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!

photo by wirralwater on flickr

1. Costa Rica
2. Malaysia
3. Uruguay
4. Panama
5. Nicaragua

His top five picks for retirees with higher income:

photo by kokorowashinjin on flickr

1. France
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Portugal
5. New Zealand

Note that four out of the five “lower income” destinations are in Latin America, while four out of the five “higher income” locations are in Europe.

You can read the entire article here.

1. Empty Nest Expat. Currently living in Prague, the blogger describes herself as “an American expatriate bursting with enthusiasm to GET OUT AND EXPERIENCE OUR GLOBE! ”

2. Living In the Sun. This is a website with four offshoot blogs, each dealing with a European/Mediterranean country. There’s one for France, Portugal, Spain and Greece.
3. Soul Travelers 3. Two fifty-something parents and a nine-year old travel the world in “an epic odyssey: open-ended, years long slow trip around the world as a family adventure, unschool, spiritual journey and lifestyle.”
4. Expat+Harem. A Berkely, CA native living in Istanbul with her Turkish husband.
5. My Several Worlds. The author is a traveler and photographer. Originally from Ottawa, Canada, she currently lives and works in Taipei. Her site features gorgeous photos, as well as information about teaching English abroad.
6. Career by Choice. Megan Fitzgerald helps expats develop their careers abroad.
7. Traveling4Health. While not specifically an expat blog, this is a terrific resource for anyone interested in health care abroad.
8. Mid-Atlantic English, the blog of an American who’s lived for an extended time in the UK.
9. The Cranky Yank. This is the personal blog of Dan Prescher from International Living, and he always has a unique perspective.

   Do you have a favorite expat blog? Share it by clicking on the Comment link below.

   
   
   
   ]]> http://futureexpats.com/9-expat-blogs-to-follow/feed 7 http://futureexpats.com/which-countries-have-the-best-health-care http://futureexpats.com/which-countries-have-the-best-health-care#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:50:10 +0000 FutureExpat http://futureexpats.com/?p=1253 In the Expat Web group on LinkedIn, a member asked recently, “As an Expat, which countries do you think have the best and worst healthcare systems?”

   Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Malta and France all received positive comments. One poster said Japan’s was “the worst I ever experienced.” The US was mentioned favorably, but “only if you have good insurance. Prices are about 5 to 10 times the costs of France or Belgium.” This kind of anecdotal information is interesting, but not all that useful.

   Of course to most expats and would-be expats, especially those of us who are approaching retirement age, health care is an important consideration in where we choose to live. What is its quality? Is it at least as good as what I’m used to? How expensive is it? How accessible is it? Will I have to be in a major city to have quality care available?

   So what’s a concerned health care consumer to do?

   
   
   

   There’s an interesting bubble chart on the Columbia University website, showing the average life expectancy and health care spending by country.

   The US is way off by itself as the biggest spender. But our life expectancy (77 years) lags behind Japan (85), Switzerland, Australia, France, Canada, Norway, Spain, New Zealand, Austria, Korea, Portugal, UK, Luxembourg and Denmark, all of whom spend considerably less (around half!) than we do per capita.

   The WHO (World Health Organization) has published a listing of medical care by country. Compiled in the year 2000, it’s a bit outdated, but might provide a good starting point. You can see it here.

   A Few Considerations

   First, I think it’s safe to assume that the care you’ll receive in rural areas will not be as up-to-date or comprehensive as the care you can receive in major cities. That’s true in the US just as much as anywhere else.

   If living in a bustling metro area is not your taste, how fast and easy is transportation to those areas you’re considering? Use your common sense – if your dream retirement is on a remote beach or mountain-top retreat that’s an 8-hour drive over mostly dirt roads to get to the nearest city, that will be an issue in accessing quality health care. If it’s an hour or two over good roads, you’ll have significantly better access.

   Are there hot spots of medical tourism in the country you’re considering? If so, you can be pretty well assured those doctors will speak English, have up-to-date training and use modern equipment. According to Business Week:

   “The low cost and high quality of medical service is a big selling point for Singapore and Thailand, which have heavily promoted medical tourism in recent years. Hospital costs are as much as one-half what they would cost in the U.S.” Read the entire article here

   Other popular medical tourism destinations include Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, South Korea, India and Israel. There are plenty of websites which discuss medical tourism, as any Google search will show.

   Once you’ve narrowed down some possible destinations with health care facilities that will meet your needs, conduct your own research. When you visit the area, ask a lot of questions, find out what other expats do for health care, visit the hospitals and clinics if you can.

   Ultimately, as with any other aspect of your move, you need to just do it.

   
   
   
   
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