Renting apartments in Europe for Seniors in 2027

I guess I have some questions. First, how long are you looking to stay? One month, two months? And it would help to know what your interests are and what kind of sites you are wanting to visit.

If it were me, I would probably go to England, because I love the country. I've been there enough that I'm more familiar with it than any other place, and that's a plus for me. And I love the history there, the countryside, and just the country in general.

But that's me. I know what I would want, so that's why I'm asking you what your thoughts are. It's hard to just pull something out of the air. I can throw some countries at you, and it really wouldn't mean anything because I have no idea what your interests are.

That said, given that you want to be there in the early spring or late fall, you might want to think about looking at some place towards the southern part of Central Europe, perhaps Spain or Italy. Does cost matter? That's another consideration. Some of those countries are more expensive than others. The more information you give, the better responses you will receive.

Thanks for your response Yes I should have said. .. Our plan is to rent for a month initially . Though England is lovely it does not fit into our plan to be somewhere in Central Europe . We plan to live within a modest budget and just wander ...no special interest except for where the area we settle in takes us. Thanks again for your input;

Europe is so large its sort of like asking where to rent in the US to tour the country.

Italy is an excellent idea. Maybe northern Italy though because its so close to a lot more of Europe than southern Italy is. But this is all up to what you think you will enjoy. The technicality of renting might be a bit different but nothing that cant be solved so worry about that aftrer you choose.

If you want to do more than 90 days then pick two camps. One in Schengen and one out. Then you can do nearly 6 months.

So much to choose from. First start with the dreamng. Also you might do a little research of cost of living in various areas. That might have some impact.

Develop a lot of questions, then come back.

For a Central Europe base, I would suggest Prague. Two years ago we rented an apartment there for a month at a reasonable price. Public transportation is good there (you would ride free as senior citizens), and many routes take you to the main train station. We easily took the train throughout the Czech Republic as well as to Berlin and Munich. Had we more time, we would have added Vienna, Budapest, and Warsaw.

Sorry, but France and Italy are not Central Europe. They are considered Western Europe.

Central Europe would include: Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.

I'm a big fan of this area. Price wise it is lower than Western Europe.(Except, perhaps, for Switzerland.)

I agree that Prague is a good location and fairly central to the area. But it really depends on where you want to visit.

I loved it when we said Eastern Europe. We all understood and given tge generation of tge OP, I understood and chose to say nothing.

The problem with Central [Eastern] Europe for your plans is tge distances and inferior train transportation. But if you are speaking of 45 days or two stops of 45 days each then you coukd do and see a lot more with a lot less $$ Central [Eastern] Europe compared to Italy or France.

Another consideration might be where can you begin with a built in support network. Any location where, through personal relationships or internet aquaintances, you can spend the first few days with hands on guidance would increase your success ten fold. I have contacts in a lot of Central [Eastern] Europe and would be happy to give you references. Heck, might go with....

So, based on the wider scope I say (very biased) 45 - 60 days in Budapest and 45 - 60 days in Budva. Side trips by rail, bus and discount air could be 3 night trips to the Black Sea Coast of Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia, Albania. But this is just my favorite part of the world and about a third cheaper than the west.

My daughter studied abroad in Prague and it was a fabulous base. On weekends she went to Berlin, Munich, Warsaw, Vienna, Paris, and a few different Swiss towns.

It might be difficult just parachuting into a new world and then having to make do for some extended period. No background, no contacts, no knowledge of norms or solutions to common problems or healthcare or … it’s why I suggested looking for places with support groups or people you know. I spent 20 years getting ready to live here. I might not have survived the first 30 days any other way. I certainly would not have gotten as much enjoyment and enrichment out of it.

You might want to start reading the Expat pages on Facebook for the countries you are interested in. Then there are organizations like https://xpatloop.com/ and https://www.internations.org/ and a lot of other country specific organizations you could look up.

If you want to be off the beaten track you could do worse than look at second cities. In France that might be Lyon. Not sure in Italy as Rome, Florence, Venice are all heaving with tourists. Maybe Bologna? In Germany maybe somewhere outside of Bavaria as it is pretty heavily touristed. Frankfurt is too big a city - maybe Mainz and Wiesbaden? I think in these examples you will be outside the tourist culture but still have enough to keep you busy and a reasonable level of English spoken.

I think also if you are planning to spend two months with another couple, you might want planned time apart. It is one thing to spend a couple of months with your husband but another thing altogether with a close friend. You will need to keep the friendship alive by scheduling trips or days where you do not see each other.

Good luck. I think your plan is doable but needs some forward thinking, which it sounds like you are doing.

Lavandula

We don't rent apartments. It is only two of us and we don't need more beds.
Also, we have found that apartments frequently are not in the city centers, so that requires using more public transport and wasting time.
We prefer B&Bs with the free breakfasts or small hotels. We save money and enjoy those more.

Fujrther, we don't like Basing in ONE place for weeks, because you waste a lot of time traveling to other places.
We only Base in one place if we can visit places in about 1 1/2 hours of travel.

Geovagriffith - As a friendly counterpoint to your opinion, we like apartments for long stays for three reasons.

1) We can save money by not always dining out. We like to shop locally and try out recipes of the area we are in.

2) We look for apartments with laundry facilities. In that way we pack quite light for a month.

3) We specifically look for apartments NOT in the city center to get a better feel for the area, while finding apartments only a block or to from public transit.

You have received some widely-divergent ideas here.

I don't understand how you can stay in one place like Prague and visit Berlin (4 hours away!) or those other places Carol and ponygirl813 mention on day trips. As I understand it, you want good train access to NEARBY places of interest which might be an hour or two away, and you've seen all of Europe's most prominent places already and do not need to hit places like Paris, Vienna, etc. during your stay. Based on my assumption and my own experience... many places might work well for you, but here are a couple of ideas.

• Freiburg, Germany base with doable day-trip destinations like Basel (CH), Colmar (FR), Strasbourg (FR), and various Black Forest villages. Area orientation map

• Koblenz, Germany base with doable day-trip destinations like the Middle Rhine Valley villages, Bonn, Cologne, Mainz, and the Mosel Valley villages/towns.
  Area orientation map

Freiburg (200,000+ population) and Koblenz (100,000 population) are cities of some size - but there are smaller towns near these rail hubs where you might stay if you prefer "smaller", and some of these smaller places (Kirchzarten near Freiburg and Boppard near Koblenz, for example) offer FREE guest cards which provide free local bus/train/tram transportation to nearby places of interest.