# Funchal - Looking for friends



## Hemash

Hi,

We are a retired couple traveling to find a retirement destination to call "home". We traveled to Funchal last year and enjoyed our time there. The climate is awesome and conducive to our needs. We found people speak English and are friendly. 

We are visiting again this year for 3 months from Oct to Dec and would like to meet with locals and expats during our visit to give us an insight on living in Funchal and to make new "local" friends. We feel it's important to make connections to decide to live in a place. Friendships are critical when moving to a new place. We have hope that we will hear and connect with many during our visit to make our decision easier. 

We look forward to hearing from one and all from Funchal, Madeira.


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## MrBife

The local Golf Club, Bowls Club, Tennis Club, Bridge Club, Charity Groups, Gardening Society, Ramblers Group, Geocaching, Rotary, Paintball, Archery, Book Club, Quiz Group, Wine Club, Archaeology Group, Bird Watching Society, Nudist Club, Church xxxxx* (*enter your favourite activity here) society would be much the best bet. You need to ask around when you get there


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## Transcend

Hemash said:


> We are a retired couple traveling to find a retirement destination to call "home".


I too am retired and travelling in the hope of finding a suitable retirement destination, so I can empathize with your situation. Madeira has long been on my radar, but as yet I have not visited and so can provide no first-hand knowledge or advice.

As MrBife has mentioned, there are likely to be many opportunities to meet people once you arrive. Madeira is relatively small, and so there should be many groups and activities close at hand.

If you are an active couple you may wish to consider joining the following Meetup group:

https://www.meetup.com/Madeira-SOCIAL-ADVENTURERS/

As you know, the climate lends itself towards outdoors activities, and so a group like this may be a good way of meeting friends and being introduced to the island and its features.

I am sure you will have no trouble meeting new friends (both local and expats), and I wish you all the best for your trip later this year.


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## Strontium

I* am not sure I really understand this, you are considering moving to Funchal Portugal where the locals are Portuguese so they speak Portuguese and the administration/schooling/police/television is Portuguese and you are looking to make connections/friends/be part of the community ? The blinding obvious is point is you should already be spending any/all your spare time learning to speak/understand Portuguese and reading up on the culture and history as there is no other way for you to integrate into a Portuguese community. How could you ever make local connections other then with other immigrants if not in Portuguese? If someone moved to where you live in the good ole US of A and tried to meet people by only speaking Portuguese how would they be treated?*


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## Hemash

*breaking barriers*



Strontium said:


> I* am not sure I really understand this, you are considering moving to Funchal Portugal where the locals are Portuguese so they speak Portuguese and the administration/schooling/police/television is Portuguese and you are looking to make connections/friends/be part of the community ? The blinding obvious is point is you should already be spending any/all your spare time learning to speak/understand Portuguese and reading up on the culture and history as there is no other way for you to integrate into a Portuguese community. How could you ever make local connections other then with other immigrants if not in Portuguese? If someone moved to where you live in the good ole US of A and tried to meet people by only speaking Portuguese how would they be treated?*


Yes we are learning Portugese. But it would be nice to start communicating with people on this forum...people who live in Funchal. Trying to break that barrier that you are talking about.


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## DUG100

Hemash,
We are "almost expats" here in Funchal we've been here a number of times with lots of experience and are here now until January 2018, how do we catch up?
Doug


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