Where would be your Stateside/Overseas place to live ?

[Nail Polish]

If money was not an issue...Sedona is an amazing place.

It's just also amazingly expensive.

I have been to Sedona many times, and considered retiring there, but my wife thought of one huge flaw...
No matter what the season, the scenery never changes. That's why we chose western NC.. Mild climate but you get 4 actual seasons. That's something to consider.. Someone responded to you with Flagstaff...Better choice IMO.. They get 4 seasons up there, and its a short drive to Sedona and the desert

 

[Nail Polish]

When we were choosing a retirement place, I went to visit a newly opened building area outside Ft. Garland Colorado.. It was just opening up to buyers and was limited to log houses only... The RE agent took me up this gravel road. We saw big horn sheep, turkey, deer, and even elk on the way up ..We got to the building site about 5000 ft, and I walked to the edge and looked down.. There was a working cattle ranch down there. You could see the cowboys roping cows for branding.. It was an amazing sight.

Then I asked the 99,000 dollar question...
"Where are the closest grocery stores, entertainment, restaurants, and doctors"?...He replied..."3 hours down the road. Most people go once a month and own 2-3 freezers"

That was the end of that!

 

[remydat]

That sounds more like what we would be looking for. We basically do not eat out since covid and have found a love for the kitchen and preparing fresh food. I would imagine that type of location is suited for that type of living.

Is there a hospital there? Or is it more an urgent care only type of healthcare availability with having to island hop for anything major?

Also, I am not necessarily looking to be around a bunch of other ex pats. I would look more for a situation where ex pats are accepted, but not that common.

No hospital so anything major would require air lift to Nassau but an island like Eleuthera is a 10 minute flight to Nassau. You literally take off and then almost land immediately.

Keep in mind the place is sparsely populated as again you talking 110 miles long and 2 miles wide but only about 20k people. Basically there are settlements with a cluster of people (locals, ex-pats or both) and then you drive like 10 miles or so where there is just trees and vegetation until you hit another settlement.

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You can browse the different islands to see what they are like keeping in mind this is more from a tourist perspective. And again 300k out of 400k are on Nassau & Paradise Island with the remaining 100k or so scattered across the 15 other main islands most of which are less developed. Basically Pirates made Nassau their stronghold because it was central and with a lot of islands and reefs for ships to run aground. So when the British came to get rid of Blackbeard (who made his home here) and the other pirates, they eventually made Nassau the capital.

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This would let you look at real estate by island or buy your own island as keep in mind only 15 islands out of 700 are really inhabited. The rest are basically rocks in the ocean of varying sizes with some up for private sale. There are a l