Sharing an expat’s experience with the process of relocating, or their life overseas, can teach some very useful lessons.

Here’s a list of expat and travel blogs and websites that are worth a look. To my surprise, I discovered it’s been about three months since the last one, so here’s a new list for 2012.

1. My Life In Canada Under the Snow
2. Gringos in Paradise (Mexico), for American expats in Mexico
3. Anywhere in the World, expat entrepreneur from France
4. The Road Less Traveled, American couple spend part of every year in Mexico in an RV or boat.
5. Overseas Exile, American currently in Amsterdam.
6. Far Away Hammer
7. The Venice Experiment, American expats in Venice, Italy.
8. Without Any Walls, expats in Germany.
9. Gringos Abroad, a family of Canadians in Ecuador.
10. Piglet in Portugal, writes a lot about food as well as other aspects of everyday expat life in Portugal.
11. Nicaragua Dispatch. This is actually an online newspaper, but I found it well worth spending some time with.
12. Expats in Italy
13. The Zieglers Blog, expats in Canada

Travel

These are not your typical travel sites, but sites of people who spent most of their lives traveling.

14. A Little Adrift
15. Travels of Adam
16. Magic Travel Blog
17. The Adventures of D
18. How to Travel with Pets
19. Fox Nomad
20. Tech Guide for Travel
21. Ramble Crunch, an American/Canadian family traveling through Europe and Turkey.

Do you have a favorite expat or perpetual-travel blog you’d like to recommend? Leave a link in the Comments section!

Europe

Expat in Germany provides information about living in Germany (and a little bit about Canada). The author is a Canadian serial expat who’s also lived in Thailand, S. Korea and the US.

Not From Around Here, subtitled “Stranger in a Strange Land” is all about the adventures of a US transplant to the UK.

Emtpy Nest Expat is an American who seized the moment (kids grown, no grandkids yet) to lace up her traveling shoes. She’s lived in the Czech Republic and is currently in Istanbul, Turkey.

Adventures in Expat Land is the blog of an American writer living in the Netherlands, where her husband works with an international organization.

Latin America

Monday or Something is not an expat blog, per se, but an interesting account of what it’s like to live in a place for one month, then move on. So far the author’s published from several locations in Panama, Nicaragua, Belize and Honduras.

The Mexile looks at Mexico and the UK from a British point of view. Back in England now, he lived in Mexico for five years and loved it.

An Expat Life in Nicaragua, an American in San Juan del Sur for the past four years.

Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua, another couple who moved from the US to Nicaragua, in this case a tiny island. They’ve been happy there for seven years.

North America

With more than a dollop of the dry wit and self-deprecation the British are famous for, Culturally Discombobulated looks at the Big Apple. His take on Pop Tarts and hurricanes is hilarious. . .

Expatlogue chronicles the adventures of a British family newly arrived in Ontario, Canada.

Asia / Pacific Rim

Expatria, Baby is a tongue-in-cheek look at living in Japan with a small child. The author is Canadian, her husband is Swiss, and they’ve been in Japan for about four years.

In Search of a Life Less Ordinary follows a Brit married to an Australian who lived in Canada for a while and are now located in Sydney.

“Vicki and I recently returned to Argentina after a six-month absence,” writes Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst.

“The seasons are reversed here, and, like the song says, spring is ‘bustin’ out all over.’ We see new leaves on trees, migrant birds returning, more sunshine, better light.

“The Argentine economy is bustin’ out, too, doing very well. We hear a lot about a worldwide recession, but it seems to me that only the United States and a few other countries struggle. During our recent six-month trip to Asia, Vicki and I saw roaring growth. During our time in Thailand, that country was on the verge of a civil war. Yet Thai economic growth will come in at a healthy 9% this year. To keep inflation in check China has successfully slowed its economy, so growth will be ‘only’ 11%.

“In Latin America, we see the same story, including, in some countries, very strong growth rates. The southern cone countries–Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay–all enjoy the high soy and grain prices, along with new tourism from Brazil and the United States.

“Even Europe is doing well, led by Germany’s remarkable boom. Most of Scandinavia and northern Europe also enjoy solid growth.

“For sure, we see pockets of weakness. Japan never really recovered from the 1989 meltdown. Greece, Portugal, and other small European countries, along with Spain, have been hard hit. But the main problem continues to be the United States, now barely sneaking out of recession.

“We used to say that when the U.S. coughs the rest of the world catches cold. To a certain extent that may still be true today. The four BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) combined barely approach two-thirds of the U.S. economy. The U.S. consumer drives the worldwide export boom. The United States remains a huge factor.

“Still, I see most of Asia, Latin America, and Europe doing well. I went to China twice last year, and, in rural Yunnan province, saw new bridges, dams, roads, and sewers. China long ago learned that there was more to life than making toys for Wal-Mart.

“I was in the United States last month and flew on one of Jet Blue’s Brazilian-made planes. No longer do Boeing and Airbus split the market. I was in India for two months and saw an improved standard of living over what I saw just two years ago, when I was last there.

