{"id":45363,"date":"2026-01-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=45363"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:36:17","slug":"best-retiree-spots-welcoming-nomad-destinations-loyalty-doesnt-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/best-retiree-spots-welcoming-nomad-destinations-loyalty-doesnt-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Retiree Spots\/Welcoming Nomad Destinations\/Loyalty Doesn’t Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sunny Places to Retire<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While Mexico is the most popular retiree destination for Americans and Canadians by a huge margin, it\u2019s #5 on the annual Global Retirement Index<\/a> that International Living<\/em> produces. The top spot usually goes to Panama, thanks to its generous perks and terrific medical care, but this year it got edged out by Greece, which offers a residency permit to those spending at least 250,000 euros on real estate. Unlike Panama and number two Costa Rica, Greece offers plenty of variety in climate, altitude, and places to get away from the crowds. Other countries in the top-10 are Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Thailand, and Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welcoming Countries for Nomads<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not ready to put down roots but want to spend quality time where you land, only some of the countries that are great for retirees are also great for digital nomads. Thailand, Costa Rica, and Mexico are three of the exceptions in terms of countries where you can spend six months or more at a time without getting formal, long-term residency. Plenty of countries offer some kind of digital nomad visa, but a lot of those come with onerous requirements and tax obligations on foreign income. See my rundown here of the most welcoming countries for nomads and remote workers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airline Loyalty Doesn\u2019t Pay Off for Most Travelers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

American Airlines says that passengers buying their \u201cbasic economy\u201d tickets (their match to Spirit or Ryanair service) will no longer earn loyalty points on their flights. Sadly, other legacy airlines will probably follow suit. This proves once again that high-spending frequent business travelers with elite status are now the only ones who earn significant frequent flier points from actually flying<\/em>. (One example of how bad the payoff is: a business class flight from Mexico City to Tampa on Delta will earn me a whopping 1,000 SkyPesos.) Forget loyalty: if you want to earn free flights, you\u2019ll get there far faster by just maximizing your credit card spending instead, preferably with a card that allows multi-airline transfers, like Sapphire Preferred<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Points Currency with Rove<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the Chase points mentioned above and others available via Amex and Capital One, here\u2019s a lesser-known option that could pay off even faster, especially if you like to stay in independent boutique hotels instead of chains. If you book through Rove Miles<\/a> instead of, say, Expedia, you can earn 5 to 25 points per dollar that you can then cash in or transfer out. Flight bookings earn the lowest, but you often see 10 to 25 points per dollar spent on hotel bookings, on top of whatever your credit card is giving you. Plus they have a shopping portal. Then if you want to transfer points out, they connect to airlines in all three airline alliances: Star Alliance, One World, and SkyTeam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of\u00a0A Better Life for Half the Price<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The World\u2019s Cheapest Destinations<\/em>. See\u00a0past editions here,<\/a>\u00a0where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomadico issue #186<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2385],"tags":[2386],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45364,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45363\/revisions\/45364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}