There are lots of pros to living in Portugal but there are, unsurprisingly, one or two cons as well. Some of these downsides include bureaucracy, low-quality housing, a lack of a customer service culture, the challenge of integrating into Portuguese culture, low wages, and the rising cost of property.
This is why so many are sucked into the dream of becoming an expat in Portugal. None of what the vloggers promote is a reality for day-to-day living. Instead, weigh up the pros against the cons and then, being honest with yourself, decide if Portugal is right for you.
Bottom line is, you found 23 things that suck about this place. Pastries, food, wine, olive oil, roasted chestnuts outside of the metro station, crime stats, one of the lowest gun violence in the world, drug policy, beaches, water sports, the country side, Fado, fish and vegetable markets, the cheeses, chouricos, vineyards along the Douro River, the amazing amounts of different fruit and seafood best in Europe , the people, the art, history, architecture, health care, actual freedom.
Amazing fruits and vegetables, amazing raw materials for good cooks only partially taken advantage of in culinary traditions lots of egg-creme pastries, cheap quality tipple, cheap quality meats, compassion for other humans very important and great emergency medical care the SNS is great. I get the sense that family and village life basically overshadow any independent decisions people make, and they are concerned about social judgement at every turn.
That in itself would be manageable. You can avoid a lot of the headaches if you use a lawyer or accountant rather than trying to tackle these challenges yourself. Having a lawyer double check a rental contract, for example, might feel like an unnecessary cost but could save you money and a lot of headaches in the long run. Being physically in Portugal is actually quite nice, it is just not so nice to be reliant on anything there. We have been waiting for an appointment for more than 8 months and all the time get told there are no appointments available.
