Where Do You Want To Mini-Retire?

[HalfSwede]

Hey!
I was just sitting here pondering the places that my wife and I would like to go for some mini-retirements. My places aren't necessarily the lowest budget places, and because we would be out in the country we would definitely need a car (which would add to the cost of the mini-retirement), but here are some of our top choices...

1. England countryside (i.e. not London) - we love to visit gardens, cathedrals, estates, tea rooms, country pubs. I'm thinking somewhere in the south of England so we can visit (again) some of the famous gardens located there.

2. Norway - I lived there for a year in high school and have visited 4 times since (far too few visits). Just a simply drop-dead gorgeous country. Here I would probably want to spend a good part of the time in Oslo (wouldn't need a car in Oslo), but also want to go back to northern Norway, the land of the "Midnight Sun". A great memory from nearly 30 years ago was fishing high above the Arctic Circle at 1 in the morning and the sun was out!

3. Other "top" choices: Tuscany (Italy), Provence (France), Sweden, Ireland.

Where do you want to mini-retire to?

Cheers!

[Drewkerr]

well in the works at the moment i have a couple places.

1) would be rome, itlay - i toured italy for 14 days and loved it, and i have always been extremely facisnated by the culture
2) if my girlfriend studies abroad in the the begining of 2008 I will start in rome for a month or two and then move to Amsterdamn where she will be studying for about another 6 weeks.
3) not really a retirement but our Rotary Club District is sending a Group Study Exchange to Argentina in the spring of 2008, I might try and take part of that.

Drew

[Vagabond]

a few of my top choices...

coast of thailand for a month or two...
Australia
Central America
Switzerland

I've always wanted to go to Norway or Sweden area also..

[Talon]

La Paz Bolivia Carnaval Feb depends
Columbus Ohio football any of the games
Lame Deer Montana July Sun Dance is fun, however party is at Crow Agency
Great place to party in August Chuma Bolivia
Fun to be at Bozeman Montana October football homecoming parade:cool:
In florida Miami Days March was okay-

[MiniBlueDragon]

I live in the English Countryside (almost!) hehe

Little town called Leatherhead:-

http://www.visitleatherhead.com/

Anhoo back to the subject...

* Kuredu (Maldives) - It's where I proposed and spent a magical two weeks of bliss.
* Thailand - Every time I see something or read something about Thailand it sounds amazing... Not to mention I love "The Beach" by Alex Garland! hehe
* Japan - One of my best mates is out there teaching English and he says it's the best place he's ever been.
* New Zealand - LOVE Lord of The Rings, Love the countryside and nature, Love how friendly Kiwis are. What;s not to like? :)
* Canada - Back to the Nature argument I'm afraid.

[darrin365]

Japan
Italy
U.K.
Every historic site in the U.S. ;)

[searstower]

Machu Pichu, before they close it down to tourists

Mexico City, Mexico - I have family there that I would like to get to know better, and having 2-4 months of intensive Spanish immersion training would be so much fun! (I'm already fluent, but man, I get rusty)

Thailand - I've trained Thai kickboxing in the past and would love to train at one of the thai camps there for a while and learn to cook authentic Thai food

Anguilla, a gorgeous, out of the way caribean island

Merida, MX - Great weather, great beaches, great teachers

South Africa - A friend of mine who spent 9 months traveling the world just moved there permantently

Shanghai - I'd like to go there and learn Chigong

India - Visit Ghandi's home and live in an ashram

[read]

To start...

Japan - Somewhere off the beaten path. I really want to see old-fashioned tofu-making methods

Seoul, Korea - I have already been here. This is where my roommate from college lives. I missed her wedding because I had to work. Now I want to go and see her new baby!

Hong Kong - Several of my students are from Hong Kong. They told me it's a great place to go, if I haven't quite mastered Mandarin or Cantonese yet, because many people speak English.

India - Salman Rushdie. Arundati Roy. Some of my favorite literature is written about India. This month, I plan to finish reading Gandhi's autobiography. I guess I'd like to do a little literary tourism and see the places I'm reading about --

[fmichlick]

There are many places in Europe that I'd like my family to see. Also I've been to Costa Rica before and spent two weeks there and I really liked it.

[jetpacklife]

A) Somewhere where speaking english doesn't peg you as a gullable tourist. I've been scammed almost every place I've gone and I'm sorta sick of it.

B) Somewhere with nice weather

C) Somewhere interesting

D) Somewhere not too expensive.

[Martini]

My own private island.

[Drewkerr]

I like that idea, the private Island.

Martini - have you seen the MTV Cribs of Richard Branson's Island? I could live there just about year round.

[Martini]

I try to live as frugally as possible so I don't have cable television.

But my own private island will complete with underground tunnels. Sweet!

[Christoph]

Anywhere and everywhere. But, if I had to choose initially, I would go to:

Norway-
Scotland-
Sweden-
Holland-
Denmark-

Can you see a trend? Ha!

