Frank & Maria(60)

Everyone in our social circle went to the Algarve. Not us. Frank and I are culture lovers — museums, architecture, local traditions. The Algarve felt too touristy, too many golf courses and expat enclaves. We wanted real Portugal.

We discovered Tomar through a documentary about the Templars. The Convento de Cristo, a UNESCO World Heritage site, stands in the middle of town. But Tomar is more than history: it has the Festa dos Tabuleiros (every four years), a lively market square and a river where you can swim.

We bought a renovated townhouse for €130,000 — three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a courtyard with orange trees. We arranged the purchase through an English-speaking lawyer in Lisbon. The transfer at the notary took exactly 45 minutes.

As retirees with state pension and supplementary pension we have a comfortable income. We applied for NHR status within the first six months. Our pension is now taxed at a flat rate of 10% instead of the progressive Dutch rate. That saves us €6,000 per year.

Tomar is centrally located in Portugal. Lisbon is an hour and a half by car, Coimbra one hour, and the coast at Nazare 45 minutes. We have built a rich social circle: the local Rotary club, a Portuguese literature group (Frank now reads Saramago in the original), and the neighbor ladies who take us to church.

The only downside: few people in Tomar speak English. But that forced us to learn Portuguese, and that was the best thing that could have happened. After two years we speak fluently, and we are members of a theater group performing at the local theater.