Well that was a nice surprise yesterday – we received an e-mail from MoneyTransferComparison.com letting us know that we had won their award of ‘Best Expat Blog – Portugal’ for 2017!

Here’s what they posted about our award:

Well how nice is that! Their website explained that “We have gathered the best expat blogs of 2017 below. For each destination, we have conducted extensive research and came up with one blog that we believe is the very best for expats relocating there.”

Well we are in good company with Portugal itself recently winning a bagful of awards at the annual World Travel Awards Europe. Portugal was distinguished with 37 awards (30% of the total prizes), which is 13 more than last year’s competition and, for the first time, Portugal was voted as the Best European Destination, one of the most coveted awards.

The Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, commented that this is a result of the “commitment of all to make Portugal a tourist destination of excellence, with a diversity of unique offers that extends throughout the territory” and that this award is “a clear indication that we are on the right track, one that shows the diversity we have to offer, from north to south, from the coast to the interior.”

Image © World Travel Awards 2017

Add to this the recent – unsurprising – result of the Live and Invest Overseas Annual Overseas Retirement Index … ta-daa .. small drum roll please …

The Algarve, Portugal Takes Top Honors for the 4^th Year In A Row

They determined that the Algarve remains the best place in the world today to retire overseas.

They include 13 categories in the 2017 Overseas Retirement Index. These represent the most important criteria they believe that retirees must consider when shopping the globe for the best place to retire.

The American site deemed that “the Algarve has got everything the would-be retiree could want — great weather and lots of sunshine year-round; an established and welcoming expat community; top-notch medical facilities and health care; an affordable (that is, downright cheap) cost of living, especially when you consider the quality of life on offer; undervalued and bargain-priced property buys, including right on the ocean; endless opportunities for fun, adventure, and enjoying rich, full, varied days out-of-doors; a great deal of English spoken thanks to the longstanding British presence; First World infrastructure; a new retiree residency program that rolls out the welcome mat for foreign pensioners; and easy access both from the United States and to and from all Europe.”

Well we’re not going to disagree with them!

And with views like these – who can deny that the Algarve really does have it all!

(All Algarve images © Dave Sheldrake Photography – all rights reserved.)

And thank you again to MoneyTransferComparison.com for our award and new badge!