Choose Your Lifestyle in These 3 Towns
Although only the size of West Virginia, Costa Rica offers you a lot of choice when it comes to places to live in terms of landscape, climate, amenities, and lifestyle.
Although only the size of West Virginia, Costa Rica offers you a lot of choice when it comes to places to live in terms of landscape, climate, amenities, and lifestyle.
Thanks to consistent, high-quality waves and a variety of breaks, Costa Rica has been one of the world’s top surfing destinations for decades.
On my recent trip to David, Panama’s third largest city, I heard a common refrain from expats there. Whenever the topic of Boquete, a small mountain town about 30 minutes up the mountain, came up they’d say: “It’s too cold. Too small. And there are too many gringos.”
If you need a manicured lawn, 18-hole golf course, large fancy supermarket, or luxury condo to be happy…you can find that in Costa Rica. But you’ll have to give the country’s southern Caribbean coast a miss.
From the first time Steve Reyer visited the trendy Costa Rican beach town Nosara—way back in 1992—he was smitten. A lifelong surfer, he instantly fell in love with Nosara’s breath-taking Pacific coast, spectacular surf, and laidback atmosphere.
You look out from your terrace over a vast tropical garden. You’re surrounded by heliconias and bromeliads in shades of vivid red, bright yellow, orange, and combinations in between, along with orchid blooms.
Earl and Gail Johnson have lived in the Corozal District, a retirement haven in northern Belize, for eight years. Corozal is a small town, set on the vast Corozal Bay and just nine miles from the Mexican border. It has a close-knit expat community, with plenty of clubs and social activities.
Dick Walton, 53, and his wife, Dawn, 47, have always loved to travel. And they knew for a long time that they wanted to retire to English-speaking Belize...the tiny Central American country on the Caribbean Sea. But when Dawn had an aneurysm in 2009, the couple pushed up that timetable to escape the stress and fast pace of life in their hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
In this latest Debrief—exclusive to you as an International Living VIP member—IL Costa Rica Editor Jason Holland tells Dan Prescher all about his recent editorial trip to Costa Rica’s magnificent Central Pacific coast.
Toward the southern end of Belize, you’ll find a 17-mile-long peninsula that has become a center of expat activity and tourism in recent years. Developments and homes can be found up and down its length, as can beautiful beaches and views of the blue Caribbean. But Placencia Village, the walkable community at the peninsula’s far southern tip, is where Paul Petit and his wife Gail decided to settle.