As with meeting people, first impressions of a new city mean everything.
Here’s my first impression of Cascais, Portugal… I freakin’ love this place!
Take the absolute best of Southern California, combine it with parts of Baja California and northern Arizona, and compress all that into a thimble-sized beach community west of Lisbon… and voila! You have Cascais.
I know that’s a very strange mash-up—coastal Pacific mixed with Arizona high desert. But it works fantastically well.
Cascais is hilly and dry but covered in a variety of coastal pine trees and palms. Streets are shaded by a canopy of trees (I think sycamore?). Bougainvillea and Jacaranda trees bloom everywhere. A constant ocean breeze cools you as you walk … or as you sit at a beachside cafe for a late lunch and writing.
As I told my wife, Yulia, in a text message after I’d walked around the city for 12 miles on my first day here: “Honestly, this is like living in a beach resort every day of your life.”
Her response: “Probably because it is a beach resort.”
Clearly, I wed a snarky woman!
But let me back up…
Living an Affordable Beach Lifestyle in Portugal
As regular readers will be aware, my wife and I are moving to Portugal from Prague. I’ve lived in the Czech capital for the last five years, but now it’s time to move on.
As part of that process, I had to fly to Portugal from Prague last Saturday so that I could spend the week setting up utilities in our new apartment, dealing with banking issues, and working through school issues for my stepson. Outside of those moments, I spent hours walking the city, strolling the beach promenade, and nibbling at local eateries.
And the takeaway I have for Americans is this: If you want a substantially lower cost of living while loving an upgraded lifestyle at the beach… you cannot go wrong moving to Cascais.
Seriously.
This place is gorgeous.
And cheap! Holy jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!
I wandered through a local supermarket/supercenter called Auchan. Think: Super Target had a love-child with Best Buy and Ace Hardware. I was sending Yulia pictures of everything we buy at home in Prague and reporting the price to her. Everything we normally buy in Prague is 20% to 50% cheaper in Portugal. And Prague was already 20% to 30% cheaper than the U.S.
Move to Portugal, and your dollars go a helluva long way.
When signing up for utilities, I was given an option of how much to pay per month. I chose to pay a flat, monthly charge instead of fluctuating bills based on usage each month. And I chose the highest price, just to be sure. My cost: €70 ($77) per month.
The last time I paid a $77 utility bill in America was exactly never. Meanwhile, my utilities in Prague cost about $425 per month (inflation in the wake of the Ukraine war has been insane in the Czech utility market).
In Cascais, my new internet plan (1-gigabit speed, very fast), cable TV (180 channels) and two mobile phone plans with unlimited data is €93.49 ($104) per month. That’s well below what I was paying in the U.S. Better yet, it’s 46% cheaper than what we now pay in Prague for the same trio with nearly identical benefits.
Basically, my cost structure is going to drop sharply in Cascais, even as my lifestyle ramps up dramatically. We can walk to the beach and have quick access to the center of Cascais with all its shopping and dining options. The local train station is very close, meaning we can be in the heart of Lisbon in about 40 minutes.
We’ll also be leasing a car, which will open the wonders of a country that goes from coastal beaches to coastal cliffs, and Old-World urban cities to wine country, hill country, and picturesque riverine valleys.
Simply Put: We’re Moving to Portugal for a Better Life
If you’ve been reading my dispatches for a while, or the stories I write for International Living magazine, you’ll know that I regularly counsel readers to “go see a place before you move there.” My move to Cascais would seem to be at odds with that advice since I’d never been to Cascais before this trip.
However, I’ve been all over Portugal through the years, from up north in Porto to Lisbon. I’ve driven through wine country out near the Spanish border to the east. And I’ve toured large swaths of the Algarve in the south and driven along the west coast. I knew I’d love living in Portugal and I suspected Cascais would be a lot like the Algarve, which Yulia loves.
As such, the decision to relocate to Cascais was based on an educated hunch that “if I love everywhere in Portugal, then there’s a very good chance I’ll love living in a small, beachy resort community close to Lisbon.”
And I was right…
Cascais is comfortable. It’s picturesque. It doesn’t feel crowded, even though we’re in the heart of summer tourist season right now. It’s manageable. It’s walkable. The beaches are numerous and very nice.
The food is fabulous. Sangria, I’m certain, flows from municipal water pipes. And the city is incredibly affordable (and this is one of the more expensive destinations in Portugal, so that tells you how cheap the cost of living can be elsewhere).
Like I said, I freakin’ love this place.
Living here really is going to be like living in a resort.
And if you’re looking for that kind of affordable beachy life—a phrase that does not exist anywhere in the U.S.—well, I’ll be looking for you in Cascais…