How to Live Abroad in Retirement Without Becoming an Expat – As Featured on the Sunshine Travelers Podcast

Scott Barronton (00:00)
In our last episode, we shared that I'll be retiring from my corporate role at the end of March. And for us, that doesn't mean slowing down. It actually means just changing how we travel. And for years, we've moved really fast. We've packed itineraries, we've seen incredible places and short windows of time, but this next chapter is going to be different for us. We don't just want to visit places anymore. We want to stay, to rent an apartment for a month.

to shop at the same market twice in a week, to learn the norms of a neighborhood, and to go deeper. So when we came across the good life abroad, it immediately caught our attention has built aligns almost exactly with where Melissa and I find ourselves right now. It's designed for people 55 and older who want to live abroad

for one to three months, not as tourists, but as temporary locals with built-in community and support.

Speaker 2 (01:01)
We're Scott and Melissa, The Sunshine Travelers.

Speaker 1 (01:04)
We're all about exploring the world and sharing the journey with you. Whether you're a seasoned traveler, dreaming of your next adventure, or just here for the stories.

Speaker 2 (01:11)
No matter where you are on your travel journey, we've got first-hand experiences, tips, and plenty of inspiration from some of the most amazing places on Earth.

Speaker 1 (01:20)
So buckle up and get ready to travel with us.

Scott Barronton (01:28)
When we first discovered the good life abroad, one of the things that stood out to us is that it removes a lot of the big barriers people feel when they think about living abroad, even for a short period of time, and sometimes even just traveling abroad, right? So it's not about go and figure it out, because even sometimes no matter how much research you do, you still figure it out a lot of things once you get there. It has a definite structure.

there's vetted housing, there's local support, and there's a community built in. And I think that's one of the big things that's missing, you know, when you leave your home and you travel like this. And I think that those pieces, and I think that's the piece that a lot of people underestimate. Living somewhere new definitely sounds exciting until you imagine doing it completely alone.

even if it's you and another person, right? Or you and your family in some cases, not knowing the language, not knowing how to get around, not knowing if you chose the right neighborhood. And for some people that would be an adventure, but for others, it would be a complete non-starter and they wouldn't want to travel again. So what Andrew has created bridges that gap very nicely. And so whether you're 55 and retired or simply thinking differently about how you want to use your time,

this conversation might expand your view of what's possible. And if you aren't there personally, chances are that you know somebody that this will apply to and we encourage you to share that with them. So today we're joined by Andrew Motewala, founder and CEO of The Good Life Abroad, a company that's helping people reimagine what life can look like beyond traditional retirement and short-term travel. Andrew works with individuals and couples

who aren't ready to slow down. They want deeper experiences, meaningful community, and the chance to live well abroad, not just visit. His approach blends long stay travel, comfort, connection, and curiosity, creating a lifestyle that feels less like a vacation and more like a next chapter.

Scott Barronton (03:42)
So Andrew, we're happy to have you on the podcast this evening. And the topic that we're going to be talking about is just so, I'm going to say apropos for the stage of life that we're going through right now. And I'm really excited to just dig in and get started in our conversation.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (04:02)
Thanks for having me, Scott and Melissa. It's great to be here.

Scott Barronton (04:05)
Well, Andrew, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, introduce ⁓ yourself to our guest, and then talk to us about the good life abroad.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (04:14)
Sure. I'm Andrew Motu-Wala, the founder and CEO of The Good Life Abroad, but I've been in the travel industry for about 30 years. And this is my first travel company where it's really about living abroad and not just touring. And I think that bug of living abroad got planted when I was a Peace Corps volunteer and I lived abroad in Central America for two years. And I realized that this is a completely

different experience of taking away different things from living abroad than I would from just traveling to a place for a week or two. So the good life abroad is essentially that it's a program for people 55 and older to live in right for now in Europe for one to three months in their own apartment. Explore independently, but to have a community of fellow travelers that live around them, having ⁓ in person support.

⁓ resources. We call them a community manager who's there to support you and provide insurance activities, events, and connect you to different resources in town, such as yoga studios, Pilates, language classes, cooking classes, whatever it is you want to do. That's the good life abroad in a nutshell.

Scott Barronton (05:19)
Melissa, we had no idea that there was going to be an additional connection here. So Melissa's sister, Stephanie, who has been on the podcast quite a few times, was also a Peace Corps volunteer.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (05:30)
⁓

wonderful. Yeah, there's something about us that pulls us to unique paths in life, right? This whole idea of living abroad and the community and we end up bumping into each other in different places in life.

Scott Barronton (05:41)
So neat. So how did you come up with this idea? What sparked that to be able to provide this type of opportunity for people 55 and older?

