Live Abroad- Portugal

25/08/2026

Nobody hands you a manual when you move here. You just learn the rules the hard way, one mildly confusing interaction at a time.

We had to learn all of these on our own when we moved to Portugal, so it felt only fair to pass along the heads up to future expats. But here's the thing: these aren't complaints. They're exactly what makes Portugal what it is. Relaxed. Kind. Slow paced, in a way that took us months to stop fighting. A culture that's stayed intact instead of flattening itself for outsiders. And full of small, specific things that make daily life here genuinely amusing, once you stop being confused by them.

All of them things we had to live through to actually understand, but that's the magic of it all.

Swipe through, and tell us which one you learned the hard way too.

21/08/2026

This is how a client's property in Boavista, one of Porto's most established addresses, turned out.

This property had almost everything: good location, good space, solid original structure. What it didn't have were the looks to match.

That's usually the pattern with houses like this. The infrastructure is outdated, the layout hasn't been touched in decades, and most buyers walk through and only see the work that needs to be done. What they don't see is the ceiling height, the light, the way the original structure was actually built to last.

That's where came in. They stripped the property back to its shell, redid the plumbing and electrical systems from scratch, and reworked the layout to open up the ground floor for better light and flow. From there it was finishes, interior design, and every detail down to the lighting and landscaping, all handled start to finish.

And the result speaks for itself.

Interested in a project like this in Porto? Link in bio.

19/08/2026

15/08/2026

Porto sold us the moment we realized how much sits within reach of it. Not just the city itself, but everything around it as well.

We used to treat Aveiro as a quick stop — take the canal photo, move on. Took us longer than we'd like to admit to actually stay till sunset in Costa Nova and realize it deserved more than an hour.

Arouca took us longer to get to than it should have; kept assuming it was just a hike, until we realized the river beach at the end makes the whole day worth it. Cíes was a different kind of overdue: a day trip into another country that somehow never made it to the top of our list until this year (and we are so glad it did).

The truth is all of these destinations work fine as a single day. But are they worth turning into a full weekend? For sure!

If you haven't checked any of these off yet, now's the time. And make sure to follow for more spots and experiences in and around Porto!