“I think we can expect the global boom to continue. Even Marxists these days look to trade and foreign investment to help grow their economies. We’ve all gotten hooked on the benefits of globalization.

“The newfound prosperity means locals go out more and travel more. Thai friends who reached their 40s without ever going abroad now travel to Laos, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Two Thai friends even plan to visit Vicki and me in Argentina. We see new restaurants, especially ethnic restaurants, opening in Argentina and India. Now in Buenos Aires and Chiang Mai we have several choices of Mexican places and Chinese food from different parts of China.

“As locals have more fun, Vicki and I do, too. We enjoy the new vitality, ambition, independence, and enthusiasm.

“Tired of the gloom and recession talk in the United States? Travel abroad. You’ll be surrounded by local prosperity. The challenges facing the U.S. will soon recede into a dim memory.”

Live and Invest Overseas’ publisher is Kathleen Peddicord, who’s been writing about expats and expatriation for 25 years. She also publishes a monthly e-zine called the Overseas Retirement Letter (which covers a lot more than just retirement), and is the author of the book, How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad , which I reviewed here.

Vienna, Austria, keeps its #1 spot for another year. Top 10 cities worldwide for quality of living are:

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Geneva, Switzerland
4. Vancouver, Canada
5. Auckland, New Zealand
6. Dusseldorf, Germany
7. Frankfurt, Germany
8. Munich, Germany
9. Bern, Switzerland
10. Sydney, Australia

The first US city on the list is Honolulu, at #31. Singapore, at #28, tops the list for Asia. Central and South America and Africa are no shows, at least among the top 50 choices.



Mercer’s results show Paris, France at #34, a far cry from France’s high rankings on most quality of life indices.

Mercer bases their rankings on “detailed assessments and evaluations of 10 key categories and 39 criteria or factors” including:

• Political and social environment
• Medical and health considerations
• Public services and transport
• Consumer goods
• Economic environment
• Schools and education
• Recreation
• Housing
• Socio-cultural environment
• Natural environment

Mercer’s goal is to help companies and governments figure out how much to pay their international employees — so they really don’t evaluate the 221 cities on their list in the same way you or I would when choosing a place to live.

You can read more about their methodology here.

This year, Mercer also provided an Eco-Ranking for the first time, rating cities on such environmental concerns as water availability, water potability, waste removal, sewage, air pollution and traffic congestion.

Top 10 Green Cities include:

1. Calgary, Canada
2. Honolulu, US
3. Ottawa, Canada
4. Helsinki, Finland
5. Wellington, New Zealand
6. Minneapolis, US
7. Adelaide, Australia
8. Copenhagen, Denmark
9. Kobe Japan and Oslo, Norway (tied)

Singapore again topped the list of Asian cities, coming in at #22. Africa was represented by Capetown, South Africa, #30. South America almost made the list, with Point-A-Pitre, Guadaloupe (one of the Windward Islands in the eastern Caribbean) coming in at #49.

While these lists provide some interesting comparisons and information, don’t take them as gospel in deciding where you might like to live as an expat.

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1. France (was #1 last year as well)
2. Australia (moved up from #5 in 2009)
3. Switzerland (down one spot)
4. Germany (up from the #8 spot in 2009)
5. New Zealand (up from #9)
6. Luxembourg (down from #4)
7. USA (down from #3)
8. Belgium (down from #6)
9. Canada (a big jump up, from #19)
10. Italy (down from #7)

Top Ten Retirement Havens from Live and Invest Overseas

1. Argentina
2. Belize
3. Chile
4. Croatia
5. Dominican Republic
6. France
7. Malaysia
8. Panama
9. Uruguay
10. Vietnam

Mercer’s Best Cities for 2009:

1. Vienna, Austria (1st)
2. Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
3. Geneva, Switzerland (3rd )
4. Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
5. Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th)

Forbes list of The World’s Most Expensive Cities to Live. According to Forbes, the 10 most expensive cities are:

1. Tokyo, Japan
2. Osaka, Japan
3. Moscow, Russia
4. Geneva, Switzerland
5. Hong Kong, China
6. Zurich, Switzerland
7. Copenhagen, Denmark
8. New York, USA
9. Beijing, China
10. Singapore

2009 Best Retirement Havens, according to International Living:

1. Cuenca, Ecuador
2. Merida, Mexico
3. Coronado, Panama
4. Punta del Este, Uruguay
5. Calitri, Italy

So there you have it. Some highly respected lists from 2009, and one for 2010.

Best wishes for a happy expat New Year!

Vienna State Opera

Forbes Magazine has published a list of the top 20 cities in the world to live in. Europe took the most honors, with three of little Switzerland’s cities (Zurich, Geneva and Bern) in the Top 20 and Vienna, Austria at the top of the list. There were two from Australia (Melbourne and Sydney) and two from New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington). Canada was represented by three provincial capitals, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. The USA, Central and South America, Asia and Africa were conspicuous by their absense. Read the whole article.

The study was conducted by Mercer, and you can read their version here.