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (05:53)
There's kind of three threads that came together to form this. The first thread is, as I mentioned, I've been in the travel industry for many years and with different types of tours, touring programs, students, families, high school kids, college kids. But when with the family travel program, we had a lot of retirees who would bring, they were the grandparents, would bring their kids and the grandkids on a multi-generational trip.

They would say to me, Andrew, these trips are great. I love it. We get to spend time with the whole family, but I'm retired. I have a lot of time. Is there anything where I don't have to be like getting on the bus, off the bus, check into the hotel, check out the hotel? Like that's great for these trips with the grandkids, but isn't there something like more relaxed? And I was like, that's a great idea, right? That's what you get when you're retired. You have time. So that was one thing. The second thing was,

I am selfish and I was thinking about my own retirement and I was like, I would like to live abroad, but I live in San Diego, California, which is a pretty nice place to live. so I don't want to be an expat and completely abandoned home. I love this to be my home base for like six months of the year, but I love to do a few months in Europe, a months in Asia, maybe in Latin America. And, but I, wanted it to be turnkey. wanted to have a really nice apartment. I was even thinking I'd love it to have like.

my stuff there and have friends waiting for me and I could just fly in and have things to do. And so I couldn't find that exactly. I need to build this. And then the third part of it was my own parents who are in their late 70s now. And as I got, well, I travel a lot for work, but as my kids got older and became teenagers, off to college.

They didn't want to spend a lot of time as much time with their grandparents as they did when they were little. When they were little, it's fun. And so my parents kind of became lonely. And it wasn't until they moved into a 55 plus community, their life completely changed. And now it's like, hey, can you help out with some, oh, we got water aerobics and book club and poker night and this and that. And just being in the community has changed your lives. They're happier. And there's been a lot of studies about this, like happiness studies that

keep human relationships, connections, friendships, create happiness and help you live longer. It's good for your health and longevity. And so I saw these kind of three threads and I said, how do we can weave them together and that community aspect not to be underrated. It's what can make living abroad really fun. It's like not just a logistical question but it's actually a fun experience that we really enjoyable because otherwise you can just go get an Airbnb.

you know, live abroad yourself. Like this sort of takes it to the next level and it adds a layer of friendship, connection, as well as safety and, and other things.

Scott Barronton (08:37)
That's really amazing. And as you're talking about all this, I see this even in our own travels. We've done a lot of travels over the years. And in our last podcast episode, we just talked about this where we're ready to slow down, right? We we've done all the ones where we've rushed through and checked off the list and we've done this and we've done that. And we really want to connect deeper. want to spend more time

not everywhere, but in certain locations, we want to spend more time there. We want to really experience the culture. And it's hard to do that when you're constantly on the move. And as you said, hopping off one bus or hopping off the ship for a day here and there. And so this is a very interesting concept. So tell us a little bit about, the good life abroad. You've, you've kind of laid it out at a high level, but tell us

how it works for somebody who may be interested in thinking more about this or pursuing your services here.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (09:38)
Sure. So we're in about 25 cities across Europe and we're just in Europe for now, but you'd pick a city you're interested in and then the program is cohort based. So you pick a start date and let's say June 1st, everyone arrives in June 1st and everyone checks into their apartment. We provide sort of upscale apartments all in the same neighborhood. In some cases, even in the same building. So your fellow travelers are

stones throw away. You have that apartment. The next day you come, we have an orientation put on by our local community manager. This is a local person who has great experience working with people who are 55 plus. And that orientation is all about teaching you how to live like a local. I mean, of course you have health and safety and security and all that. And yeah, we even provide medical insurance while you're there. We've got connections to English speaking doctors. So there's a baseline of a safety net. But then things like

we actually go out and ride public transportation that first day. We're show you, this is the car you use and we take a ride together, maybe we'll walk back and they'll say, this is groceries, housewares, I the things that they need to be empowered to live abroad. And then we break. And then that night we come together, usually at a rooftop bar and have like a welcome party. And the reason for that is we're trying to also form this sense of community. You might have on average 16 people in a group. And the...

the job of the community manager is to create connections. so maybe who's really into like art or music or history. And then people start to say, you're an art lover. And our community manager is filing these things away because throughout the month he or she is going to be suggesting things to the group. Hey, there's a gallery opening and an art exhibit opening up or a music concert at the university for the music lovers. And then it's interesting because then these community members say,

Yeah, OK, like let's go together to this concert or let's grab dinner beforehand. And so the community starts to take on a life of its own. We do this right and that is beautiful. Although it is meant to be an independent exploration, right? You could go on your own, but it's nice to know there's friends around to do stuff with. And then so that's the framework and then we provide. Activities three days a week. Tuesday we have something called it's a tradition, the Tuesday lunch club.

and it's taking you out to restaurants or even towns to go eat where you might never go and pre-ordering a bunch of local delicacies so that you're learning about the culture through its food. You're also learning about a new area. I love it in Paris. She takes them out of the one through 20 arrondissements because that's where people go. most people don't realize that most Parisians, more than 50%, live outside of one through 20.

