Brazil

Brazil is about scale: São Paulo for work and healthcare, Rio for the ocean, the north-east for cheap living and year-round warmth. Costs stay below Europe, though decent housing in the calmer districts of the big cities runs well above average. Seasons are gentle: the south has a cool winter, while in the north the dry and wet periods matter more than temperature. Portuguese becomes necessary almost immediately, and the everyday caution of large cities is learned in the first weeks.