Tell me a secret

Well that sounds magical and poetic to me. When you find that place, your soul will breathe a tremendous sigh of relief. I wish you success in your search for tranquility. I'm right there with you.

Thx Roseanne49,

Well I forgot to mention a unicorn shooting rainbows out of its butt . . .

All I can do is ask and see what the forum folks and the 'verse brings, can't hurt to try.

Check the idealista page, and after that you will see if something there are as per yours "dreams". I escape from Lisbon to the land, and ... need some time to adapt with the "silence" and very quite environment area.

Check out northern Portugal, a place like Montalegre. The beauty is breathtaking, its completely safe, there is a large hospital in reasonable distance in Chaves. Zero expats. Life as it has been lived for centuries. Old-school Portugal.

As you probably know from your research  (ignoring the Algave)  approx 25% of the population live in greater Lisbon and 25% in greater Oporto giving the rest of the country a low density of population so is generally a selection of quietnessesses. Transport links and not always good nor busy outside towns and main motorways are basically Lisbon-Oporto so vast areas of quietness with many small villages and small towns and many empty/unused houses.  Just look at the two listings of places listed for sale/rent in the non-urban areas    oxl.pt  and   idealista.pt  - you may need to translate some as this is Portugal so things are generally in Portuguese.  Also from your research you'll have found the rate of crime outside the big conurbations is probably low enough to not be relevant with no drive by shootings, there is even an enlightened attitude to drugs and it's common for kids to be playing in town squares at 10 pm in summer as their parents promenade.  There's also wild fires and possible lack of water, houses with no insulation nor heating so you can be hot in summer and cold/damp in winter.  So basically a lot of Portugal fits your search criteria.

Thanks Strontium for the links and info, much appreciated!

There was a show back in the 60's called [link under review]. In the show - Mr. Douglas bought a farm and had a vision to be a farmer. The series showcased the kinds of struggles like trying to get a working telephone, getting renovations done, getting supplies and the types of local bureaucracy and ineptitude, lack of resources.

I'd rather not be the next Mr. Douglas and I know that for some problems, you can't solve them by throwing money at them. I hope to find some balance in life having reasonable and realistic expectations.

@chrisschubert21

Thanks, I now have it bookmarked as a resource. Maybe you have more insider knowledge and experience to share 

@Perpetual_traveler

I appreciate that you mention this. I lived in the Pacific North West for more than 20 years and accustomed to cooler climate. This weekend I was using Google maps and google earth to look at the lattitude from North to South in PT and comparing that to places in the USA. Also for a long time now I've had time, temperature and weather in Porto bookmarked on a homepage.

I may never really be good at learning and speaking PT language, but alas, there re apps and I'm sure I can learn the words for the things I need to the most.

I'll definitely spend more time checking out the far north areas. THX again!

Hi,

Our experience shortly: we research for at least 4-5 months and come down with "clear" ideas, but the agent show us something which was "not yest" posted, which, by the end we buy.

After that we are happy, now we know that it's over our "expectations & request some more efforts", but we are optimistic. Any project has a scope of work which by the end look "little" different (+/- 25%) as by the start.

Lesson learning: the research was useful for us to give one idea about the price and what means "a ruine", but the agent use his knowledge to sell you something acceptable.

Fundamental is to keep cool and have the mental power to see some more objects, even is "too late" and all are tired ...,. Never forget in full respect to all, you are the customer!

Good luck.

@chrisschubert21

Right on, thanks for that. You know the saying "There's no time like the present" and other non-procrastination stuff.

The more I know and better educated / acclimated the more intelligently I can speak with realtors and plan my visa etc etc.

As the old adage goes "You get what you pay for, and you pay for what you get". I've seen some lovely places that I can afford, but even then, no insulation in the attack / ceiling, walls or flooring. The place looks sort of modern, but built by monks.