And so it's like, how can you say you've been to Paris unless you've been there? But they don't know where they would go. It's not in the guidebook. So she'll come here and she'll give them a little tour of the neighborhood and explain something unique about it. And they'll have great meal there. things like that. That's a Tuesday. We do it all over the city in all of our cities. Wednesdays we do a cultural activity. might be a cooking class, a painting workshop, a architectural walking tour. And Thursdays we do a happy hour and happy hours are also kind of interesting in Barcelona. Like they make their own vermouth.

We do like a French blind tasting poker event. It's fun stuff to get together, have some drinks, fun. And again, these are all moments of connection for the community. But Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, there's nothing going on. It's all independent. Although many times our community members do form friendships and they go on weekend getaways and do stuff. So that's sort of the month. The way you think about it is sort of a blank canvas with some structure, but you can paint your own painting.

on it, whatever you're into.

Scott Barronton (13:09)
think that's awesome because I mean, just having those, like you said, the local connection, getting to know the food, the transportation. I mean, what a genius idea, right? Because that's one barrier that a lot of people have. And if you want to live somewhere more like a local, but I think it's also interesting because you do see, because we haven't obviously done something like this, but you see something like this on cruises. People go on these long cruises, right?

The biggest thing I guess I can compare it to is that people then form these connections and do things, but it's still not in a local place, Where you feel like you're living abroad, it's still hopping from place to place and that kind of thing. So to bring that aspect to somewhere local and then you guys having the locals on the ground, but that safety net I think is such an amazing concept.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (13:56)
think that's a very fair analogy of the cruise ship and cruises are great. I think of a cruise as a wine tasting, right? I'm sampling a bunch and then our program is more when you're ready to go drink the whole bottle. Like I want to go back there and I want to just drink that for a month. So there's a place for both of them.

Scott Barronton (14:08)
Yes.

Yeah. We call it the hop on hop off of the seas. it gives you that overview and we just got back from a three week trip that we did on a cruise and we did, we made new friends. We've, we had people that we would get together with in the evenings, for happy hour. Every once in a we'd have dinner with someone. And so, you do create this news,

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (14:17)
Yeah, exactly.

Scott Barronton (14:37)
set of friends on the trip that you didn't plan for when you set out. And so I think that's, that's wonderful. And what a better place to do this than Europe where cheap flights to another country in just a matter of a couple of hours or, a train ride to another country and just a couple of hours. And so I think that's wonderful. And I can't

encourage people enough to take the time and do that. We hear so many people that we talk to because our audience is in that 50 plus range majority of it. And so we talk to people all the time that are out there and they're like, ⁓ I don't know that I could do that. I don't know that could go to all these places. And they're trying to think of doing this on their own, but you break down that barrier.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (15:23)
Mm-hmm.

Scott Barronton (15:25)
is they're not having to do it on their own. They've got somebody there that's supporting them on the ground and that's getting them started. And then it's just them living their lives.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (15:35)
Exactly. It's, I the cruise ship analogy, again, I think it holds, right? It's like, it's, but instead of the ship being the playground, the whole city is your playground. And then, but you're right, there's something holding people back. Right. And we did some market research before we launched, we put out some surveys on social media. Have you thought about living abroad? But not done it. And then they took a survey and why don't you do it? and it's things like, well, what happens if I fall?

Like, and I'm a solo traveler. know, like literally no one has my back. I would, don't know the language while I get lonely. what have I picked the wrong neighborhood to live in? Like, I don't really know the ins and outs of these neighborhoods. What if the photos of the Airbnb aren't exactly what it turns out to be in reality? And we've all had these situations. And so you're right. Like we each thought, how do we just make this totally turnkey? Just sign up and everything's taken care of.

Scott Barronton (16:24)
Yeah, because you're not there for just, a few nights when you're going for a whole month, right? You're kind of stuck with that. So I guess, ⁓ so you've named a couple of them, I guess, when you did your market research, but do you have people that come to you to talk about some of these trips? And what other, what are their other questions or biggest hesitations that they have? And then,

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (16:27)
Yeah.

Scott Barronton (16:46)
How and have you seen them once, you somebody decides, okay, you you alleviate those fears, they decide to do the trip. Which one of those kind of disappear and they're just like totally love the experience.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (16:58)
Yeah. So there's, especially with people 55 and older, there's often questions around mobility and accessibility because there's no ADA in Europe. Yeah. There's a lot of concerns around the apartments and I'm sure it's happened to you. It's happened to me. You're in some European hotel room and you're in the bathroom and you sit on the toilet and you hit your head on the sink and you can't turn around in the shower. Right. That's fine for three nights and we could survive anything.

