcast host, Jim Santos, learns all about the surprising sophistication and liveability of Mexico City’s residential districts, as he talks to IL’s Latin America Correspondent Jason Holland in this week’s episode of Bigger Better World. Jason is not a typical expat, in that he and his wife moved out of the U.S. while they were still of working age, not retirees. In fact, when they first shipped out to their first expat home in Costa Rica, the couple were expecting their first child. Since...

If you’ve ever seriously contemplated a move overseas—really considered it, not just daydreaming—then you’ll know all about negative thinking. For every picture in your mind of palm-fringed beaches and waking up to the sound of birdsong…there’s another slew of ‘rational’ reasons why it could never happen. Responsibilities, obligations, the stupefying momentum of routine… Most people never get beyond telling themselves that they’ll make the move ‘When the time is right’… JP and Mandy...

It's pretty quiet on the islands of Greece in March, making it a good time to rent a scooter, get out on the quiet roads, and see what there is to see. That’s exactly what International Living Lifestyle Editor Seán Keenan did in March of this year. March is a lovely time to be in the southern Mediterranean. Winter is retreating, in another few weeks the tourist flights will begin to arrive, and the hospitality industry will be at full tilt until October. But before that happens, there’s a...

Back in the early days of the Spanish conquest of Latin America, a problem arose. How would Catholic priests, tasked with converting the locals to Christianity, celebrate mass without the necessary wine for the service? The short-term answer was to ship wine over from Spain, but that was hardly practical. The long-term solution (although it wasn’t popular with Spanish wine exporters!) was to plant vineyards in the newly-discovered lands. Where did they plant these vineyards? Believe it or...

Read Janet's full article in the January 2023 issue of International Living Magazine here: My Three Weeks Learning Italian in Siena. “I’m too old to learn a new language!” is a phrase we hear a lot at International Living. But it’s based on a misconception. Most of us believe that children have some innate language-learning ability that somehow disappears as we get older. But is that really true? Isn’t it just that we get busier? Or find other things to take up our time? When you think...

Read Noreen’s full article in the February issue of International Living: How to See the World for Free as a Travel Writer. With no background in writing (her previous career was in nursing), Noreen Kompanik homed in on what it was that she really wanted to do with her life. And it wasn’t nursing. Nowadays, she spends up to 70% of her year traveling the world, and getting paid to write about it. In fact, she joins the Bigger Better World podcast from the Dominican Republic, just one stop...

What’s it like to travel the world as a minority? Todd and Damon took to the world together when they decided that a roving retirement fit their inbuilt need for travel and adventure. Together, they lived in 28 different countries over the course of three years, before finally settling down in Mexico’s premier expat city—the colonial highland showpiece of San Miguel de Allende. In this week’s episode, podcast host Jim Santos delves deeper into Todd and Damon’s experience of cultures around...

In this week’s podcast, host, Jim Santos speaks to expats Todd Hilton and Damon Morris. Todd and Damon took to the world together when they decided that a roving retirement fit their inbuilt need for travel and adventure. Together, they lived in 28 different countries over the course of three years, before finally settling down in Mexico’s premier expat city—the colonial highland showpiece of San Miguel de Allende. Armed with a sheaf of notes they’d taken from an International Living...

Sarah Firisen first came to our attention at International Living when she got in touch about her very enviable life on the southern Caribbean island of Grenada. Soft-sand beaches, crystal-clear waters for snorkeling, and curry goat-filled rotis…we had to know more!  When she wrote a two-page article for the March 2022 issue of International Living magazine, we were simply smitten with her descriptions of an island which combines all the palm-fringed, turquoise water fantasies of the...

In this week’s podcast, host, Jim Santos speaks to expat Donna Stiteler. For many years, Donna served as International Living’s Ecuador Correspondent from the city of Cuenca, Ecuador.  Cuenca, a highland city built in a steep-sided valley deep in the Andes mountains, is an established expat location. In fact, many would claim that it’s the world’s premier expat city. Due to its elevation and latitude, Cuenca enjoys a dependable, spring-like climate where the temperatures peak at around 75 F,...

In this week’s podcast, host, Jim Santos speaks to expats Kirsten and Mark Raccuia, whose journey to an overseas life started at an International Living conference back in 2012. At the time, they were convinced that they wanted to move to Costa Rica. As it turned out, the conference whetted their appetite for an entirely different location—Malaysia! Kirsten and Mark are born travelers, though, and after a few happy years living on Malaysia’s island paradise, Penang, they felt the urge to...

In this week’s podcast, host, Jim Santos speaks to International Living France Correspondent Tuula Rampont, who transplanted her life from Southern California to Southern France back in 2010. For Tuula, France came as a surprise. In fact, she originally thought that she wanted to move to Italy. Lazy stereotypes of French people as snooty, arrogant, and cold put her off the idea of even visiting the country. As it turns out, when she did finally visit, she realized just how wrong her...

Sometimes, events make decisions easier. For Jen Wittman, the lockdowns, election cycle, and social upheaval she experienced in 2020 were enough to convince her that it was time to leave her home in California and search for greener pastures overseas. She’d lived overseas already, so it wasn’t a complete leap into the dark. This time, though, she and her husband had another person to think about—their 12-year-old son. How would he cope with live overseas? What about his education, his...

In this week’s podcast, host, Jim Santos speaks to Chip Stites, International Living’s Italy Correspondent, who makes his home in the small town of Rieti, Italy. From harvesting olives in a 2,000-year-old grove to singing with the crowds at a basketball match in the town where Kobe Bryant learned to play, Chip Stites has immersed himself deeply in the culture and country of central Italy.  It wasn’t a snap decision. He and his wife, Shonna, spent years scouting out their ideal retirement...

In this week’s podcast, host, Jim Santos speaks to Janice Deerwester, an adventurous and unstoppable single woman in her 70s, who recently moved to Fontainbleu, near Paris, France.  Navigating everything from restaurant etiquette (service in France is a lot more relaxed than in the U.S., it seems) to exploring on the excellent public transport, Janice recounts her adventures in her popular vlog, Janice in France. When you take life with such a positive attitude, every day is an adventure....

In this week’s podcast, International Living Mexico Correspondent Wendy Justice meets host, Jim Santos, as she explains just why she moved to the highland town of Querétaro in Mexico.  A long-time expat, until recently Wendy made her home on the other side of the globe, in Vietnam. Now, in Mexico, what similarities, and indeed, what differences does she find in her new home? Some things are universal, others are quite the opposite. When an experienced traveler and expat brings fresh eyes to a...