<h2>Pros of moving to Portugal</h2><h3>Weather</h3><p>An obvious one but an important one to almost everyone’s mental health. The Algarve has over 300 days of sunshine and whilst you'd expect it to be sunny in the summer, the winter sun is where it pays. You can most definitely eat lunch outside and happily play golf in shorts during even the coldest of months.</p><h3>Healthcare</h3><p>Portugal has a great healthcare system – both private and public have an excellent standard. </p><h3>Cost of Living</h3><p>Cost of living (certainly outside the Golden Triangle) is lower even though Petrol prices are one of the highest in Europe.</p><h3>Crime</h3><p>A welcome surprise is how safe Portugal is regarding crime and violence. Portugal is one of the safest countries in Europe and has low crime figures and even lower violent crime figures.</p><h3>People</h3><p>Perhaps one of the most important aspects of living in Portugal is how wonderfully kind and hospitable the majority of Portuguese are towards expats. A very large proportion of the Portuguese speak English and almost all lawyers, accoutants, banks staff etc speak English fluently. The majority of Portuguese have a charming “can do” attitude and genuinely want to help.</p><h2>Cons of moving to the Algarve</h2><h3>Time</h3><p>Everything takes a little longer than you would probably be used to. From the delivery of goods to getting NIFs, residency, matriculating cars etc, will all take time. Even before COVID and Brexit these would have taken longer than you would expect but now take even longer.</p><h3>Civil Service</h3><p>There are some accounts of civil service staff either not speaking or refusing to speak English, so it is always worth remembering a handful of specific phrases when dealing with these departments.</p>
