Where would you most like to retire?
 

A short poll to show where some of us would like to retire.

Can't vote I'm afraid - I live in the Pacific in the Eastern hemisphere.....

I voted for South America because Central America isn't an option. Costa Rica. Tax benefits, excellent quality of living, very safe, and beautiful Carribean or Pacific Beaches.

CR is a great place unfortunately it has sub standard air service :(

Ridley maybe you could make it Central/South America to make BA happy. I'm sure RN1 gets the picture :confused:

Figured out all the poll problems, and instead of having 2 polls, we now have 1 proper one.

Hope this makes more sense.

UK ???

747pilot--

Substandard? How so? Continental goes in there twice a day out of Houston, and out of Newark as well every day. You can connect almost anywhere in the world that way. (Especially after the CAL-DAL-NW codeshare deal goes through).

If you mean internal, okay I agree there, they could use some bigger equipment. But, the Caravans seem to make them all money and they run a good operation with them.

Just my $.02

BA a few CO narrow bodies operating from IAH & EWR a couple times a day IMO is marginal and the domestic service well I think you covered that.

747,

I'll agree with you that SJO definately isn't YYZ with respect to traffic volume. But, you can get almost any US airline out of there. (Delta to ATL, AA to MIA, UAL -through flight via Guatamala City- from ORD or LAX). That doesn't include any of the Latin American airlines (TACA, COPA -which I have flown and love- Mexicana, etc...). Anyways, it's not just narrow-bodies headed down there. CAL flies 757's out of IAH (okay, not a widebody like yours... :D but not necessarily a narrowbody.)

Anyways, I just recommend people look at Costa Rica as a nice place. Just my opinion...

There's definitely more service than I thought thanks for all the info BA do you travel through SJO often?

747--

Before I took my year LOA to fly in Africa, I went to SJO at least once a month or so. I do a lot of rafting down there, and am trying to get a part-time job (very hard for a non-Costa Rican) with one of the rafting companies. When I'm back to work in December, I'll be going through there a lot again (at least once a month). The only downside is no direct YYZ service... :(

Direct service from YZ would be nice but as you pointed out there's lots of US gateway cities offering direct service that are easily assessible from YZ.

We have had a number of our pilots commuting from SJO to YZ & VR for tax reasons over the years and all of them have moved up to Caribbean domicles offering easier and more direct non-stop service.

The last time I was there was while transitting the Panama Canal and it really was a fairly short visit but it did seem fairly modern with a good lifestyle.

What's the crime like there?

747--

There is very little serious crime in Costa Rica, to speak of. According to the US State Dept., the biggest crimes are mugging and theft. (http://usembassy.or.cr/osac.html) The threat of terrorism or violent crime is "non-existant". The biggest risk is that they lie in an Earthquake zone.

I think for the cost of living, you can't beat it for retirement. (I will agree, though that for just relaxing on the beach in a five-star hotel with full amenities, the Islands are probably a better bet. Just a lot more expensive.)

Bad Andy
 

I noticed this group of airline pilots in another thread in this forum has a number of pretty decent looking places in Costa Rica To see them but i don't know where any of them are.

Do you have a favorite place to stay when you're there?

Scooby Doo
 

I find your investment intriguing I assume you've been flying in the Emirates for a while and enjoy the lifestyle and I'm sure there are considerable tax advantages.

Are you planning on retiring there or are you intending to flip the property in the future and retire elsewhere?

Definitely an interesting website I would just wonder about the resale market when the time came to sell if it would be there or not.

My thinking exactly hopefully Scooby will elaborate on that for us.

Personally I can't see any market at all I remember when my husband went for an interview to fly for Saudi in 1984 in Kansas City and the first day of a 2 day process was what they referred to as a "Cultural Orientation" he left immediately after that and told me there was no way he was taking me and his 2 daughters there!

From what I've heard I think it may have changed a lot since then. :)

Ridley I see by the early poll returns that "OTHER" is the favourite place to retire so far, maybe those voters would post there favourite retirement place here and you could setup another poll so we could narrow this subject down further.

It would be nice to find the ultimate retirement spot. :D

Good idea CP
 

I voted other as I want to retire in the San Jaun Islands in Washington State........ in the good old USA it's got some of the best boating, fishing, sunsets.......... i think you get the picture in the world :)

I decided not to add in my own choices for retirement in the poll, but I thought I'd throw them in down here.

I like warm weather and a dry (not humid) heat like Arizona or Florida, so I've chosen the Sahara desert (maybe build a condo and add a pool down the road), but I do like the mountains and love the snow, so I'm torn between my first pick and the Gulag in Siberia.

Maybe I'll just flip a coin.

For me personally, I've chosen the Amazon jungle.
:D

Caribbean :D

How about this: Pilot as second career, no pension to speak no desire to 'retire'. Possible working on as flying instructor etc until health dictates other wise. This excludes northern Europe with its cold climate and high living cost. On the other scale living in a third world country, Kenya for instance, with its poor healthcare a costly health insurance policy like BUPA is driving the cost and travel to Europe to a high level again.
What are your ideas and opinions about this I wonder.

Away from it all. Southern Chile.

The Caribbean. Martinique for me! :)

Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Everything you need and not too many things you would rather not have.

Excellent educational facilities for those who, late in life, have young children. Good reasonably priced medical facilities for those who are older. 10-12 flights a day to Bangkok and even to Chittagong (from December) should you ever need to go there.

Since my recent visit Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. :)

Even though I don't speak French.
 

St. Saveur-des-Monts, Quebec or any place like it.

:cool:

Luc Didn't I just read somewhere that Quebecs provincial taxes are goin up again and with the current combined tax rate it's getting pretty onerous for retirement. :(

I spend most of the year in Australia and the summer in UK and its great. Not an option on the poll though.

Well, we have land in the Philipinnes in a quiet little area, therefore that would be my choice.

However, an old friend of mine in DXB had a villa where you walked out into the back garden and had a choice of lying there or walking a few more yards where the garden opened up onto the beach.

Oman and Lebanon are other thoughts having explored them intensively.

I spent 3 years based in HNL flying down to SYD nearly every week and I love AUS. It's a long trip but we seriously considered it for a number of reasons.

I think you've gotta winner mfp. :cool:

only problem with Aus is you have to qualify for residency, and they are not overly keen on taking retiring folk

Boating
 

My Dad retired and bought a Yacht. He's sailing it from Singapore up through the Med then back home to the Caribbean. After 23 years in Singapore he's looking forward to coming home at 6 miles an hour instead of 6 miles a minute!!
He's currently enroute to the Maldives from Sri Lanka.:)

I'm with glueball, Vina del Mar or Concepcion in Chile, or Puerto Montt, with occaisional forays down to Punta Arenas. Great seafood, excellent local wines, and if you want beef, you're never far from Argentina. Housing is far cheaper than North America.

Skygirl1990 - Just a small point you might want to consider before
making an uninformed statement. Dubai is in the UAE, not Saudi. Two very different sets of rules,values and defnitely lifestyles. Living in Dubai is much like living in an average-sized Europoean city, on that note let me be off to the beach in my bikini for a spot of suntanning and then to the Irish village for lunch of pork chops and a glass of wine or two.

Asia
 

Another vote for Chiang Mai. Definitely most liveable sizable city in Thailand for expats.