“Cheap” alone is not a worthy objective. We don’t look for it here at International Living—and nor should you. Just because you can buy a coffee for a dime or stay in a hotel for $20 a night—that’s not reason enough to go. Plenty of “cheap” corners tenant this world—many, quite frankly, just plain undesirable.
What we chase—and what you should be after, too—is good value. Places where few pennies buy big rewards…where that ten-cent coffee is the best coffee you’ve ever tasted, or that twenty-buck room comes with a personal butler.
We’re looking for the sorts of destinations where you could take $100 out of an ATM on Monday, eat out every day, rent a sailboat for a morning, meet friends for drinks, pay your utility bill…and still have change leftover on Friday.
Take Chiang Mai, Thailand, for instance. A couple can enjoy a good life there on $1,500 a month—or less. Or consider Normandy’s “flower coast.” The wealthy flock there to swank Deauville. But just next door, Trouville offers cobbled streets, little shops selling sea-salt caramels and calvados (apple brandy), a sandy beach…and lower price tags. Then there’s Icarai, Brazil, where real estate expert Ronan McMahon says he’s spotted the best raw beachfront he’s seen in a long time. The supply is limited, the price is right, and it’s set to be “discovered.” in other words, good value.
My point is: you don’t have to spend big to live large. We’ve chased value from southeast Asia to Europe to South America, and this month we show you where to find it. Read these articles and the rest of the articles below in your issue this month.
Whatever you dream about, come with that in mind. And dream big. Because at our Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas Conference in Las Vegas, we’ll pinpoint for you on a map the places where you can turn your dream into reality…for a small fraction of what you’d pay at home.
For decades the Iron Curtain divided Europe in two. Folks in the U.S. and Western Europe were afforded only glimpses of life in the Eastern Bloc. The political situation severely restricted travel. And half of Europe became an uncharted and unknown land. Then the Berlin Wall fell and a dozen or so nations opened up, embracing new freedoms. Visitors were welcomed and discovered a history going back thousands of years, regions of untouched natural beauty, and a seriously low cost of living.
We want authenticity when we travel. We want the real thing: to step outside our own lives and connect with other peoples, cultures, and ways of life. We want to learn something about ourselves and our place in the world. We want to taste the food, learn the customs and talk to the people, to lose ourselves, at least for a little while.