I thought I would check in with a more personal article today. Quite a few changes have been happening this year and I know some of you are curious about it. Come journey with me as I show you how I’ve been traveling through Portugal to find my new home.
Although this site is about improving your style, ultimately it’s about improving your life and your experience of it. If you’re anything like me, you’re always trying to lead your best life according to your values.
For me, freedom has always been one of my strongest values.
The freedom to work when I want.
Where I want.
And how much I want.
This strong crave for freedom is one of the biggest reasons I started 40+style. If you’re interested in learning more about how that’s possible with a site like 40+style, you may find this article interesting.
40+style is now almost 10 years old!
I know… I can’t believe it either.
Starting the site is one of the best decisions I ever made. Making the site a success is one of my biggest achievements. Not only because it gave me the freedom I craved, but I also got to help many thousands of women feel better about themselves and their style and continue to do so.
I got to meet many inspiring women too. Both off and online.
It’s been both rewarding and fulfilling.
To date more than 30 million people have visited the site.
I may reflect more on 10 years of 40+style a little later in September.
a lifestyle change
Last year my husband resigned from his job. Our son went off to university in Australia, where he was born. As new empty nesters and no ‘jobs’ to go to, we could now move anywhere.
Of course that was a bit harder when the coronavirus hit when it was suddenly difficult to travel.
Still, last May we left Singapore for Portugal from an almost empty Changi Airport.
We craved going back to Europe and Portugal appealed to us for several reasons. We arrived with a few small suitcases as tourists ready to explore.
We had no idea where we would want to ‘settle’ as I only had been to Portugal twice for 2 fleeting visits.
Exploring and traveling through Portugal
We started our exploration in Lisbon. We have always been city people and this seemed like the natural place to start.
We walked through the many beautiful small streets of Lisbon.
We came across this cute store solely dedicated to rubber duckies. “How can there be a market for this? “we thought. Apparently there is a big market for it. It’s a chain store! (we saw more of these stores afterwards).
We visited nearby Sintra with its many historic buildings and palaces. Especially beautiful were the gardens of the Quinta da Regaleira palace where you can find the very special Knights of Templar initiation well.
We also visited coastal town Cascais and further north beach town Ericeira where we got a bit adventurous with mountain bikes.
Another touristic highlight was the small town of Obidos where you get taken back to the past.
A pleasure of traveling through Portugal at the end of Spring is that you come across MANY stork nests.
We later traveled South to Evora, a beautiful town in the province of Alentejo, one of the driest areas of Portugal.
The city centre is beautiful with many old streets and small restaurants.
Evora has lots of histroric (Roman) monuments too.
You’ll also come across lots of cork trees. The beauty about these trees is that they are very sustainable. After the cork has been taken off, it grows right back!
Another highlight from this region is the Almendres Cromlech. It is thought to be the oldest stone circle in Europe, even older than Stonehenge.
Portugal has more than 150 forts and castles and you can see them literally everywhere. I especially liked the castles in Marvao and Castelo de Vide.
Through several other villages we arrived in southern Portugal, in the Algarve. This is the place where normally thousands of tourists descend in July and August to soak up the sunshine.
Faro was our next accommodation stop. It’s the capital of the Algarve and the place where most tourists arrive. It’s a beautiful town which was very quiet when we visited.
Next stop was Lagos. We had marked this as a potential spot for us to live. It’s a town that attracts quite a lot of tourists but also digital nomads. These are people that run online businesses (like me) and it’s always great to meet with others that understand the work I do.
It has incredible beaches and coastlines too.
It’s a lovely town for sure but it was also very quiet when we were there so it was difficult to get an idea of the ‘real’ vibe. I was also getting a bit tired from travelling from town to town, so I wanted a break.
I told my husband that I wanted to go to a resort with a pool and a lazy chair. My husband wanted a nice beach. We couldn’t find anything suitable in Lagos and we ended up in a smaller town just 10 minutes away from Lagos called Luz where I had a few glorious days on the beach on a lazy chair.
