If your retirement daydreams include white sand and the sparkling sea, you’re probably looking into retirement on the beach. These overseas retirement spots boast world-class sea, sand, sun and surf. Each top beach pick is also in a country that offers important advantages for expats and foreign retirees. If you want to spend your days fishing, boating, snorkeling or diving, consider these beach retirement spots:
[See: The Best Places to Retire in 2018.]
1. Ambergris Caye, Belize. Ambergris Caye provides a quintessentially Caribbean lifestyle. Madonna’s song “La Isla Bonita” and the TV series “Temptation Island” put little Ambergris on America’s radar. Before it found itself in the spotlight, this unassuming island outpost was the well-guarded secret of serious divers.
The reef and the Blue Hole are still important parts of Ambergris’s appeal, but today those natural wonders are supported by a fully fledged expat community and all the accoutrements that go with it. Former fishing village San Pedro Town, the island’s only actual population center, is today a sandy chic beach town of white picket fences, wine and cheese shops, delis, golf cart rental agencies, bakeries and art galleries. Demand continues to expand, and this is a great place to start an expat-oriented business.
Genuinely welcoming and friendly San Pedranos have accommodated all the expat attention and population, but they haven’t sold out. Ambergris retains authentic Belizean undertones.
The downside to life on Ambergris is that this is a little island. Not everyone is cut out for life on a small island. When Ambergris begins to feel claustrophobic, you can hop a flight to the mainland for a rain forest escape.
[Read: 3 Places to Retire in Coffee Country.]
2. Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is known for its beaches, which are world class and attract big volumes of tourists every year. But there’s much more to this country than its beaches. These powdery coasts make sense not only as a vacation spot, but also as a place to consider for retirement.
The Dominican Republic is small, about twice the size of the state of New Hampshire, yet it offers an estimated one thousand miles of pristine, white-sand beaches, most of them completely people-free. The tourists congregate in the resort areas. Travel just a few miles away in either direction and you find yourself completely alone on some of the most picturesque stretches of sand you will ever lay eyes on.
Las Terrenas isn’t your typical Caribbean getaway, and it is more cosmopolitan than you might expect. If you have a craving for blue cheese, authentic French baguettes or fresh gnocchi, you can find all of these things here. The French and Italians began settling in Las Terrenas decades ago and have since developed an extensive and diverse culinary, business and service infrastructure geared toward their fellow expats.
Thanks to recently enacted legislation, this island nation is now a far more tax-advantaged choice. In addition, the Dominican Republic offers a competitive retirement residency option. This fast-track program means that your visa can be processed in as little as 45 days. Once you’ve qualified by showing a minimum pension income of $1,500 per month, you’re exempt from tax on dividend and interest income, you’re 50 percent exempt from annual property tax and you’re eligible to import personal and household belongings, including a car, into the country duty-free, among other benefits.
[Read: The 8 Best Places to Retire in Mexico.]
3. Las Tablas, Panama. Within a 20-minute drive of the little town of Las Tablas, you can reach five different beaches, all beautiful and undiscovered. This is a big part of the reason U.S. and Canadian expats have settled in this part of Panama’s Azuero Peninsula, about four hours west of Panama City. The other draw is the cost of living, which is dramatically lower in this region than in Panama’s capital city.
Retirement in this unassuming beach town can become an irresistible notion once you consider the many perks for retirees in Panama. Panama offers a pensionado program of perks and discounts for foreign retirees. It’s an easy place to acquire foreign residency, a tax haven and a travel hub, and it boasts the most developed infrastructure in the region.
Even on the relatively remote Azuero Peninsula, where you find Las Tablas, the roads are paved, the Internet and electricity are reliable and there are safety features like streetlights and fire hydrants. Remote beach living in Panama can be more convenient and has more services than living in the center of the capital city in neighboring countries.
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group.
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The 3 Best Places to Retire on the Beach originally appeared on usnews.com