Scott Barronton (17:08)
That's right.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (17:25)
but for a month. So they're really concerned about that because they are living there. And I think there's some just general concern about being so close to the real, real Europe and not in the confines of a nice hotel where like there's like a receptionist and like a concierge and a lobby to kind of barrier you from any sort of discomfort. Now, when they come on our program,

One of the reasons they come is we've vetted the apartment specifically for the needs of people 55 and older from North America. That's our market. so walk-in showers is a key. Making sure that if you're not living on the first floor, the ground floor, there's an elevator, right? That there's air conditioning. And these are not things that are just automatic in Europe. I mean, in Paris, it's very common to have a building with no elevator. So we've got to vet these things, making sure the kitchen is such that they feel comfortable cooking.

Scott Barronton (18:08)
Right.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (18:15)
and be really clear about what's included and whatnot. Because we're used to these giant refrigerators and freezers and going to Costco and loading up our cars. No, we actually have to educate our travelers. It's going to be a smaller refrigerator. It's going to be a kitchen. It's going be nice. But most people go to the market every couple of days and buy some ingredients to cook. And it's not stocking up for the month. So we try to make them comfortable with that.

Accessibility is a big one though, because we're not a tour. There's no bus picking you up and dropping you off. So we really get to know each person. When they book, we do a Zoom call with one of our program coordinators to understand what their abilities are and sometimes direct them to a different city that might be more accessible. mean, Lisbon, it's called the city of seven hills for a reason, right? And if you really can't walk uphill, it's not going to be comfortable, right? And so other cities,

Scott Barronton (19:03)
Yes, we know.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (19:09)
like Barcelona have elevators in the metro system, which is a little bit easier. But again, not every metro stop, but we can help the people and guide them accordingly. So those are some of the things people are scared of. We tried to allay some of those fears and through education as well. And the thing that, and most of that fades away, but the thing that is sometimes shocking for people is the fact they're really living in a city in.

Because many Americans, especially older Americans, maybe they live in the suburbs. Maybe they live in a 55 plus community where everything is very quiet and manicured and taken care of. And suddenly they find themselves in the city center where garbage trucks roll through at night to pick up the garbage. Right. It's like, that's how they do it in Europe. And people in Spain, they don't even go out to dinner until 10 o'clock at night. So they're walking home at midnight. Our people are just living bed at eight 30. Right.

Scott Barronton (19:57)
Right.

Yeah.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (20:00)
So like teaching them

like, yes, it's going to be louder. That reminds me of one other thing. We always look for double pane glass in the apartments because we know our people go to bed earlier than a typical European and there will be street noise. But we also, and we warn people there will be street noise, but we have double pane glass, but you know, things like brain earplugs, a white noise machine, things like that, things that they have to get used to because sometimes we have, we, I say as North Americans, a romantic vision of what it's like to live in Europe.

sitting at the cafe and eating a baguette, some wine. But there's the reality. The reality is it's all these things. You're living in the heart of a city. And that, for some people, turns out to not be appealing when they really get into it. It's just the romantic vision they had. And those people are better served by going and sitting in hotel. Staying in the Four Seasons, you'll experience no discomfort. But what we want to do is we actually purposely

want to push people a little bit out of their comfort zone, right? Because what happens when you do that, especially when you get older, this is important to have to adapt to new things. And if you adapt to it and then you conquer it, you're like become comfortable, you get confident. And what we want to do is kind of help people in retirement. I can do this. I'm not, the world's not closing in on me. I have confidence to do new things. I just lived alone in an apartment in Europe.

Scott Barronton (21:11)
Right.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (21:21)
And that adaptation is like, part of the growing process and mental stimulation. We think that's really important for healthy aging.

Scott Barronton (21:27)
And that's so good for your brain and for memory and making those connections and things like that. So, so many benefits. I do want to ask you, so you mentioned a couple of cities. You mentioned Barcelona and Lisbon. What other ⁓ Paris you mentioned, what other examples do you have of some of the more popular places? Can I tell you one real quick that I saw? yeah. Split Croatia.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (21:52)
Yeah, splits. We're in Sardinia. We're in Crete. We're Nice, Vienna, Prague, Malaga, Sevilla, Madrid, Porto. We're not in Germany yet. We're in Edinburgh. We're not in Ireland yet. Those are two places that are big gaps in our map, and we hope to remedy that pretty soon. So no promises, but.