Little did I know that this ‘need’ for a bit of rest and relaxation would change the course for the year and our life moving forward.
But I will tell you more about that next week.
For now tell me, would you want to move to another country? And if yes, what country would you go?
Related articles you may like:
Did you like this article on traveling through Portugal? Save it on Pinterest
Sylvia is 40+style’s editor-in-chief and has been helping women find their unique style since 2011. An alumni of the School of Color and Design, she is devoted to empowering women of any age to look and feel their best. Read more about Sylvia and 40+style on this page.
Want to get more articles from 40+style in your inbox, subscribe here.
You can also connect with 40+style on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest.
Support 40+style by using the links in our articles to shop. As an associate for Amazon and many other brands, we receive a small commission (at no cost to you) on qualifying purchases which enables us to keep creating amazing free content for you. Thanks!
How lovely to read of your journey. Have you both retired? We lived in France for several years but longed to be back in the US to be close to family. We became empty nesters and both kids moved across the country. When we retired we Moved from the east coast to the west coast – much like moving to a foreign country. Outrageously expensive, a desert with wildfires everywhere and earthquakes waiting to happen. Things are only green where there is irrigation. So we’ve moved back east with plans of lots of visiting. Covid certainly derailed that. But, living where it is green is important to us. Waiting to here where you’re settling
No we are not retired. We both have a business to run. But we can work from anywhere so we still plan to travel a lot. Update on house coming up soon!
We traveled to Portugal a couple of years ago, and my husband would like to move there. We have plans in September to visit Madeira and Lisbon. Madeira is trying to attract digital nomads, something we are work-wise, but we’re not quite empty nesters yet. Mértola in southern Portugal was trying to attract the digital nomads as well. Looking forward to reading more of your story!
How fun that you may to move here too. Lagos has quite a lot of digital nomads and is the most known for it in the Algarve. Advantage is that it doesn’t get too cold in winter. Yes they are really pushing Madeira as a digital nomads place, but that is a bit too secluded for me. (although I would love to visit Madeira soon).
Living abroad for a spell is such an educational and personal-growth experience, no matter where one goes. In my youth I spent four years teaching English in Japanese schools and spending vacations exploring more of Asia (including a week in Singapore); a decade after that I worked in Germany for a while. Now I am ‘stuck’ in the American midwest, limited to “armchair travel”. I have joked that my husband and I will have to move abroad in order to ever be able to afford retirement, and Portugal is one of the places up for consideration. I’d love to at least visit there someday. I envy your lifestyle but kudos to you for building up a business that gives you income while satisfying a passion.
You are very right. You always learn something. One think you realize is that no country is every ‘perfect’. There are always things you like and things you miss from other countries. Portugal is certainly a lot cheaper than the US. It’s also never too late to start your location independent business!
Love your articles. We lived in France, the Netherlands and London for six and a half years. Our favorite was France, but living in Holland was much easier. Have visited Portugal and plan to return
Would love to know more of your stories. All 3 definitely have their own character. Interesting that you found The Netherlands the easiest.
Sylvia, I very much enjoyed this article and look forward to hearing more of your adventures. I visited Portugal a few years ago with my cousins and loved it. The Portuguese people we met were so friendly and welcoming. We started with a wine cruise on the Douro River, and worked our way down to Lisbon, where I found a perfect apartment to stay for a few days. I noticed you didn’t mention visiting Porto yet. That is a lovely city. I also enjoyed northern Spain, where my daughter and I walked just a few days on the Camino and stayed a few days in an apt in León. Best to you on finding your new home. Btw, I’d be interested to know what sandals you’re wearing with the blue dress near the beach, ty.
Hi Jan, Great to hear you enjoyed this. I will talk about Porto a bit later 🙂 As for the shoes they are from Aerosoles. I have not been able to find the exact same ones online but some shoes on this page are very similar. https://amzn.to/3xsNmx5
Have been to Lisbon on cruises a few times, lovely. Visited several Spanish cities, like the vibe, Cadiz is my favourite. Canada is beautiful and New Zealand appeals. My partner would move to Canaries at the drop of a hat. I also like Baltic. Think I am a Viking at heart and he is a Roman, by our tastes/appearance.! Always buy some quirky jewellery on hols Good luck with everything Sylvia.
