The Good Life Abroad Accomodation

There is a multi-page thread on the Trip Advisor Senior Forum about The Good Life Abroad company that has been going for more than a year. There are only 2 posts out of 66 with people posting actual experience with the company and frankly, one of them sounds like a shill/AI post. (way too vague)

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i13626-k14634235-Good_Life_Abroad_company-Senior_Travel.html

They are new so not sure how reputable they will turn out to be but no one has come back to that thread to say they have been shafted.

There is someone on the thread who says they are signed up for May 2025 for Lisbon. They apparently offer more than just accommodation. Early on in the life of that thread, I did a quick comparison of apartments in Florence and this company's charges and it seemed really expensive but travel styles and budgets are different.

I just checked them out on Google and there are 15 reviews; all positive. However, every one of those reviewers has no more than 4-5 reviews, which is unusual. Sure, there are reviewers with only a small amount of reviews but to have ALL the reviewers only have a small amount is weird. Most people who write Google reviews have dozens, if not hundreds (I have over 200 myself).

Not saying they're fake reviews, but I'd be a bit cautious.

I was getting the same feelings as both of you shared. Thank you for validating my thoughts.

My wife and I were in Lisbon with Good Life Abroad in October 2024. It was a very positive experience and we have booked a stay in Split with Good Life Abroad for October this year. We have travelled a fair amount in Europe usually getting AirBnBs and arranging all of our own travel. Many people correctly argue that you can probably find a cheaper accommodation by getting your owe AirBnB. While this is true Good Life Abroad offers other benefits that I believe make it an option worth considering. First, with Good Life Abroad they find the apartment; they vet it, and if there are issues, they handle them. This is much simpler than doing it on your own. We had a very nice apartment at the top end of Ave da Liberdade very near a sub way stop and away from, but walkable to, the busy tourist areas. The rest of our group was close by. Second, and maybe most importantly, you are with a cohort of about a dozen other travelers and there are usually three activities a week - a lunch, a happy hour, and an event like a cooking class, wine tasting, walking tour, trip to Sintra, etc. I'm not sure what the cash value of these activities would have been, but for example, I was looking at cooking classes to do own our owe and the one we did with the program would have cost 100 euros a person. And several of the lunches were very good. So, the added value is non-trivial. You get a balance of activities with your cohort and time on your own as you choose. We did several trips outside of Lisbon on our own and nearly everyone else did a weekend in Porto. We had a good group and organized four or five dinners together outside of the program, and still keep in touch. Finally, there is a program manager who arrange activities and who regularly provided advice on things to do. She was also a person to call in the event of a problem. For us this added up to a good experience, one I can recommend without reservation.

I would also put in a good word for Lisbon. It was a great city to spend this much time in. It is hilly, but walkable if you are reasonably fit. I would do an hour walk every morning. The subway and bus systems are great and Ubers are cheap. It has a fair number of good museums. The port area where the cruise ships come in gets crowded, but after a week or so you learn how to manage or avoid the area. The food - lots of seafood - and wine are good and reasonably priced.

Hope this helps.

Me again. Reading through the tread I realized I might not have answered the question clearly. Is Good Life Abroad a reputable travel company? The answer is yes. It is a young company, but they know their business. The founder Andrew Motiwalla has been involved with international travel one way or another for several decades. The Lisbon community manager was experienced and had an excellent knowledge of the city. As I said in my previous post, we are going to be doing another trip with them and several of the other people in our Lisbon cohort have or will be doing other trips with them as well. What Good Life Abroad promises, they deliver on.

Thanks for this information. I was just about to book a month in Florence this fall and decided I needed to more than just the marketing material. I always trust Rick Steves travelers, so will go ahead and book. I'll let you know how it turns out. We are about at the age that an every two days on the bus schedule is too much for us, and the idea that we have a community manager to turn to in case of problems (we've had a couple of emergencies that required hospital stays while traveling in the last couple of years) is important to us.

Worth noting: the only "positive" review of them is the one above from a two-post individual, both of whose posts were to defend and praise the operation. Hmmm. Your BS-detector may work differently than mine, but i think I might smell some fish.

There is a 2-part, fairly extensive blog post/review online that is easy to locate regarding the reviewer's Florence experience which sounded positive.

I did the Barcelona trip with The Good Life Abroad in March and really enjoyed it. It was a good mix of group activities and a time on your own. The people in our group made it fun and our community manager Tina was very helpful throughout our stay. The biggest downside was the weather. The first 3 weeks had much more rain than typical. We had a little trouble with our apartment due to the property manager (elevator was out for a week), but between the community manager's assistance and working directly with the property manager we were able to resolve the issues. The location of our apartment was excellent, very centrally located for walking and Metro stops to get around easily. I would book with The Good Life Abroad again.