Dropping a little hint for your listeners that that's coming up. So we're all across Europe. We're in smaller towns. We're in Palermo, Sicily. Florence is maybe one of our most popular programs. Lake Como, we have a special two-week short stay in Lake Como. It's not a bad place to be for a couple of weeks. ⁓

Scott Barronton (22:37)
Now.

So we talked a little bit about, you, you addressed the piece about fears, but a lot of people go on these trips and then they have these wonderful experiences. So can you talk about a few maybe of, and I know I didn't give you any preparation for that, but can you talk about a few of what we might call the success stories where people went and just realized how freeing it is to do something like this. And now.

they're traveling more on their own even.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (23:06)
We have so many people. I just met with one of our alumni actually. Happened to be traveling in Northern California and they were, I knew they lived there and I said, hey, I'm in town. We had lunch together. And he said, Andrew, you gotta understand, we're 70. Our lives are not that exciting. Like she volunteers at the animal shelter. I sing in a choir, but we have like, we go to read books, we do crossword puzzles.

It's much quieter life. Our life after we discovered your program, our life is more like this. We now sit around and think, what city do we want to go to with a good life abroad? Then we book it. And then we research for months, like the subway system and the buses and the restaurants and all the things like we make lists of what we want to eat and explore. And then we go and we have a blast and we make new friends. And afterwards, we then visit those friends in the United States and

That's like a whole process. And then we just repeat and do that again. And we do this twice a year. And we literally have been doing this now twice a year for a few years. And it's beautiful because it's not just about go and consume the experience. They've extended the joy they feel by having this period of anticipation, planning, doing it, and then extending it by meeting and continue to meet those friends. I think that is beautiful. And it's something that most people don't think of when they

book a trip with us. They just think I'm going to go get an apartment, some activities and have some time to explore. What they're surprised by almost universally is this idea of community. I mean, you've said you've had this experience on a cruise ship. It's like I'm meeting my tribe because what happens in retirement is often your sense of identity changes, right? Like I'm no longer, you know, Scott, the cybersecurity guy. I left that behind.

I'm no longer the dad at the school. My kids are in college or have grown up. They're gone. Maybe I'm not even the guy who lives on the corner because I moved, I downsized and moved to somewhere else. So then who am I? And what they find in this communities, these are people who have a core value and that core value is cultural appreciation that comes through true immersion. And it's a unique, these are well-traveled people who come with us. And so they find like, my gosh, this is my tribe. I love these people.

That tends to be the success story we hear time and time again.

Scott Barronton (25:22)
I love that that you say that they then make those connections and friends and get together and stuff with them. I feel like too, this is so important for North Americans. Our cruise, by the way, was in Australia and those people have traveled so much. But our culture, when people are working and they have kids and they just don't have those opportunities like other places do. And I think this just opens up a whole new.

world of travel that they maybe didn't get to do when they were younger. I think our cruise director gave a stat that like 70 % of Australians have passports where only like 20 % of Americans do.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (25:52)
Yeah. ⁓

I believe it. I believe it. It's unfortunate. you know, retirement is the time to do this, right? I encourage everyone, the moment they file for retirement, get your picture, get your passport, because this is not a time when the world should be getting smaller for you, should be getting bigger for you. Going back to your question on success stories, I mean, some of the best examples I've seen are people who travel with real intention.

Like I said, our program is like a canvas, right? You paint your whatever painting you want. But you have people, I'm thinking of this one guy, Tom, he came to Florence with us. But before he came to Florence with us, he was interested in Renaissance art and he took a class at the community college on Renaissance art history. And so then he came with this purpose and he had his vision of what he wanted to do. And every day he would go and see new chapels and paintings.

But he knew what he was seeing. It wasn't just like, oh, that's pretty, right? He could process this. And that was the thing every day. And when we'd see him at the happy hours or lunches, he'd tell us about what he saw that day, why it was an important thing. Our community manager could even give him tips to go find places that are not visited much by tourists. So I think for the best cases are people who have an intention, something they want to get out of it, learning history, learning the local language, whatever that is, right? And I think

Retirement is the time to set that intention away. What do you want that to look like? And travel can be part of it, but you don't have to travel necessarily. You can take classes at home and make friends and do. So anyway, that was one other thing that came to mind around successful travelers.

Scott Barronton (27:34)
So one of the things that we've been doing over the last couple of years is with my own father is asking him, like, what are the things on your bucket list? Okay, let's go. Let's go do that. And so it's fun because they will sit and watch YouTube videos for a month ahead of time and they will know more than we know.

before we get there, right? They'll have all of this stuff figured out and they send us, all these links of, Hey, look at this place and see what you think about this. And it is, it's a, it's exciting. And looking forward to a trip to me is, it's one of the best things like we're, leaving in 22 days, I think to go to Antarctica. And we've had this trip planned for a year now.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (28:19)
wow.