[Talon]

Not sure if this works anymore
Cut rate Travel
847 405 0575
if you are a student traveling outside of us their prices are 14 to 30 cheaper.:cool:

[VitaminD]

The Island of Capri, Italy. I've been there once and it was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen. A tall Island over the bright blue Mediterranean.

A friend and I set a goal that by May, 2008, we'll be there, both free from the 9 to 5, sipping umbrella drinks and hitting on beautiful women. Right now, it's looking like I'll be there. :)

[HalfSwede]

The Island of Capri, Italy...hitting on beautiful women.

VitaminD:
My beautiful 20 year old daughter just got back from Capri and thankfully won't be there when you get there! :)

Also on the trip was my beautiful 24 year old daughter, but she was accompanied by her 6'-5" ex-Marine husband...doubt you would want to hit on her even if you had the chance!

On the other hand, my ex-wife was also on the trip (I wasn't on the trip)...if you ever run into her feel free to hit on her all you want! :D

Seriously...Capri sounds great based on what I have heard from my daughters.

[VitaminD]

VitaminD:
My beautiful 20 year old daughter just got back from Capri and thankfully won't be there when you get there! :)

Hahaha...yeah, this is good news for you especially.

Also on the trip was my beautiful 24 year old daughter, but she was accompanied by her 6'-5" ex-Marine husband...doubt you would want to hit on her even if you had the chance!

Actually, you'd be surprised. As per a chapter in Tim's book, the "unattainable" women are often the easiest to approach, even if they're surrounded by huge guys. Especially, even. I've done it, and usually the guys are too surprised/freaked out to do anything. I wouldn't mess with marines, though.

Seriously...Capri sounds great based on what I have heard from my daughters.

Yeah, definitely at least check it out. The Roman emperors used to vacation there. I'm not surprised it got some glowing reviews!

[Marcie]

ok, now I want to go to, any beautiful men there?;) ;)

[VitaminD]

ok, now I want to go to, any beautiful men there?;) ;)

Yes. Me. When I'm there. ;)

[Drewkerr]

VitaminD - Capri is awesome
I was there for a couple of days. While we there we saw Jessica Sara Parker, not really a fan, but its always cool to run into Celebs.

The water is so clear. The beaches I was on were sort of weird, no sand like here in the states, just pebble beaches.

[waterboy]

in no particular order

Munich, Ger.
Florence, Italy
CapeTown, SA
Innsbruck, Austria
anywhere in Australia

[seven]

I've decided on the destination for my first mini-retirement: Cebu, Philippines.

That is where my wife is from, so I want to spend 3-6 months there learning Bisayan and getting to spend more time with her family. Also, I plan to use it as a base to travel to other Asian cities. And, while in the Philippines I'm hoping to find a muse that will finance future mini-retirements.

I think I'm totally not the target audience for Tim's book, but I plan on taking advantage of it anyway. I say that because I'm a blue collar worker in a factory, so obviously I can't outsource myself or anything like that. However I'm finishing up my 2 year IT degree this fall. Then hopefully I'll be able to work myself into a position where telecommuting is a possibility. I figure that to find a good IT job I'm going to have to relocate anyway, so I plan to save up and sell most of our possessions and our house. Then I can quit my factory job and do the mini-retirement before finding an IT job.

7

[Marcie]

I think I'm totally not the target audience for Tim's book, but I plan on taking advantage of it anyway. I say that because I'm a blue collar worker in a factory, so obviously I can't outsource myself or anything like that. However I'm finishing up my 2 year IT degree this fall. Then hopefully I'll be able to work myself into a position where telecommuting is a possibility. I figure that to find a good IT job I'm going to have to relocate anyway, so I plan to save up and sell most of our possessions and our house. Then I can quit my factory job and do the mini-retirement before finding an IT job.

7

Sure you are, you just need to find a good muse or two :)

[b18bgone]

Im game for Maui, or Down Under

[dixonge]

Scotland/Ireland - genealogical research
Places all over the U.S. - also genealogical research
Buenos Aires - after Tim's recommendation we've become quite enthralled with the possibilities there
Carnivale in Brazil (probably not Rio)
southern Argentina, Tierre del Fuego and Chile - waterfalls and glaciers and the end of the world
Costa Rica
Berlin
France - the part Peter Mayle talks about in his books, Provence
Italy
Australia - chase storms, see a tornado or two

http://australiasevereweather.com/photography/photos/2001/0129mb04.jpg

[final_id]

Rio. And not just for the soccer ... :) ...

I think a LOT of single males have thought along those lines. In fact, the book doesn't address the issues of creating relationships in these fabulous locales. It sounds like Tim did fairly well, IIRC -- a tango partner, for example, if not romantically involved then heck it must have been at least steamy! -- and there's the story of the California lawyer who chucked it all and runs some beachside scuba service, who has a hot tropical wife.

But what if you aren't charming to the ladies? What if you ain't got no game? Going overseas is just going to ... further exacerbate your loneliness, no?