Is there a friendly expat community in Silves?

Hi, I am also hoping to move to Silves, looking at a house there at the moment, so you could meet at least two other people! I like the town, it feels quite authentically Portugueuse despite the day trippers and is a good enough size to have most facilities.I also like that it is well placed to get to other parts or the Algarve.

Re friendliness, there are quite a few expats lurking around, I can’t say if they are friendly or not as although we spent a winter renting there I made connections through other things like going to a language class in Portimeo. The Portugueuse I have interacted with have been friendly. So that doesn’t answer your question exactly but I hope to go for it. Get in touch if you do too.

Hi Aspidistra. Great to hear from you and to have our hunch confirmed that Silves is a good place to be. We know it as daytrippers from when we spent a couple of summer hols in nearby Guía, and the last two summers when we were based in Olhão, just East of Faro. We've now sold our Spanish house and we  complete end of October. We'll be in Algarve again first week in September (probably in Guía, for 2 or 3 weeks), hopefully to rent an  apartment we've seen online. That'll enable us to apply for residency and give us time to look around before buying. I hope we can meet up  sometime - probably for the ubiquitous piri piri chicken! 😁

Cheers 

John & Mary

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That's great to hear! I am going over in a couple of weeks for a final look at a house we are hoping to buy. It will then need a load of work before it is completely habitable but we must definitely meet up at some point when we are both over there. 👍😀