Scott Barronton (28:20)
And now we're down to 22 days, but the anticipation, the excitement of going on this trip, it's good. It's good for the soul. I can just imagine how the people like you're talking about that, they figure this out and then they're looking forward to their next trip and they're doing the research and they're finding, all of these hidden gems or,

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (28:28)
Mm-hmm.

Scott Barronton (28:41)
researching all the restaurants that they want to go and try or the surrounding cities, right? Because it's so easy, even surrounding countries. It's so easy to do once you're there.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (28:52)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Scott Barronton (28:53)
Well, Andrew, where would people go to find more information about the good life abroad and how can they get more information about one of these trips?

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (29:02)
Yep, just the goodlifeabroad.com or just type into Google the good life abroad and we'll pop right up and you can go to our site and you can see all the options, the different types of apartments we have and all the prices and whatnot.

Scott Barronton (29:16)
And then if they're just not sure if this is for them or they have more questions, like what is the process to reach out to you to learn more, and how does the booking process work?

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (29:28)
Yeah, so you go to our website, thegoodlifeabroad.com There's a little chat box that can appear or you can just request a catalog to be sent to you. In either case, you could just type in. ⁓ I'd like to talk to someone and we have representatives standing by will schedule a zoom call and learn specifically what you're interested in. Maybe any sort of mobility questions and try to guide you into the right place and also look at your budget. There's different places are.

different prices. You can imagine Paris and London are quite expensive. Smaller towns are a less expensive. When they're ready to book, it's a $495 deposit per person and that holds your spot and we then go actually lease the apartment on your behalf and then some time after, it depends on when you book, but a month or two later you pay half and then a few months before you go you pay the other half. And if you cancel,

before a certain period, it's completely refundable. Your deposit transfers to credit, but everything else is refunded to you. So there's some flexibility. Because we also understand with older travelers, life happens. a new hip I didn't know I was going to need that six months ago. And so we try to be have a flexible policy to help people to manage life. And then once you book, you get an email from your program coordinator and we'll set up the welcome call, as I mentioned earlier.

And we'll really talk about the specifics of that city, about mobility, about transportation, about getting there. Any sort of special requests with regard to your apartment. We have some people who say, I absolutely can't do stairs. I need a ground floor. We'll take these kind of requests into consideration and learn about it. And then through that process, because most people book nine months prior to going, maybe even more, we

stay in touch with them and try to educate them about some things. Local phrases, the local language you might need to know. Recommendations, maybe things that they might want to see in optional tours if they wanted to go to a nearby town, how could they do that? Things about eSims and Google Maps and WhatsApp. These are tools that maybe not all retired people know about. We literally have instructional videos on using WhatsApp in Europe. And then 30 days before the start date, we do a Zoom call with everyone in your group, including your community manager.

So now you can put a name and face together. It's, okay, that's Melissa, that's Scott, and then this is Giacomo from Italy. And we kind of do a little bit of a pre-departure, some logistics, and then off you go. And then you're there.

Scott Barronton (31:46)
I'm so glad you said that about the eSims and the WhatsApp. We took Scott's aunts to Kenya on safari a couple of falls ago and like that was that there was a whole process, right? We had calls. We said, here's how you do it. Like, let me see your screen. Like, but that's I mean, that's fantastic because it's so important, to get those set up ahead of time and so necessary. And then I think they were pros, by the time we got there, but that's great. Yeah.

Fantastic. We could hear them in the tent next to us and they were chatting with everybody back home on on WhatsApp.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (32:18)
I mean, if you want to

live like a local in Europe, it's WhatsApp, really. So, it's indispensable tool.

Scott Barronton (32:22)
Yes. Yeah, I know.

Certainly is. It's a cybersecurity pros nightmare, but.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (32:29)
Hahaha

Scott Barronton (32:30)
Well, Andrew, we have a few questions that we ask all of our guests and hopefully you'll play along with us. And the first one is what is your favorite place that you've ever visited?

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (32:40)
It's like asking to choose your favorite child, right? And you love them all for different reasons. So.

Scott Barronton (32:43)
You

And

I'm I'm a stickler on this. It can only be one. It can't be three or four.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (32:48)
You are a stick. Okay. Okay.

then I have to go with, Peru because one, ⁓ my mother's originally from Peru. And so for me, it was about getting in touch with my own cultural heritage and Peru is three countries in one, right? You have the coast and it's unique culture that the Andes mountains is completely different with the catch for culture and the Amazon jungle. And so you've got three different cuisines. got three different.

histories and all sorts of things to explore. So it's a place that I feel like is like an onion. I can keep going back and pulling back layer after layer. And I'm a foodie and Peruvian cuisine is spectacular.

