New members of the Portugal forum, introduce yourselves here - 2025

Hey everyone!

I am very happy to be on the forum, posting from the sunshine Silver Coast where I live and work. I'm an English and a real estate agent I work with remax.

A bit about me: I share my life with my partner, who's in construction. We've got a little family too - our cat, who decided my car engine was the perfect kitten taxi when she was just four weeks old and feral. She's become the most lovable, kindest pussycat a person could dream of. Then there's our French Bulldog, who is afraid of his own reflection,  we love him.

The

Silver Coast–it's not just breathtaking beaches and sunshine! The feel of the local culture around here is a charming mixture of relaxed Coastal spirit and vibrant festivities that are part of Portuguese culture. You'll find quaint fishing villages where time seems to stand still, alongside vibrant local festivals like the famous 'Festa de São João' with its street parties and fireworks. The cuisine? Ooh, you've got something special in store for yourself-let's say, fresh seafood, the very known Pastel de Nata, and definitely, the vinho verde of the area.

This community here is very warm and welcoming, with a deep focus on family and community events. Something is always happening, be it a market day, a music event or just passers by having a barbie on the beach.

Looking forward to helping you all navigate while you dive into this amazing local culture!

@Julien

Hi Julien

I am British, live in the UK where I have a large Family.

We have been professionals for many generations who have have lived and worked in West & Central Africa, Asia, Geneva in the UN, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore. Now venturing into a Start-Up in Portugal, in the Alentejo, near to the border with Spain, where we have a fair piece of land at a very tranquil, unspoilt location - a typically Montado landscape with picturesque views and almost a kilometre long river inside our boundary; which will have us in 'development' mode the next 5 years at least - given the range of municipal approved development objectives we are fortunate to have:

1. Agriculture
2. Agri-Tourism - fair capacity
3. Wellness Centre
4. Camping Grounds

We expect to 'evolve' this into

an Age-Care service coupled with an Anti-Aging Centre

A range of Health Foods for diabetics and CKD uses

We expect to go down the D2 route to eventually becoming Portuga's

but then we are that in spirit already - given a family history linking us to Portugal

which goes as far back as the year 1612 - when we were known by the Portuguese as Chatims

PS: I think I have probably said enough to intrigue/whet the appetites of even the most curious of minds already!

Happy to be here!

Rodrigo

Susan and Layne here- planning our move to Portugal from the US within the next two years, dependent upon finances. We are retiring early and plan to apply for citizenship after the requisite amount of time. We are currently working with Prismaat and have had a good experience so far. We have visited Portugal and fell in love with the country- right now we are eyeing the Silver Coast. We’ve spent time in Lisbon, Salema, Coimbra, Nazare, and Porto. We are bringing our dog, car, and household, and while overwhelmed, very excited. We have been working on our Portuguese and hope to get a good foundation for actual language classes once we move. We love to travel, (we’ve also been to Spain, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Dominican Republic, St Lucia, Australia, New Zealand, and Curacao- as well as all over the US), hike, camp, play video games, read, and I knit, bake, and oddly enough do nails (as a hobby, not a career)- looking forward to spending more time exploring Portugal and the Schengen countries.

Would love to make connections with like minded folks and garner any tips/tricks/advice to help along the way.

My name is Rich.  I live in the U.S. and retired a few years ago in my early 40s (thus the FIRE_Expat handle - FIRE standing for Financially Independent, Retired Early).  My partner and I had planned to slow travel the world after we FIREd, but COVID struck and all our travel plans faded away.  We finally got back into travel and realized that we wanted the opportunity to spend more time away from home than a typical Visa would allow, so we started looking into getting citizenship in an E.U. country. 

After the U.S. election, things became more urgent.  We rely on the ACA (aka Obamacare), which the Trump administration has made conflicting noises about - sometimes against, sometimes for, and sometimes for but with "significant" changes.  I'm not willing to rely on Trump's whims for my health insurance, so we decided to accelerate our plans to find a European home base. 

We are looking to move to somewhere along the Silver Coast.  We have a trip planned to visit in early March, and hope to be approved for our Visas sometime around May/June/July.  We're in the early stages of learning Portuguese, and after getting through the immigration process that's our #1 priority.  We believe it is extremely important to learn the language and really want to immerse ourselves in the culture as much as possible.  We both spend time volunteering here with local arts organizations and STEM for kids in the U.S., and I hope to find ways to get involved in Portugal. 

While we're both introverts, preferring to spend time listening to music, reading, playing piano, or hiking, we are worried about social isolation after we arrive.  Once we're settled we're going to try to connect with people through this forum, so if anyone wants to reach out please do!  Private messages are definitely welcome!