@dancavanaugh1 - Welcome to the RS forum. I hope you will stick around.

My question was can you have family come stay for short periods? If you rented a two bedroom?
Thank you, Lisa

I am an alumnus of The Good Life Abroad and am happy to share my very positive experience. I was the only solo traveler out of a group of 15 who arrived in Florence, Italy on October 6, 2024. I arrived in the early Sunday evening and went straight to my apartment. While I should note that the collection of apartments available in most of TGLA's cities may vary from group to group, the selection for me met all my needs and was considerably nicer than I would have selected for myself if I'd shopped on AirBNB or VRBO, for example. In my case, my apartment was on the top floor of a building with my front door only 10' from the elevator. The apartment had a living room with a kitchenette (convection stovetop, microwave, smaller refrigerator, sink, dishwasher, and all the equipment that I needed through the whole month I prepared my meals here); a generous bathroom with toilet, bidet, sink, shower (larger than many I've experience in Europe), and a combo clothes washer/dryer; a bedroom with a large chest-of-drawers, a chair, and a single twin-sized bed; and a utility closet with a drying rack, iron, ironing board, hair dryer, and cleaning supplies. Rising from the living room was a stairway that led to a loft with a queen-sized bed, wardrobe, and a chest-of-drawers. Back down in the living room, there was a sofa (with hide-a-bed), an ottoman, a large cabinet which provided storage for all the kitchen and dining equipment, a kitchen table, a small utility table with toaster and coffee maker; and a smart TV. The apartment was located half a block from a large-for-Florence Conad grocery store. This apartment was located in the Oltrarno District a block south of the Arno and on a street that linked to the historic district via a bridge (Ponte Corraia), putting it a 15-minute walk to both the SMT train station and the adjacent bus station. I mentioned that I was the only solo traveler among our group. Apparently this is unusual. Another group arrived two weeks later. There were 12 in that group with half traveling as solo travelers. I had a bit of concerned about my status, but found that I was surrounded by fellow travelers who were very receptive and regularly involved me in activities they dreamed up. As for the activities included under the scope of TGLA's program, these started on the morning after our arrival with a general orientation meeting, an area orientation tour, and a lunch. Each week - usually on Tuesdays, TGLA offers a luncheon opportunity for the group at a local restaurant (varying locations), a Thursday evening Happy Hour gathering with heavy hors d'oeuvres, an architectural/history walking tour, a leatherworking class, a pasta-making/eating class, a painting class utilizing historical tools and techniques, and a day trip to Siena. I arrived in Florence having previously spent 4 or 5 days there and having already hit some of the main attractions, but with an extensive list of "hidden treasures" and secondary attractions in Florence. I also had interests which carried me to other towns (Fiesole, Pisa, Verona, Prato, Pistoi, Siena, Assisi, Perugia, Ravenna, Lucca, and San Gimignano) - some by myself and some with others from the group. If pressed for any disappointments with my experience, I come up with the following: 1) lighting in my apartment was initially dimmed with burned-out bulbs - something that was addressed by the building management as soon as I mentioned it; 2) the location's proximity to the Arno bridge and numerous restaurants around the building meant that outside noises extended beyond my bedtime - something that I ultimately addressed with noise-canceling earbuds. 3) The first three weeks of October were rather warm. 4) Mosquitos that managed to seek me out as soon as I turned out the bedside lamp. I don't hold TGLA responsible for any of this. Finally, I can't wrap up this review without praising TGLA's Community Managers who were very informed, fun, and supportive. They were terrific resources!

Thanks for posting your experience, Barry, and welcome to the RS forums. I hope you'll stick around. It sounds like you day tripped to a lot of locations and you may be able to be helpful to others visiting Florence independently.

Just curious as to how you found "us"?

All I see are one-time/first-time users (with just one or two second follow-ups by the same new users, only reinforcing their praise), then they vanish forever. Not a single "review" posted by a well-known, regular user.

I suppose this could just be a surprising coincidence...Nah, there are no coincidences.

To paraprase Elaine.... Sure smells fishy to me, but I have a strong olfactory sense, and living near the ocean as I do, I often catch a whiff of the pescalicious...maybe it's just the low tide?

I'm with David. I'd be very very suspicious of these reviews. I'm not saying they're not real, just saying to get out that pinch of salt.

I'm with David. I'd be very very suspicious of these reviews. I'm not saying they're not real, just saying to get out that pinch of salt.

Ditto

Hmmm. Your BS-detector may work differently than mine, but i think I might smell some fish.

.....and it has been awhile since it was properly refrigerated.

Proceed with caution.