"I Want to Move to Portugal" I Did It! Here’s What I Recommend

I'm a Canadian expat who's been living with her husband and house cats in Portugal since 2018 - and I personally love it here!

I don't regret the move at all, and honestly, the longer I live here, the less I can imagine living anywhere else.

So many friends and family members have come to visit us from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom that had never before been to Portugal - and it's easy to see how quickly they fall in love with the place.

But no country is perfect (of course!) and Portugal is definitely more complicated than it appears to be. That being said, if you're asking me whether or not I think Portugal is a good place to live, as I've written about here in detail before, from my perspective and for me, it's probably the best place I could imagine living, not just in the present, but for the foreseeable future.

Could things change? Sure, but I like to look ahead and try to imagine what things will be like in the decades that follow. Especially since I haven't yet started a family, and want to have kids someday - and want those kids to live up in as great an environment as I can provide for them.

And I think Portugal, especially the city my husband and I currently live in - Cascais - definitely fits the bill.

Here's a few things I'd recommend if you want to move to Portugal. Some obvious, some not so obvious. Many of these are things that made me hesitate about a potential move to this country, others are things I learned along the way. Let's get into it!

What I'd Recommend to Other Expats Who Want to Move to Portugal

1. Don't stress out if you don't know Portuguese.

By golly did this one stress me out before I moved here. I didn't speak a single word of Portuguese before I moved to this country, and - quite frankly - I still don't know or understand the vast majority of Portuguese. Although I know a few words or phrases that help make life here a little more convenient/seamless.

The Portuguese speak English. Not all of them, of course, and while plenty of people only speak Portuguese, you'll find that a large percentage of the Portuguese are very talented linguistically, and so many speak either English or French as a second language.

And I'm not talking about a word or two here or there. No, I am green with envy of the mastery of every Portuguese person I've met who, when I ask them, replies that they speak "A little" English. Their "little" English is a level of Portuguese, and French, I would be so proud to be able to use - it's honestly very good and they seem to be completely unaware of how talented they are in their ability to speak the English language.

I've written more about this topic in this article which also explains how hard it would be to get by if you only speak English in Portugal. I'll cut to the chase and let you know - it isn't hard at all. All thanks to the ridiculous linguistic ability of so many Portuguese residents' that I will forever envy in my fumbly efforts to learn and master even the most basic elements of their language.

2. Keep an open mind & be aware that things aren't going to be the same as they are where you come from.

There are similarities between cultures, and there are massive differences. And so things that you believe are obvious and straightforward, or would make perfect sense in Canada or the UK or even in the US, just aren't the same here, and you can't expect them to be.

Some things seem just outright strange to foreigners: like the fact that there are so many abandoned homes and properties - but I promise, they make sense here, and exist for very specific reasons that you will no doubt uncover with only a little prodding.

Other things are remarkably delightful differences, such as (in my opinion) one of the absolute best reasons to live in Portugal - how life in Portugal is so unbelievably safe in comparison to other places I've lived.

Then there are the things that will drive you absolutely bonkers - which happens anywhere you live!

For me, these are things like: dogs that ceaselessly bark, are off-leash when barked, and how many poops are left on the sidewalk (minor inconveniences sure, but it's a massive annoyance to me!).

The fact that the Portuguese are such laid back, chill people is incredible, but on the flipside of this coin is an issue you'll soon discover if you move to Portugal - it often takes ages to get things done. Don't even bother trying to do anything in the month of August, for example! That's vacation month!

And how difficult it is when you first start out to build out a network of contacts that you really could have used before you made your move to Portugal. This one bothers you until it no longer does, because the longer you live here, the less of an issue and the more of an asset it becomes.

3. Ideally, I'd recommend not trying to find work in Portugal.

I'm going to be honest here, I've quite literally never tried to find work or ever worked in Portugal myself, and from what I know and have heard, this isn't the easiest feat for locals, let alone foreigners.

Is it possible? Sure. But if I had to recommend anything with regards to work - it's that Portugal is a great place to retire and work abroad, say with remote work or having a business that isn't Portuguese, but it's a bit of a minefield with regards to starting a business or finding work locally.

From issues with finding a job that has good wages, to finding work if you don't have great mastery over the language, to long work hours and a work culture that's very different and not likely an ideal fit for those of us who are not from Portugal, I'd say - if you have any way of securing work (if you need it!) outside the country, you're going to have a heck of a lot easier time and are likely to enjoy this country far more than if you are trying to find work in Portugal after you move here.

There's one last thing I'd recommend and this is something that was such a foreign concept to me from my background having lived in Canada and the UK...

4. Creating a social network is vital.

Friends, family members, acquaintances, contacts, it's so, so important to having a good life in Portugal.

I've spoken about it before in some of my articles, but basically - in my experience - it doesn't actually take a lot of money to have a high quality of life here in Portugal.

In fact, I don't even think having a lot of money is very high up on the list of things that make life in Portugal substantially better.

A reasonable amount of money goes a very long way, but once you have a decent amount, the number one thing that I personally think allows you to have a better, happier, safer life in Portugal is social capital - knowing good people, having connections through friends and family and their friends and family, and basically being able to use those connections to find the people you need to get the things you want and need done.

That's because (as I explained in my article on the right way to find a good lawyer in Portugal) - people who are good at their job, excellent at what they do, and are just all-round helpful and wonderful people to work with already have enough clients and customers, as they manage to keep the ones they have and get a lot of referrals through word of mouth because they are so good.

And thus, they don't do things that are typical in other countries - spend a lot on marketing and advertising, many do not even have websites let alone pay for SEO or ads to get new clients in.

So the only way to find out about these people is to know a person who has worked with them and ask for a referral. Or rather, if you need something done, the only way to make sure you end up with the right person to do it is to ask around and find friends and family recommendations that will lead you straight to the ideal person to get done what you need doing.

This used to be frustrating, coming from a country where I could simply search to find services, and where those who are good at their job continuously up their fees or hire more employees and grow their businesses to take on even more work.

But here, where people are more laid back and content to just do their jobs well, and then strike that amazing work-life balance we're all after in this day and age, it's just not possible to find good lawyers, real estate agents, contractors, gardeners - whatever help you can imagine needing - unless you ask someone if they know someone who does that job well.

Nowadays, it's easy for me to find these people because I've had the wonderful luck of having been surrounded by the most incredible, supportive, helpful people, and those people - if they don't know anyone themselves - are ridiculously kind and will go out of their way to ask their own friends and family for referrals for me.

Of course, I know this isn't something that most who move to Portugal have the privilege of being to tap into - and usually it takes many years before you know enough people to have this level of safety in human connection - but if you find yourself in that position, feel free to count me as your first connection and I'll happily tap into my own little social network of friends and family for you, if I don't know the answer myself that is!

It's hard, brutally hard, making a move without having people to support you. I know this firsthand, which is why I'm happy to do what I can to make things easier for other expats - so don't hesitate to ask me any and all questions you might want to, just head over here to send me a message.

5. More things I love about living in Portugal...

If you're curious about more of the reasons I think Portugal is a great place to live, head over to this article where I list a bunch of them.

I really can't imagine living anywhere else right now, and I'm ever so glad I ended up here!