The Best Thing About Life In Portugal: Safety

I grew up in Canada - Toronto to be exact. And I felt super safe growing up there. The crime rates seem to have gone up, especially as the city has grown, but I never felt truly unsafe in Canada, not really.

When I lived in the UK briefly - in Bournemouth - I wouldn't say I felt unsafe, just less so. But I was only there a couple years, and I didn't have a lot of experience commuting or travelling, and I was always doing so with my husband, Thomas, so I could never say I got a great gauge of how safe the city or country I was living in was at the time.

Still, I think you can feel these things, and when I moved to Portugal, specifically Cascais, I felt a type of safety and security I feel I've never known before, even having grown up in Canada where I felt things were incredibly safe by comparison to other places in my younger years.

Some of the Many Reasons I Feel So Safe in Portugal

There's a lot of layers to this feeling of safety and security, so I'm going to try to unpack it best I can here.

Personal Security

The single best image I can paint to express just how safe Portugal feels, especially here in Cascais, is seeing the herds of children, sometimes a group of 4-5 pre-teen girls, sometimes an older sibling with two younger siblings, sometimes even pre-teen boys outdoors playing Pokemon Go all on their own - that quite literally just go about their lives without need for supervision by their parents.

In Canada, this was a no-go. I couldn't walk to school on my own, let alone go out and about for hours playing videogames on my phone without any adult supervision. And while you could argue it was safe enough and my parents didn't let me do this because they were paranoid (I won't disagree with you there!), here this is the absolute norm for good reason - it really is safe enough to.

Kids go to school on their own, they come home on their own, teenagers go out with very young siblings together, gender doesn't matter - going out is safe for pre-teens to do on their own, so they do it.

You'll almost never see a group of kids on the beach with parent supervision. And on more than one occasion I've seen a group of teens walking home together past midnight in suburban areas outside the city center, coming back home from the city.

It's so normalized because it's just so safe. And these kids grow up with better awareness, better social skills, more freedom, it's quite a boon to their experience of life and yet it's practically an impossible thing to imagine coming from North America.

I don't think the locals get it - as they're completely oblivious to how incredible a thing this is, and pretty much take it for granted. But I for one can't see myself ever taking this kind of safety for granted - it's just such a privilege.

City Zoning

Part of the safety is in the fact that - well the homes are quite packed in - where there are homes, and where there are apartments, those are even more packed in.

The city zoning in many areas I've been is ideal for being able to walk and travel by foot to places you need, it's very walkable, and this contributes, in my opinion quite considerably to the feeling of safety anyone gets walking around the cities here, even in the late hours of the night, and the wee hours of the morning.

You're basically in ear shot of help if you need it. There are dark alleys and areas that are more sparsely populated, sure, but they are rare, and short typically.

Walking around feels very safe in the center of town. Even outside the city centers - where there are primarily homes - homes are mostly semi-detached and terraced houses that use every square inch of land they can to maximize space.

Half the street could be on vacation, but I'm sure if I had an emergency, needed help, or even was injured in some way and couldn't move, crying out would yield at least a few concerned neighbours who would certainly come to see what the commotion was over, and lend a hand.

And unlike in many countries, if you need help, this is the kind of country where you can get attention easily, and people will help you.

The Kindness of the Portuguese

The Portuguese are quite frankly some of the kindest people I've ever met in my life. It's not a kindness like I've seen before - my brother was once sitting down in the shade on a sidewalk because he felt dizzy (likely heatstroke, there was so much sun and it was very hot that day!), and the only person who happened to pass by quite literally stopped to check on him.

When my brother said he didn't speak Portuguese, the thoughtful man switched to English and asked him if he was alright - and my brother explained he just felt a bit dizzy, and of course thanked the man.

I honestly cannot imagine many places in the world where this simple act of kindness would have taken place - yet here I know it's the norm. You can ask quite literally any person on the street for help - and while sometimes it won't be the best advice - advice and help is always freely given. It's quite astonishing, to be honest.

Medical Security

I have a bit of a fear of doctors and healthcare in general, honestly. In Canada, if you visit the doctor for anything less than an absolute emergency, your symptoms are often dismissed.

You often won't be believed, tests won't be run, when they are run you often won't get notified that the results are in, and finding a GP in the first place to go to is such a hassle, that you end up in walk-in clinics most of the time where they do even more dismissing of your concern.

I honestly feel like they see every patient as a hypochondriac, even if they have legitimate concerns. My aunt had a pinched nerve in her spine that needed surgery, but by the time they found out what it was (they wouldn't even do a simple x-ray!), years after the pain started, no one wanted to operate, so she had to take matters into her own hands and find a doctor in another country.

I am sure the healthcare is far better here because we have private healthcare, but from what I hear, the public healthcare is just as good, it just takes a lot longer in terms of wait times.

And private healthcare, medical insurance, all of the medications and treatments you can imagine, are far more affordable here even if you do want to go out of pocket for a few things - or everything.

Part of this is because so many people have medical insurance, but part of it is also because medications and treatments are far cheaper in Europe than they ever were in Canada, even with the healthcare "being free" in Ontario with OHIP. I remember paying astronomical sums for medications.

A quick look up of the popular birth control Yasmin's pricing in Canada - $104.95 / month (without taxes included of course). In Portugal (where taxes are included), it's €54.95 - for 3 months, with taxes and delivery and shipping included, and that's just an online retailer, there are many pharmacies you can get it far cheaper from in person.

And that's just for the branded stuff. If you go for medications and drugs that are generic, the pricing is inconceivably less - to this Canadian, I feel like they're giving it away basically for free. Okay, maybe not free, but practically at-cost.

Financial Security

Now, I'm not going to say financially life is easy. Especially if you work in Portugal, wages are not great at all. I will say, however, that for some reason it feels like financial security is not such a burden here in Portugal.

Not that things aren't expensive - they are cheap for expats and foreigners, not for the Portuguese.

But there are ways to go about life in more affordable ways. You can make do with a lot less here, and you will not suffer nearly as much (in my opinion), if you have rock-bottom wages and are being paid minimum wage as you were if you were trying to get by on minimum wage in Canada.

Also, having a decent amount of money, a good, reasonable amount, goes very far here.

Having a lot of money does not seem to be a pre-requisite here for being able to get by, getting things done, and just all around having a good quality of life.

Does it help? Of course! But is it necessary to have a lot to have a good quality of life? Not really.

Security Through People

Actually, money is not the number one thing that leads to a better, happier, safer life in Portugal, in my experience.

In my opinion, to an extent, the thing that matters so much more is social capital - knowing good people, having good connections, knowing a person who knows a person who can help you do the thing you need to do, or find the person you need to get into contact with to fix your problem.

Knowing someone who knows a good contractor is far more valuable than having a lot of money to be able to get the job done. Being able to get in touch with a good mechanic is more important than having a crazy budget to spend on fixing your car. Finding a good banker through a friend is more valuable than having a stupid sum in the bank. The list goes on forever, but you get the point.

Unfortunately for those new to the country, this is something they typically have very little of - sometimes for many years.

And having no connections in Portugal at all before my husband and I decided to move here was honestly the only factor that contributed to my incredibly heightened stress, anxiety, and worry when we first moved to this country.

But now that we're established, I am hoping I can help others who are moving here to not have to go through what we did. To give them a foot up, a head start, connections to begin with so they don't have to start from scratch like we did.

If you happen to be in the process of or just starting your journey living in Portugal, please do reach out - as I would love to help, even if it's just by answering questions you might have.