If you could live in another land...

[bad Chad]

Just for fun.   Don't give into the need to justify why you don't like where you are, just tell us where you would be if you had whatever reasonable resourcesneeded to be there.  Everything plays a part, geography, present governments, climate and so on.   For this exercise you can't change what is, and where it is.

For much of my life I thought I would never want to leave the nation of my birth, it's huge, and offers tremendous variation, and there is much that holds me within it's boarders, mostly family.  But now, I think there are many wonderful places that would be better for me to set up shop.  I'm going to cheat a bit, since I started this, and not say yey, I would first like to hear your thoughts.  Just for fun.

[reidy]

Well they say the grass is always greener on the other side. For me I would have to consider New Zealand. It has lots of green grass. It also had a reputation for being like Australia but about 10 years behind, which was very appealing. Also at the moment they appear to have their shit in a pile. I am from Australia so it makes it a bit hard to find somewhere better  .

Steve

[wrbix]

New Zealand - no explanation required.

[LowRyter]

I know a couple from Portland OR that retired and moved to a lake community in Mexico.  I was told the cost of living, climate, quality of life and healthcare are outstanding. 

I've looked at apartment prices in the South of France, Spanish Coast and Portugal and all seem affordable with climate and healthcare as well. 

Many have mentioned Costa Rica as great place to move. 

I am more interested in Uruguay which is perhaps the most progressive country in the world.

Canada is a logical choice but it's close enough to the US that it could be invaded and ex-patriots hunted down.

The Netherlands is perhaps the most logical place on earth but I have no idea what the language is about.  Housing is expensive. 

Then there are New Zealand and Australia, I understand immigration is quite difficult to both.  Some of the practical drawbacks are language and driving rules.   Some countries drive on the left side of the road and I have no idea what language they speak in Australia or how to learn it.

For now I'll stick where I am at.  But with the world the way it is, yes, I've considered moving over the last few years. 

[cliffrod]

For a few years after I met my eventual Master Sculptor, I planned to follow his advice and go to Italy to study stone sculpture at a state school like he did.  He spent 4 yrs in Italy and loves to talk up the experience.  He said to skip the Italian lessons because the local dialect would be different.  Just go and do it.  That's how I traveled around the USA as a chef, so I made a lot of tentative arrangements to go Italy for a few years.   

Then I realized that I wanted to carve granite (more than marble), that granite sculpture is a 100% USA tradition and that the Italians came here to do that because the center/colony for modern granite sculpture had been in VT for the previous 100+ yrs  So I just went home to the farm in VT & a few miles over the hill to his studio. Then 9/11 changed a lot of the free-wheeling travel stuff.

There are some friends in AU that I would like to visit someday, but we're perfectly happy at home.  Both my wife and I are tired of living around & traveling.

[JJ]

I would live somewhere in Italy, as my grandparents came from there.  No explanation required!

Grandfather came from Setsi-Romano, (near Rome), and Grandmother came from Ancona, on the Adriatic Sea.

The weather, the culture, the history, the FOOD and WINE, the ocean, and of course, I would import my Centauro GT!

[Canuck750]

I have thought about southern Italy or southern France but my account tells me that for Canadians moving to Costa Rica is very popular as it has universal health care similar to Canada and property owners can acquire it, I would still keep a place in Canada and plan on staying here for at least 5 months if the year to retain my Canadian health coverage. Have also considered Baja California particularly Loreto, nice quiet seaside town. I sold my place in Phoenix this spring, loved Arizona but it was time for a change, need to get near the ocean.

[Guzzistajohn]

Colorado high country in the summer and maybe southern Arizona in the winter. I have no desire to live anywhere other that the good old USA for now. Hoping the best for our future but I am concerned. But at 60, I won't be concerned long   

[Turin]

The Wife and I spent 10 days in New Zealand 2 years ago. Amazing place. Add me to the Wannabee Kiwi list.

[Ncdan]

I’ve never been off the N American continent because I have an issue with flying. That being said, I hope to see a little more of my country.

[Bulldog9]

Ireland Scotland Italy or Greece in a heart beat.

I tell my wife all the time that I am going to disappear and become a local village handyman on the Dingle or Peloponnese Peninsula, or the Isle of Skye......

[Perazzimx14]

I'd pick south America - WV, TN or NC.

[Chuck in Indiana]

I'm another wannabe NZ guy if I "really" had a choice. Costa Rica would be second. That said, I'm old, and not about to pick up stakes and move.

[Matteo]

My home town, Bari in Puglia.

[Green1000S]

North Italy. Hillside with small two room house.

Two olive trees.

Because three would be work.

[balvenie]

In my country I am politically incorrect and would move to the US in a shot.
I would have when I was younger but things did not come together and being older and more feeble now, the opportunity has passed. Too bad about that but I have had a great time on motorcycles instead after getting some, "Do it while you can", advice and as for the PI thing, I have made the absolute most of that too, given political limitations here. So, America would be the place for me in spite of its flaws

[Knuckle Dragger]

Georgia (Sakhartsvelo).  The most beautiful country I've ever travelled.  The most hospitable & friendly indigenous population:  visitors are genuinely & almost universally considered "a gift from God".  Over 8000 years of producing some of the world's great wines.  Some of the most beautiful men & women that I've ever seen.

