Retiring Abroad: Client Spotlight series

Milestone's Client Spotlight series

The Client Spotlight series within our Retiring Abroad posts continue.  These are responses from our very own clients who are retired and living in Canada and around the World.  We have asked them to comment on the same five topics: climate, sports & recreation, cost of living, ease of access and health care. We hope this will provide some great insight into what it is truly like to retire and live in cities abroad.  

 

Client Spotlight #3:  Henderson, Nevada & Palm Desert, California - by Robert

This post comes to us from a client who spends part of the year in Henderson, Nevada and part in Palm Desert, California. His experience, shared here, gives us a good perspective on two places that most Canadians would consider ideal for retirement, either seasonally or year-round. 

Visit Henderson

Visit Palm Desert

CLIMATE:  “Palm Desert (PD) is a great place to be from mid-November until the end of April.  It offers plenty of sunshine and daily high temperatures that range (in Fahrenheit) from 65 to 95 degrees, with little humidity.  Once you are into May, the hot weather starts to show an ugly side, with temperatures getting to levels like 120 degrees in July or August – not every day, but often enough to discourage a snowbird from making PD a summer destination.  Henderson is cooler throughout the year, particularly if one is in the higher-altitude areas, such as Sun City Anthem.  Expect temperatures to be, on average, 10 to 12 degrees cooler than in PD.”

SPORTS & RECREATION:  “Both venues offer golf and hiking, as well as other outdoor activities; tennis and the newbie game of pickleball, to mention two examples.  The only difference in this regard is that in PD there are a greater number of golf courses per square mile, giving golf enthusiasts more flexibility.  If shows are your thing, both cities offer good entertainment, with the Henderson/Vegas area getting the nod because of the lengths casinos will go to ensure that people visit and, yes, gamble.  If gaming is your bag, Vegas is the place.  The casinos are numerous and anything you seek will be there in abundance.  The PD area is, by comparison, not very good at all for gaming and we leave it at that.”

COST OF LIVING:  “Disregarding foreign exchange rate differentials, both PD and Henderson are priced attractively - that is, unless you really want to pay up for the biggest and best home in a super-prime location, in which case all bets are off.  Food and beverage costs, as well as the cost of shopping experiences, compare most favourably with what one would see in Alberta.”

EASE OF ACCESS (transportation to and from):  “If you are travelling from Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver, it is very easy during the season if PD is the destination.  The Season typically begins around October 1 and lasts until sometime in April.  Look for direct, non-stop flights into Palm Springs during these times, with WestJet being the airline of choice for most.  If Henderson (or Las Vegas) is your destination, there are more direct non-stop flights, covering a greater number of months during the year, so travel-wise, they get the nod.  Flights land in McCarran airport, located in Henderson but not far from the Vegas Strip.”

HEALTH CARE (quality and access):  “It is always good to know in advance that, if you are Canadian traveling to the United States, you have out-of-country health insurance on some level.  While health care is good and readily available in both PD and Henderson, paying retail prices is not an option except for the extremely wealthy.”