What About Costa Rica…?

As I’m sure you’re aware, our 2025 Overseas Retirement Index has been released. As ever, our editors’ picks of the best places in the world for an overseas retirement are causing quite the stir…

Indeed, you might number among the readers considering our list of index havens and thinking, “How come [INSERT COUNTRY NAME] isn’t on there?”

There are hundreds of thousands of appealing, attractive havens around the world, but we can’t include all of them in our annual round-up. Instead, we bring you a short list of our favorites—the places we see as most worthy of your attention right now.

This means that we need to be extremely discerning and pull no punches when it comes to deciding which havens make the cut and which do not.

Though some will disagree with us, we have good reasons for excluding certain places. Here’s an overview of the places that didn’t make the cut this year:

Costa Rica

“How come you never talk about Costa Rica?”

This is one of the comments we receive most often at Live And Invest Overseas.

Costa Rica is popular for good reason. It has beautiful scenery, established expat communities, and generous residency and tax policies…

The thing is, Panama is right next door and has all of the same appeal at a lower cost, with better infrastructure in an overall safer environment.

Costa Rica relies heavily on tourism. You could even call it a one-trick pony. Panama has tourism plus services (banking, commerce, insurance, container ports, etc.) and revenue from the Panama Canal and other mega-infrastructure projects.

Its infrastructure—its highways, bridges, cruise ship terminals, metro service,

and more—is strong. Costa Rica’s infrastructure (its roads especially, but also its ports and water delivery systems) is of poor quality and in need of major upgrades.

Also, we can’t forget how Costa Rica rolled out the welcome mat for American and Canadian retirees a couple of decades ago and then changed its mind a few years later, eliminating many of the tax breaks it had previously promised.

Lately, expats in Costa Rica have told us of the high prices. They say that the cost of living is on par with that of the U.S. in some places. Also, safety has become more of a concern.

All in all, we prefer to focus our attention on Panama.

Indonesia

We’ve long included Indonesia’s most famous island, Bali, in our retirement index.

It’s an island paradise with rich culture, beautiful landscapes, and a low cost of living… but we’ve turned away from it in recent years because it’s overrun.

Bali is a tiny island with a population of 4 million people. It has been rising in popularity for years, supercharged by the advent of social media. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, as many as 60,000 Russians and Ukrainians relocated here, which tipped the island’s population over the edge.

Today, Bali is cramped, chaotic, and overwhelmed. Traffic—even when you’re going on foot—is a major headache.

Some tourists come here with aspirations to party hard and end up disrespecting local culture and marring the island’s reputation for tranquility.

On top of this, Indonesia passed laws in 2022 that many North Americans would view as restrictive of personal freedom. These laws ban unmarried people from sharing hotel rooms or living under the same roofs, to give you one example.

Bottom line: Bali is a less desirable place to live than it once was.

Vietnam

Vietnam offers extremely low costs of living, dramatic landscapes, and beautiful beach towns… But, for now, it’s staying off our index list because of changes to its residency policies.

It has become very difficult for prospective expats to gain residency in Vietnam. To qualify for an investor’s visa, for instance, you’d need to invest a minimum of $120,000… which is expensive relative to Vietnam’s cost of living.

Our indices prioritize countries where the average retiree can reasonably gain the legal right to live in another country (in other words, residency). In Vietnam’s case, the hoops you’d need to jump through have become unreasonable.

Turkey

Last year, we had our eye on Turkey, which offers incredible landscapes, amazing history, and affordable property. We named it an up-and-comer for 2024…

This year, we matched our words with actions and put boots on the ground on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast. LIOS Founders Kathleen Peddicord and Lief Simon scouted the area from Bodrum to Kas, exploring the area’s lifestyle and investment potential.

Based on their feedback, we’ve reassessed our stance on Turkey.

Inflation of the Turkish lira remains high, which makes day-to-day costs unjustifiably expensive. Previously, Turkey had a reputation for being a great bargain, which is partly why we were attracted to it.

Turkey made changes to its immigration policies and revoked the citizenships of people who had become Turkish through naturalization, which is a concern for those aiming for a second passport.

Lief and Kathie also discovered inflation in Turkey’s housing markets, although they predict that a drop is coming soon.

Turkey is still a place to watch, and we may revisit this market soon.

Ecuador

Ecuador’s been featured in our index on and off since its inception and is well-loved for its affordability, use of the U.S. dollar, friendly visa policies, and attractive beaches and Spanish colonial settings. Unfortunately, Ecuador has fallen on hard times.

It’s currently in a state of emergency due to wildfires and drought. On top of this, it has become less safe for day-to-day living because of gang violence, drug trafficking, and civil unrest. In fact, The Economist dubbed it “the world’s newest narco-state,” and it ranks as the least safe country in Latin America right now.

Needless to say, Ecuador is not a country that we currently recommend to expats.

Sincerely,