Inside this Issue... Convenience and Comfort in Costa Rica’s Central Valley; Easy Living on Spain’s Catalan Coast; Los Santos, Panama: Low Costs, Pristine Beaches, and Heritage; Protect your Assets with an Offshore Trust; Business Potential for Expats in Vietnam...and much more.

Everybody comes to the “Where overseas?” question with his own set of preferences. This one wants beach, that one cool weather. This woman wants to be four hours from home. And that guy is looking for a place to dock a sailboat. When you’re pinpointing your ideal destination, start with list of what’s most important to you. And understand: No place is perfect. You have to prioritize. For a community she loves, “madame must-be-close-to-home” might just stretch her travel time to four-and-a-half hours.

Begin the month in Scotland’s Spey Valley where, as part of “Whisky Month,” the Spirit of Speyside Festival runs from May 1 to 5. Tastings, workshops, and even a guide on how to properly photograph a “wee dram” of whisky are all on the schedule.

It’s been a retirement haven for decades—one of the world’s most popular—and if you have ever visited Costa Rica, you know why. Living here means access to excellent and affordable health care, living costs of as little as $2,000 a month for a couple, including rent, and natural beauty at every turn.

Towering sand dunes, an expansive, golden-sand beach that goes on for miles, kite-surfers battling the strong, but warm, Atlantic wind…although Spain’s tourist hub of Marbella is just 63 miles to the east, here at Punta Paloma it feels a world away.

Asia is vast and diverse but a few things unite it, one of which is a love of noodles. Every day from Beijing to Bangkok billions of noodles are sucked up and scoffed by everyone from lunching laborers to office workers in a hurry. And for the biggest producers times have been good.

My daughter Talia brought me to Nicaragua in 2006 for my birthday present. When I exited the plane and my foot hit the tarmac, I literally felt a shot of electricity course through my body. That two-week trip blew me away. Suddenly colors seemed brighter, the food more delicious; sunsets were spectacular in gold, purple, pink, blue, and orange; the water clear, the air fresh, the native people kind and friendly. I felt more alive.

Thailand easily ranks as one of Southeast Asia’s most liveable countries. From modern amenities and top-notch medical care to affordable costs and a year-round tropical climate, expats in “the land of smiles” enjoy a lifestyle they’d only dream about back in their home countries.

If you’ve ever sat at a desk dreaming of owning your own jungle lodge in paradise, look no farther than Wendy Green for inspiration. On the outskirts of Ecuador’s cloud-forest town of Mindo, two hours from the capital, Quito, Wendy runs wellness/yoga retreats on her five-acre parcel of land, complete with three waterfalls and a freshwater spring.

You’re buying property in Sihanoukville? Are you crazy?” I lost count of how many times I heard those words when I decided to move to this Cambodian beach town. To my friends back home, Sihanoukville was a little-known backwater in a dangerous and unstable country. I shared their feelings until—on a whim of curiosity—I took a side trip there while traveling in Asia. I intended to spend just a few days there before moving on to Thailand.