Scott Barronton (33:22)
It really is. I've only been to Lima, where our daughter lives, there's a Peruvian restaurant that we really enjoy.

Well, our second question is what do you have left on your travel bucket list? Like what's at the top?

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (33:36)
Well, what's up there that is very distant is a Mongolian horse safari. I'd like to ride a horse across the plains of Mongolia and explore that culture. I don't even know if it's, I saw something about it in TV when I was a kid. And I thought one day I want to do that. I don't know, maybe Mongolia is completely changed. But you know, there's also simple things on my list because I'm a very intentional traveler. I

high on my list is actually New Orleans. And I could go at any time, right? It's close by, but I won't. I want to do it right. I want to go with someone and really learn about the culture and the history. And I don't want to just walk down Bourbon Street, you know, drinking my hand. I want to do it. I want to go deeper. I feel like that's a city that offers so much. So I'm saving that for the right time, right people.

Scott Barronton (34:24)
So when we go back to our own original bucket list, it was on the chalkboard wall in our kitchen and we had written down like, what are our top bucket list things? And this was, how long ago, Melissa? Probably at least, yeah, yeah, at least. And so we found that picture and we've been doing the podcast now for almost three years, but 12, 14 years ago,

we had written down and one of the places was Antarctica and one of the places was New Orleans. And so I don't find that to be weird at all. That was definitely something that was on our bucket list as well. We spent a little time there, not super in depth, but we definitely got off of Bourbon Street and got out into the surrounding area.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (35:02)
Have you been?

Scott Barronton (35:11)
and learned a little bit more than, just that downtown party scene culture. I say the best way to learn a culture is through the food. That's the number one way to learn a new culture. And they definitely have the food. They're in New Orleans, but in the music. Yeah. So let us know when you get ready to do that. A good friend of ours, Jay Decote, he's a chef, he's an author, he's

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (35:26)
and the music and yeah.

Scott Barronton (35:38)
He does it all. Matter of fact, he beat Bobby Flay. He's there. And so I'd love to connect you with Jay because I think he would be a great way for you to dive into the culture at the level that you're looking to do so.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (35:50)
Sounds great.

Scott Barronton (35:51)
And then finally, the question that we ask is, what's next? Where are you traveling to next?

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (35:57)
Well, there's always work travel, but the next personal trip taking is going with me, my fiance to Morocco. And I have not been to Morocco before. I'm really excited about it. Again, it's been a place that it's been on my, in my eye, but I want to do it right. I want to, and I want to go with someone special and I want to go deep. So we're going to spend time living with the Berber tribes up in the Atlas mountains and really diving into that. I'm a foodie and I want to learn to cook and do a lot of cooking work.

And yeah, so Morocco.

Scott Barronton (36:26)
Wow. Nice. That's a special place. We haven't been, but we will be there in a couple of months from now. So, my phone's told me I was there before twice. One time we were on a cruise and it said, welcome to Morocco. And then one time we were in, Gibraltar. and my phone popped up and said,

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (36:37)
Hahaha! ⁓

It's welcome tomorrow.

Scott Barronton (36:46)
Welcome to Morocco. It's like, No, it's not. Yeah. That is a place where, Having a local is so important there to understand the culture and everything. So awesome. Well, Andrew, thanks for joining us this evening and sharing about the good life abroad. I think this

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (36:49)
Turn off, Romy.

so important.

Scott Barronton (37:04)
This story is going to resonate well with our listeners and we'd love to hear from anyone that decides now to go and do a trip with The Good Life Abroad. Let us know. We want to hear from you. Yeah. Please, if you book this, please let Andrew and his team at The Good Life Abroad know that you heard this podcast and please reach out to us as well, because we want to make sure that we...

bring you things that are meaningful and helpful and it just helps to have that feedback from everyone.

Andrew / The Good Life Abroad (37:32)
Thank you so much, Scott and Melissa, it's been fun.

Scott Barronton (37:34)
Thank you, Andrew.

Scott Barronton (37:36)
What stayed with me the most from that conversation is the mindset shift that retirement or even really just getting older doesn't have to mean shrinking your world. It can mean expanding it with real intention. I appreciate that Andrew didn't paint a romantic picture of living abroad. He talked about the realities. You're going to go somewhere that is very likely different from your day to day where you live today.

You might have smaller kitchens, run into some street noise of people hanging out till late at night. And people really just living at different paces of life. But he also talked about confidence. something new, especially later in life, builds strength. It keeps you engaged. It keeps you growing. And that's something I connect with right now.