A tiny country of dramatic contrasts.  About the same size as my native island of Tasmania, yet with Europe's tallest mountain range, glaciers & some of the largest ski fields, subtropical rainforests, & semi-desert.  Surrounded by some 50 odd separate & distinct ethnolinguistic populations, yet retaining its own cultural identity with over 2500 years+ of recorded history, & about 1.8 million years of human habitation.

Who wouldn't love a country where the highest form of achievement for young men to aspire is to perform in the national ballet!  Where kings and generals are less revered than a medieval poet:  almost every town of any size in the country has a Rustaveli High Street!  Where despite countless invasions, wars, sackings, pillaging, enslavement & slaughter (over 250 times) their cultural identity is stronger than ever.  Not even Timur the Lame, who managed to destroy some of the world's most powerful civilisations of the time & murder some 5% of the global population could occupy or enslave them, despite trying to do so on no less than 8 separate occasions!

Some of the world's most "challenging" biker's roads too, with multiple sealed & unsealed heavily switchbacked high mountain passes.

I've travelled to a mere 40 odd different countries in my life, but Georgia is the one that resonates in my consciousness.  I long to return.

[wrbix]

I'd pick south America - WV, TN or NC.

But do you speak the language?

[Jose Mendez]

I would go to Tahiti with a Way-Back machine and set it a life time before Pedro Fernando de Queros, a Spanish navigator, discovered the island in 1607. Otherwise, I am stay put. 

[kirby1923]

For those serious about this subject....

I have lived outside the States for the past 12 years mostly between 3 different countries  but I am still a US citizen .

Those of you folks that are thinking of moving out of the US, think real hard about it, and I suggest you  acquire copy of the US constitution and read the "bill of rights" part because its a very important and unique to the US.

If you become a citizen of another country your going to lose those rights.

I don't know how important you might think this is but to me its the most important thing.

FWIW

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Tasmania would suit me very well.  I spent a week in the northern end some years ago.

[twowheeladdict]

Wandering nomad. Always searching for new roads and new experiences.

Never understood going to the same place every vacation.

[poorBob]

I came very close to immigrating to Iceland back in the oughts. To be honest, if I had the money, I would leave tomorrow.

I could live on a diet of fish, some of the women are strikingly beautiful and the people are generally very intelligent. I could deal with the weather better than I could a hotter clime. The interior roads are almost all gravel and there is a surreal quality to the countryside that I find calming.

It's like no place I've ever been.

[Tusayan]

My family, and my wife (separately) chose to come to the US... and we think it’s the best place in the world to be all you can be.

Once you’re done being all you can be and are living off the proceeds of a few decades of productive work in the US, there are many nice places to enjoy.  I like the Sudtirol or Alto Adige region of Italy where German and Italian are both spoken.  We may spend summers there in the future, at least a couple of them.

[Guzzistajohn]

For those serious about this subject....

I have lived outside the States for the past 12 years mostly between 3 different countries  but I am still a US citizen .

Those of you folks that are thinking of moving out of the US, think real hard about it, and I suggest you  acquire copy of the US constitution and read the "bill of rights" part because its a very important and unique to the US.

If you become a citizen of another country your going to lose those rights.

I don't know how important you might think this is but to me its the most important thing.

FWIW

That would be of BIG TIME importance to this redneck! Good advice Mike!

[TN Mark]

I lived in 7 US states, some of them multiple times and in multiple locations. I've traveled to all 50 US states and 7 other countries. No interest in leaving American (US) soil for good or even for a 'few years'. As was mentioned earlier, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights are unique in the world. We've certainly lost our way due to the nature of men when they get power. But still, I'm not at all interested in leaving. Throughout the United States you can find nearly any climate, any conditions, any standard of living etc etc etc you could nearly anywhere else on the planet. There's a reason people break into, not out of, the United States.

After living in the Chicago area for 11 years, moving to southern Tennessee is like 'living in another land'. If we had a Lou Malnati's for pizza and a Portillo's, it would be perfect.   

[kingoffleece]

Lake Cuomo

[John Ulrich]

My wife and I could live anywhere but have no desire to be anywhere then where we are..... within the lower 48!  If it gets too hot, we go north.  When it gets too cold we go south.  I've lived and traveled in many states for 60+ years and still have not see it all.

Nobody says it better then Lee Greenwood!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_p7eW5BUpA&list=RD0_p7eW5BUpA&index=1

[oldbike54]

 Bhutan .

 Dusty

[normzone]

I tell my wife all the time that I am going to disappear and become a local village handyman on the Dingle or Peloponnese Peninsula, or the Isle of Skye......

At first read I thought you wanted to live on the Isle of Skype, and I thought " That should be easy enough to do ... "