8 ms·
Living in the world's most welcoming countries
- monkmartinez 10y agoMy wife is from Colombia and I love it there. We definitely plan on living part of the year there and part of the year in the US when we retire. I will mention outside of the Mountainous cities, it is very warm and humid. The cities at say 1828m (6,000ft) and above are absolutely perfect climates year round. Bonus: You can get in shape very, very quickly in the mountains.
- da02 10y agoWhat are your favorite towns or cities to live long-term there?
- monkmartinez 10y agoManizales
- hwayern 10y agoIs altitude a problem? Like, do you find yourself out of breath very easily?
- mikestew 10y agoMy experience says that 6000 feet will be noticeable, but you'll be able to, say, climb a flight of stairs and be a bit more winded than usual. As another example, the Paradise visitor's center at Mount Rainier sits at (IIRC) 7K feet. Plenty of fat people waddle out of their cars and make it across the parking lot just fine. They don't generally go very far up the mountain, but they make it. And the residents of Denver, CO seem to survive at 5200 feet. To me, "noticing altitude" starts at about 10K feet. For reference, life-long endurance athlete who still stays in pretty good shape in his middle-age.
- macintux 10y agoI tried to sprint to make a connecting flight in Denver (after waiting on the tarmac for 30 minutes to get a gate, grumble). What a mistake. I never had a chance. Sad part was it took me a few minutes to remember why I was suddenly an invalid.
- mikestew 10y agoAs always, YMMV. I can run a marathon in under 3:00, and making an airport connection in Denver probably wouldn't phase me much (I've run in Denver, but not to make a flight). OTOH, I distinctly remember going up Pike's Peak at >14K feet, and found the walk across the parking lot to be challenging. I can't imagine what climbing a >20K foot peak must be like given that humbling experience.
- monkmartinez 10y agoI get my ass kicked in Bogota every summer @ 9k feet. I live at 2.5k and run 24 to 30 miles a week almost 40yo, and it hits me HARD there...
- blackguardx 10y agoI live in Colorado. You get used to the altitude in a few weeks.
- Arcsech 10y agoColorado Springs is about the same altitude (~6000ft), Denver is only a little lower. By and large you don't notice unless you do something that makes you breathe hard, in which case it'll take you a while to catch your breath for the first few weeks. Honestly the biggest annoyance about living at altitude is baking recipes require adjustment pretty much all the time, you can't just use a bread recipe designed for sea level and expect it to work right.
- david-given 10y agoA British friend of mine lives in Colorado. He loves everything about the place, except for one thing: he can't get a decent cup of tea there for love nor money. (Because water boils at too low a temperature.)
- wnoise 10y agoNow I'm wondering about pressure-cooking tea...
- Arcsech 10y agoI think the problem you'd have is that good tea is a function of both time and temperature - you'd end up ruining the tea because of the time it takes to get the vessel to pressure. Unless you had some way of keeping the tea isolated until the vessel got to pressure...
- Arcsech 10y agoI just drink green or white tea mostly, which you steep at a lower temperature anyway. But yeah, water boils at 201F where I live, so I know this pain.
- jowiar 10y agoI was in Bogota earlier this month. We flew in from sea level, and felt some degree of crappy for a few days (and a bit scared that we were suffering mosquito-borne ailments from our previous adventure before we realized the altitude). We eventually settled in, but 8000 ft up is for real.
- monkmartinez 10y agoYep, I get sick almost every summer. It is 9K+ where we stay. I absolutely love the weather there, however the traffic is insane. Also, where my sister in law lives there is a really cool park where people work out, walk, and show off their dogs. I have never seen so many exoitc breeds of dogs. Also, Also, Andres carne de res!
- jowiar 10y agoAndres was crazy fun and delicious, and the tasting menu at Leo was one of the best five meals of my life.
- Overtonwindow 10y agoThis is an interesting list but I would caution that it appears to be written for a European audience. For Americans, I don't think it takes into account current political climates, and general safety of westerners. Oman and the Philippines are beautiful places to go, truly wonderful, but they can also be very dangerous for Americans.
- glibgil 10y ago> they can also be very dangerous for Americans Evidence?
- vwcx 10y agoYeah, seriously. Oman? It's like Middle East-Lite.
- run4yourlives2 10y agoIn Philippines and Columbia, kidnapping for ransom is still a thing in certain areas, particularly of "rich" westerners.
- iamatworknow 10y agoIf you're an American concerned about Trump I'm not sure Duterte is a great alternative in the Philippines.
- leppr 10y agoI fail to see how Oman and especially the capital Muscat is dangerous. This is the one country where I've felt safest, and its safety is the reason for it being a very popular destination for wild camping.
- gexla 10y agoI'm an American living in the Philippines. The dangerous areas are dangerous for all foreigners. Kidnappings are a method for making money. The kidnappers don't care what nationality you are, they're only interested in what funds they could get from snagging you. There are lots of other areas which aren't considered dangerous, but places in which you could still run across rebel groups. They are the same smiling locals you'll find anywhere else, just with guns and a cause. Flip them some coin for the revolution, maybe buy a bottle of Tanduay and you'll be fine.
- petercooper 10y agoCan someone TLDR this for those of who live in the UK where such BBC content is blocked?
- skykooler 10y ago...Why is the BBC blocked in the UK, of all places?
- LifeQuestioner 10y ago"tv licence fee doesnt cover it" like what the actual fuck...?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- celticninja 10y agoThis is the for profit arm, basically resells BBC content internationally, with the website they show adverts, the BBC is not allowed to show adverts in the UK.
- warp 10y agoMy understanding (I don't live in the UK) is that the BBC is wholly or partially government funded. As such there are certain things the BBC cannot do within the UK, because it would unfairly compete with other UK media companies which don't have similar government funding. (But I could be completely wrong, if so... please correct me :)
- jowiar 10y agoVisiting Colombia recently, Bogota felt like an absolutely brilliant place to work remotely from. Housing and dining are ridiculously cheap (and high quality), but one can easily collaborate with the US (it's on the eastern time zone, and flying in for meetings isn't particularly far away).
- frankus 10y agoUganda may not be a great fit for a lot of people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Uganda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Uganda
- machbio 10y agohave heard recently alarmingly high crime rate in Costa Rica for Foreigners, I would stay out of Costa Rica
- knz 10y agoTwo of my coworkers experienced armed home invasions while on holiday in Costa Rica (5 years apart, within the last 10 years). One of them had the same people come back the following evening. It's a small sample size but it's a hell of an anecdote!
- run4yourlives2 10y agoThere are very good reasons people DON'T live in those countries though. Most have to do with things westerners take for granted, like stable electricity, not needing to bribe cops, and being able to easily purchase goods when you need to. YMMV as always. Places aren't easy to move to unless they are trying to create a place that is hard to move to.
- gabomagno03 10y agoAs someone living in one of those countries, I got to ask, have you actually visited one of them? Sure if you go to a rural place then a solid electric grid may be an issue, but not at all in mid to large cities.
- rwmj 10y agoIt would be nice to have a guide to developed world countries with easy paths to permanent residence and/or citizenship.
- baursak 10y agoRemember kids, all Westerners are never migrants, immigrants, or God forbid, refugees. They're just expats.