Tropical place with tourism, beaches, minimal racism, safe, beautiful to live in, money not a dealbreaker. (schools, living in)

[Hawaii4evr]

Ah, I see.

[Who Dat]

Okinawa perhaps?

You might find most of what you're looking for although it is very laid back.

[Tdiva]

Hawaii

[Hawaii4evr]

Originally Posted by Who Dat

Okinawa perhaps?

You might find most of what you're looking for although it is very laid back.

Okinawa is only subtropical. It still gets cool in winter.

[greenehaven]

Lived on Oahu, Hawaii a couple of times - great lifestyle, but takes a long time to find a job as the locals think you are a tourist. Settled in Taipei now - foreign language instructors are the primary expat opportunities here...

[rosa surf]

I would check out Baja California Sur. Florianopolis would be great as well, though Brazil tends to be expensive.

[HKT]

Good suggestions so far.

Singapore- I lived there before and had enough after 5 years.

Mauritius- On the short list.

Cabo and Baja- Didn't see any good int'l schools.

Florianopolis- Seems to get quite brisk in winter time.

If anyone has any recommendations for Caribbean islands, I'm all ears.

Cape Verde islands looked interesting, until I read about all the red tape required.

[Davy-040]

Might want to check out the Dominican Republic.

[wikiwikirunner]

Originally Posted by HKT

I've been living on a tourist tropical island (Phuket) in Thailand for over 15 years with my Thai wife. We are looking for a new place to move to that fits the title of the thread. We definitely don't like places that get cold!

Things that we need are
international school,
nice mix of locals, expats and tourists
Nice choices of food options, beach sports, social clubs etc.
International airport
No heavy racism vibe
English not necessarily the primary language, but some degree of English
Good medical
Modern infrastructure
Nice beaches
Not too 3rd world
Multi cultural

Poaces considered so far are ( in no particular order) Panama (dangerous and corrupt), Seychelles (seems to0 quiet), Costa Rica ( lots of reports about animosity towards foreigners), Belize (too quiet), Caribbean Islands in general ( Hurricanes, reports of widespread racism), Tenerife ( ocean too cold), Fiji ( almost the same as Phuket) and a number of other places such as Majorca.

Two places I want to take a good look at and spend some time are Mauritius and Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

I know this is pretty general in what I'm looking for, but if anyone has some places that they have lived and it fits the basic criteria, I'm open to looking into it.

Originally Posted by Mr.Falcon

My sister lives in Hawaii and I Think its really pretty but too down for brazilian standards.

Hard to generalize all of Hawai'i.... each island, and even different regions of each island are completely different from eachother. Over 70% of HI's population lives on one island, O'ahu, so naturally you will have all of the "city-type" stuff there, shopping, dining, culture, art, night life. Of course, wherever there is big city, some of the uniqueness of the land is gone, and O'ahu is missing a lot of the natural energy, and remoteness found on the other islands. This is not to say you can't find country and natural beauty on Oahu, but you will be competing with the island's other residents, and stream of tourists for a spot on the north shore on any nice weekend. The price of housing on O'ahu is also THROUGH THE ROOF.

Honolulu has Hawaii's only international airport, if you live on another island, you'll likely have to fly to HNL before continuing abroad (Direct flights to the US mainland from Lihue, Kahului, Kona, Hilo on the other 3 major islands).

Racism has a lot to do with how you carry yourself here. I'm haole (white) and have never had a problem, just don't come in with a chip on your shoulder. Spread the aloha and you should be fine.

Nice beaches can be found all over HI, but the general consensus is that Maui has the most/best easily accessible beaches. Kauai has some fantastic stretches of sand, including Polihale, the longest beach in HI (17 miles of sand ) and you've got black sand and even a green sand beach on the big island!

I could go on all day about how the islands are different, but you can head over to the Hawaii forum and read more if you are interested.. to cut it short, it's hard to have all the things that a bit city offers, while still taking advantage of the essence and spirit of Hawaii. In my opinion, you don't come here to live in a high rise condo, you can do that in New York or Chicago. You're going to sacrifice nature for city life, and you're going to sacrifice city life for nature. It all comes down to what you want here.

[Aville239]

Have you looked into Malaysia?