I would love to move to Sweden, Norway (I have visited), Denmark (!) or Netherlands, because I like their overall outlook on life and social welfare helping everyone to live the best life society can create. However, I understand it can be tough to make friends as outsiders.
Yes socially it’s not always easy. Certainly when you’re introverted as I am. Introversion also helps of course, as I enjoy my own company and can spend large periods alone. Still, there are always ‘outsiders’ in any place. And those can become your biggest friends.
Sylvia, I’ve enjoyed traveling vicariously around Portugal this past year. Your travel and fashion posts have been such treats! Next month I will visit Portugal (from the US) for the first time. Can’t wait. Thank you for the inspiration!
How fun Caroline. You will enjoy an upcoming post where I will share a lot more about my travels in northern Portugal. I hope you have wonderful time!
Enjoyed reading your travel adventures . Wow…congratulations on 30 millions visiting your site! Hubby & I enjoyed our holidays to Portugal. Our #1 was the Netherlands. We’re off to start a big adventure also to British Columbia . We’re packed & moving across Canada . Keep posting your travels .
How interesting that you liked the Netherlands best. What did you like about it? British Columbia is fabulous and so beautiful. Enjoy!
I spent a year traveling around the world when I retired. My favorite countries were Costa Rica and New Zealand. My favorites cities were Barcelona and Chiang Mai, Thailand. After all that travel, I will not be moving. I’ll be staying in California to be with my son and his family.
Wonderful that you were able to travel for a year! I plan to visit all of these places again. California is a wonderful place to call home 🙂
Looks beautiful. I have two of my three children who live overseas. One in Sweden, the other in Tokyo. We bought an apartment in Sweden and I loved it there but unfortunately I could not stay beyond three months in, three months out. Then with the pandemic and not allowing USA into that country, or the EU in general, we sold the apartment. That was my experience living overseas. Just rentals for me in the future. Portugal looks lovely.
Still it’s good that you tried it and discover that you prefer renting over buying. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
I like travelling and exploring around Europe, but home for me is in England. I did consider buying a holiday home in Portugal/Madeira, but it never came to pass. I shall continue with my holidays for as long as I’m able and can afford to do so, but I wouldn’t want to permanently move to another country.
I enjoyed your travel log.
Hey Sharon. Great to know you enjoyed this article. More next week! There are quite a few english that have holidays homes here and in normal times it’s super easy to travel here. I’m sure travel will soon be easy again.
Yes I have considered moving from the US to Europe, I’m attracted to Italy and Paris, places where fashion is interesting. My mother was from Copenhagen, and my husband’s family are Italian, so we have strong ties to European ways. We experimented with a three months stay in Florence. The convenience of travel and walkable cities appeal to me. We are planning another two month stay, hopefully in 2022. I have a art background, and made handwoven clothes for sale, so the artisan atmosphere feels right for me. Good luck in Portugal, looks wonderful!
Yes I love those places too. My plan is to spend a whole month (or more) in each of those places. More on that later…
Portugal is on my bucket list – Lisboa, Porto, Coimbra, Aveiro. Would love to move to Spain – Barcelona or Valencia. Malaga is very nice too.
Yes visited all those places! More on that in upcoming posts. I love Spain to and it’s great that I’m now so close. Traveling there this month 🙂
I have not been to Portugal. My daughter went a few years ago with some friends and loved it!
I love visiting other countries. I’ve actually been to the Netherlands and I loved Amsterdam, so beautiful. Think I’ll stay in Canada though. Best of luck in your search for a new home!
Thanks so much Kathy!
I love all of your necklaces! Beautiful pictures. No, I have no intention of moving to another country. Quite happy where I live now, in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is wonderful. Especially in summer 🙂 Will be visiting this month.