THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - WORLD’S BEST PLACES TO LIVE

Like to be away from the crowds? Rupert Bates, editorial director of www.homesoverseasmagazine.com, lists his 10 favourite, less obvious retreats.

Where do you buy abroad in search of a lifestyle that suits, but far from the madding crowds and the all-day English breakfasts? Here are 10 locations where you can be action man, lounge lizard, eco-warrior or wine-lover.

Antigua

I am a distant relation of Nelson, which explains the one-eyed view. Nelson’s Dockyard attracts the yachtsmen and Brits are buying into new coastal resorts on a Caribbean island just 14 miles long, but with a beach for every day of the year. Outside chattel houses signs read: ‘too blessed to be stressed.’ Listen to the chatter of the tree frogs probably talking cricket. I ended up pickled in rum to make Uncle Horatio proud. If you are in a hurry this is not ‘manana’ lifestyle, but ‘several days after manana.’ Leave the BlackBerry in Barbados. £500,000 will buy you a two-bedroom beach cottage at Nonsuch Bay.

Argentina

La Estancia de Cafayate is in North-West Argentina’s Calchaqui Valley. Here you are two hours from Salta, Inca territory and a South American province known as ‘the cradle of folklore.’ Harvests bring tobacco, sugar cane and wine. A wine estate has to make the list and you get a share in a vineyard with your house beneath the Andean peaks. Wash down a cut of prime Pampas beef with a glass of Torrontes from your own bodega. For sport there is golf and polo. Around £65,000 will secure you a building plot.

Australia

Head south of Melbourne, Victoria and you are soon on the Mornington Peninsula - in my case, in-law country. This stretch of water is not for your Costa del Sol refugees. Remove your shirt on Port Philip Bay and expect a shout of ‘Mate, that’s some awning over the toy factory’ - an Aussie term for a beer belly. This is where you drink cold stubbies of beer, not flat white coffees and real men have big sheds at the bottom of the paddock. But the cosmopolitan culture of Melbourne is close by, if it all gets too parochial. A three-bedroom beachside home for £250,000.

Brazil

Years ago I nearly bought a plot on Brazil’s north-east coast on my credit card. ‘Get in early’ is the siren call from overseas agents, but remember that the early bird may catch the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. Anyway I am not cut out for beach volleyball. Brazil is for the hedonist and the sports lover, with the football World Cup and the Olympics heading to this South American giant. A carnival spirit, but crime is still a problem and abject poverty sits cheek by jowl with the new wealth of this fast-growing economy. A four-bedroom beach property will cost £350,000.

Canada

To the Laurentian mountains in Quebec, Eastern Canada. You have skiing at Mont Tremblant, but the wilderness too. Buy a rustic, log cabin, with the simple bear necessities. The region is clean, safe and family friendly and a four-season outdoor playground, with hiking, biking and canoeing. Plenty of fresh water, loads of space and just a six-hour flight from the UK and an hour from the cosmopolitan and cultural Montreal. But if you are bedding down abroad for a couch potato lifestyle, here is not for you. A four-bedroom home in the forest for £320,000.

Greece

Forget the countless Greek islands and try the mainland and the thread of the Corinth Canal, gateway to Greece’s southern peninsula. The Peloponnese is the size of Switzerland, but you are never more than 60 miles from the sea. The deep gorges of the Messinian Mani are stunning and the beaches clean. Proof of title when buying can be a nightmare. Bureaucracies is the heir to Socrates, with land often in multiple ownership. The Peloponnese is also home to Olympia, where the ancient Olympics began. Drop a local Kalamata olive in your dry martini. A two-bedroom stone house for £180,000.

Malaysia

This underrated Asian powerhouse, a federation of 13 states, is far more than the shimmering high-rise living of Kuala Lumpur. Personal interest here, as I was born in Malacca on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and a government initiative called Malaysia My Second Home is promoting the country to foreign buyers, with strong British take-up. A country with a warm welcome and a melting pot of cultures, but beware the rainy seasons. Try the beaches of Langkawi, 20 miles off the coast, where a luxury three-bedroom villa will set you back £350,000.

Panama

I love the idea of living on a resort called Emerald Monkey. This development is on an island on the Bocas del Toro archipelago close to the Panamanian mainland in Central America. An ‘eco-luxe’ sale to oil barons seeking green redemption, with hydro power and a biomass waste system. Solar-powered buggies are the only transport. A tropical climate with dry and wet seasons and a big carbon footprint to get there by air from the UK. The architecture and materials are Balinese, with a villa costing around £350,000. You have to be happy sitting cross-legged in a tea hut to blend in.

South Africa

If you want to escape the huge tides of flesh screaming down the streets during the football World Cup – and that is just the WAGs out shopping – there is always the Eastern Cape and buying a lodge on a game reserve. A good quality game farm can cost £400 an acre and you need a local partner on the ground who knows his gemsbok from his springbok. A second home and a safari in the garden, but make sure there is good water supply and there are concerns how President Zuma deals with local land claims.

USA

Autumn gold in Maine, New England – America’s Lake District. When you have torn your eyes away from the vibrant colours, put on the skis, with no four-year-old French kids cutting you up in the chair lift queue and far cheaper skiing than the slopes of Europe. You can walk the Appalachian Trail and buy a three-bedroom lodge in the lee of the mountains or beside the lake for £300,000. The crime rate is low, unless a loose moose gets to your fridge. A four-season purchase in the pine tree state, but it gets very cold.

Source: http://www.rupertbates.com/2010/04/take-off-for-a-new-adventure/

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