As we slow down in our travels, it's not about doing less. It's about doing it differently. It's about staying long enough to really understand the place. So when we recommend something to you guys, it's coming from our lived experience, not just a quick stop. And it doesn't mean that we will only slow travel going forward. Quite honestly, the first trip that we have planned is going to have us bouncing across continents.

but purposefully spending more time in each location.

For me, the community piece stood out the most. You can rent an apartment anywhere in the world and that part is not difficult, but feeling connected, that's different and feeling like, maybe almost like you're accepted there too, if you're there for a period of time. I know that we mentioned in the episode that our daughter and her family are gonna be in Spain in a couple of places for a period of time. And that was kind of one of her concerns when she researched places.

that they would stay is would they be able to find, people, you know, even if it's just at the playground or something like that for a family, but even so much more important for retired people, people that are older as well. And so what he described in the Good Life Abroad, people finding their tribe, building friendships, traveling with intention, and having that built into this experience as part of it is really powerful.

I also love this story about the gentleman named Tom who took that Renaissance art class at his local community college before going to Florence. So whenever he went to the art exhibits or visited the chapels, he was already familiar with the works and each day he would set off to explore these works of art. I mean, that's just

That's learning and studying, not as a student, like trying to get your degree and all that, but because you want to. And I just think that's really great lifelong learning. And then also just how good that is for your brain, like we talked about. That it's not checking a box, that engaging with the destination in a way that stays with you, not only a long time after you return home, but also that period of time building up to that as well.

one of the things that we have always enjoyed about international travel is visiting the places that you have read about in history books, learned about in school, seen on movies, and getting to see that and experience that for yourself. And I think that that is something that we can all apply for sure, as we think about all of our travels, whether it's just a week long trip or a month abroad, what can we learn and study about before we go and then what

can we bring with us to our everyday lives? And I liked what Andrew said about Tom, is he would come back to the group of people, he would share what he found after he went out, he would tell them all about it, and then the community support manager who was there would steer him into the direction of maybe some less touristy, less known places.

where he could go and explore deeper and further. And so I thought that was really neat. That is really neat. And that's the good thing about when you have a little bit more time, right? Is it's not just about checking the boxes that we've got to see these super famous places that you've seen, but you get to really explore it, like a local and find some of those hidden gems as well.

We also followed up with Andrew after the interview to get some additional information. And he shared with us that solo travelers make up about 30 % of the people who take a good life abroad trip. So if you find yourself later in life and don't have a travel buddy that wants to commit to a month abroad, you definitely won't be alone. And he mentioned the program is designed to create a sense of community.

and they are on the ground support and then also support to get ready to go as well. And the second thing we discussed is a question that he said a lot of people ask is can you have visitors come visit you during your stay? And the answer was absolutely. he also mentioned that

You may want to determine this ahead of time so that you can rent an appropriately sized apartment because this is your home while you are over there. So instead of renting a one bedroom apartment, let's say for example, you're doing one of the month long ones and you've got family coming for a couple of weeks, you may want to have a two bedroom so that you have room for them and they don't have to stay somewhere else and you get to spend more time with them. You just have to let them know before your trip.

so that they can make those a correct arrangements for you.

think the key here is understanding that you aren't just on a vacation. You're actually living abroad during this time. And it's not like a tour group where all of your days and hours are fully booked with activities and travel. Andrew mentioned in the interview that many of the retirees that joined his family trips in the past

Asked for something where they aren't constantly getting on and off the bus and moving to a new location every day. You actually stay here in this one place for one to three months and live like a local would during this time. And, it's your home base. So if you want to go and travel and experience, nearby cities, you can, because you're in Europe and if you want to take a trip to another country.

because they're all so close during that time, you can do that. This is just your home base during that time. Yeah, that's a great point. And before we close, if you enjoyed this episode, we want to encourage you to share it with somebody who said, I wish I had lived abroad while I was younger. I wish I had backpacked through Europe. I wish I had done one of these things and they think maybe it's too late, but it's not.

So please share this and the good life abroad with somebody who may be thinking that. And if today's episode made you curious, don't ignore that. You don't have to move overseas permanently. You don't have to change your life overnight. You're committing to one to three months, but you might consider what it would look like to stay somewhere longer than you normally would to experience a place beyond just the highlights.

And if you'd like to learn more about The Good Life Abroad, you can visit

And if you decide to explore one of their programs, let them know you heard about it here on the Sunshine Travelers podcast. Then come back and tell us how it went. Because this season of life, wherever you find yourself, it's not about retreating. It's about choosing how deeply you want to experience this great big beautiful world that surrounds you.

Speaker 1 (45:03)
Well that's it for today's episode. Wherever you're listening from, we hope we've added a little spark to your travel dreams today.

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Speaker 2 (45:24)
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Speaker 1 (45:30)
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Speaker 2 (45:40)
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