What European country would you move to in a heartbeat?

[carolineofcanton]

If you had the chance to. Feel free to be more specific as some countries have wide regional disparities. I would move to Belgium.

@Costacoffeeplease Where in Portugal?

Italy without a doubt, down south somewhere near Naples.

The Algarve

Oh electricity costs are fine here now, much cheaper than the UK, but VAT is far too high - this government is making me so mad, making all the wrong decisions.
Yeah they want people to speak Finnish here, even for jobs where you don't have to speak to anyone they often insist on good Finnish skills but in social situations I've never had a problem speaking English, depends on area though I suppose.

Norway for the wilderness, if I could learn the language, Belgium as my family is from there and the food !

France,and am actively looking into it.

Poland is another idea. We are regular visitors there and love it.

I love Europe.

There is so much to see.

Has anyone been to Slovakia. I'm going for a weekend next week

I'm off to France when my obligations are done in the UK.

I got the chance to live in Norway as a child due to my dad’s job. It was amazing, we were in a small fishing town that just felt so safe, friendly and welcoming. Every weekend (except in winter 🥶) we took trips to lakes, fjords, islands - it was absolutely beautiful.

Winter and the Christmas season had all sorts of community events, parades through the town, markets etc. Our little house was so cosy, with a wood-burning stove, outside terrace that looked out to the sea where you could sit with blankets and hot chocolate.

I took DH on holiday to Norway this year (my first time back in thirty years) and I instantly got the same welcoming feeling when we arrived and felt at home.

France. We currently divide our time between France and the UK and in time we will move permanently to our house there. We have french friends, speak the language and love the pace of life. It’s not perfect of course, nowhere is, we just prefer our lives there.

Ooh what part of france? I'm looking for travel ideas of where to go on france.

I've only been to Paris so far

France, I love it and speak the language. Otherwise Norway, but I would have to learn Norwegian

Norway. To be specific, Bergen.

Same! I speak those languages too, and Arabic :)

I already live in Belgium and it's got a lot going for it - great place to bring up kids. Now we look to retirement plans and are actually considering where to go (if we do). I love Italy - the language, the scenery, the food I get a bit bored with though. I love Spain - the evening life, prefer the food. I worry that both will get too hot though - extreme weather seems more common. Pragmatically I can more imagine living in France (South of, or Brittany/Normandy) as I can already speak the language, or the Netherlands which is generally a very overlooked and fabulous country. My Dutch does need some work though.

@Lisanoonan We are in Touraine, just 10 minutes from Chinon. Surrounded by vineyards, chateaux and lovely small towns full of character. Tours is a beautiful and cosmopolitan city, not too big. We’ve been coming for twenty years, loved it, then came in the winter and spring a few times, just to make sure that we liked it all year round. It’s a lovely place for a holiday!

Would residents of Portugal care to be more specific about what they don't like, or think is going wrong, please? DH is keen to retire there.

Norway or northern Italy. We have had some incredible holidays in both places, summer and winter. I’d like to live in Trondheim in Norway or in Verona in Italy.

@Papyrophile Depends which area?

Northern Italy or the bit of Switzerland/Austria that borders Italy... around the Oresund in either Denmark or Sweden would also work...

Mine would have to come with caveats, because there are issues with all the places I like!
I really like a lot of the lifestyle in the Netherlands, but it's quite insular and very racist.
I also love Norway but it's really expensive and they need to sort out their gender identity stuff before I'd consider moving there.
Ireland is beautiful and friendly but I fear I'd think the transition could be really easy and then it wouldn't be, and again the gender ID stuff.
Spain (though the laws are similarly crap on gender ID I have a feeling nobody takes it seriously - and that's part of the issue with Spain - laws? what laws? nobody cares, let's find a way to get round them!) is again beautiful, friendly, and has great culture but also has soulless concrete towns stuck in beautiful places, and the family culture is very old fashioned.
And while the provision for my disabled DS is appalling in most places I've yet to be convinced anywhere else would be any better than the incredibly low standards of the UK.

I have worked with Norwegians a lot over the last 15 yrs - you do really need to earn your strips to be accepted as a "local" - it's a tough crowd to get to know.

The Netherlands!

That's just what I was going to say. I lived there for seven years so I speak Italian and Neapolitan. God knows why I came back.

In all countries there are good and bad aspects, and better and worse places! There is no country in which I could say I'd be happy to live anywhere in it indiscriminately.

Good places to live for me would be:
Freiburg
Vienna
Lucerne
Lisbon
Valencia

Best places for a holiday home:
Corsica
Crete (or parts of many, many other Greek islands)
Tuscany
If there is a lot more global warming, perhaps Brittany.