Ben Taylor

Ben Taylor moved to Portugal with his wife in 2009, after falling in love with the Algarve several years before. He launched a blog, movingtoportugal, to document his experiences, which gained unexpected momentum and evolved into the popular “Moving to Portugal” book. Ben has written about Portugal for several outlets, including A Place in the Sun, Cheapflights.com and TheTrainline.com. That particular job was particularly inspiring as it involved documenting train journeys across the country! Ben is also a keen foodie, and has reviewed restaurants for local magazines and websites. Ben currently lives in south east England with his wife and two young sons, but retains close ties to Portugal, with several family members located in the East Algarve. In 2017 he founded HomeWorkingClub.com, an advice site for aspiring home workers, after learning all about the world of home working from making a freelance living from Portugal. His advice on freelancing and remote working has appeared in many well-known publications, including The Huffington Post, Metro, USA Today and Business Insider.

Lisbon to Porto: TAP Introduces a Route to Compete with the Train

It’s long been a dilemma whether it’s easier to fly between Faro and Lisbon or Porto, or take the train. Now the same dilemma exists between Lisbon and Porto, due to a new service from TAP, Portugal’s national airline. Travellers from Lisbon to Porto (and vice versa) have extra travel options since TAP, the national airline of Portugal, launched hourly flights between the two cities during peak periods.

Detailed Plans Emerge for the Algarve’s Newest Shopping Mall

The past week has delivered a flood of information about the next shopping centre to open in the Algarve – now officially named as Mar Shopping Algarve. Find homes in Algarve via our property portal. Mar Shopping Algarve is to be the name of the huge new shopping centre in Loulé, launching next year. The new mall will be the home to the region’s long-awaited IKEA store, and will apparently be several times larger than the (already huge) Algarve Forum mall in Faro.

Tourism in Portugal: 2015 roundup

2015 was a good year for Portugal’s tourism industry and property markets According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism accounts for around 15% of Portugal’s total GDP – and this figure is expected to rise by 2% per year. As such, Portugal’s tourism figures are a very important indicator of how well the country is doing.

Weather in Portugal: What’s the Winter Really Like?

If you’re thinking about embarking on life as an expat in Portugal, the weather is likely to be a contributing factor. Here are a former expat’s top tips to get to grips with the climate all year round. After spending five winters in Portugal’s Algarve, I’m spending this one in the UK. It’s therefore impossible not to nostalgically look back on what I’m missing, especially when I walk, yet again, into my freezing garden, to move all the plants and furniture back to their rightful place after they’ve all blown up one corner of the patio.

Portugal Reassures Expats in the Wake of Brexit Vote

Brits in Portugal worried about the ‘Brexit’ vote for the UK to leave the EU now have some reassurance of their status – direct from the Portuguese Prime Minister. After a long and tense wait, we now all know that the citizens of Britain have voted to leave the EU by a narrow margin.