In the southeastern corner of Portugal, where the Atlantic meets the shore, the ancient town of Tavira has found a modern vocation. Set on a sun-blessed coast of islands and lagoons, Tavira is proving a magnet for people in search of a new life.
I singled it out as my home after walking the whole length of the country, and many other foreigners have succumbed to its charm and put down roots here.
Tavira is a river town, just a short ferry ride from the sea. It’s not too big—the population of the municipality is about 28,000—so within minutes of driving out of town you pass through orange groves and up into gentle rolling hills.
The winters in the eastern Algarve are mild and spring comes early. The almond trees blossom in January and the first broad beans reach the table in February.
In town, the dominant colors tend to be the blue of the sky, the white walls of so many buildings, and the red of the tiled roofs.
Tavira is gloriously walkable, with narrow cobbled streets and plenty of cafés and restaurants with outdoor tables.
Foreigners, often of retirement age, have arrived in considerable numbers to live here, with Swedes, Italians, French, Germans, British, and Irish all represented.
According to local realtors, in recent years Americans and Canadians have started to feature in the international mix.
One American who settled here four years ago is Allan Ensor, a former school psychologist. Ensor, 75, has on his business cards the words “Missouri by birth, Tavira by choice.”
He said his original intention had been to settle in Lisbon. Then, his one contact in Portugal invited him to the Algarve for
Thanksgiving. He was smitten.
Within days he had found an apartment in Tavira and everything just slotted into place. He now leads regular Tai Chi classes in a quiet city square, with a white-washed church on one side and a café on the other.
“I have become part of the community here, largely through the Tai Chi classes,” said Ensor. “This was all just luck and happenstance.”
“I like Tavira for the fact that it is such a nice mix of nationalities,” he said. “It’s a very easy place to meet people, and very interesting people with amazingly diverse backgrounds.”
Immediately after the Tai Chi, on Saturday mornings, everyone heads for the café, and typically there might be Italians, British, and Dutch gathering for a coffee and exchanging the latest gossip.
Ensor said that in his early days in Portugal, when he knew hardly anyone, he relied a lot on the website Expat Exchange to get his bearings in the new country.
This site, with its discussion groups for dozens of individual countries, carries a wealth of information on practical matters from health care to tax
