A soon-to-retire couple I know want to travel. However, the way the want to do it is sell their house, then live approx. 4 months in different locations in Europe, to start with, then, wherever they decide. I imagine eventually they will settle in one place, perhaps back in the States, but this is their newest idea.

They have said they have found few internet sites renting furnished apartments by the month. They are very open concerning where to go.

Are they looking in thr wrong places?

Do you know of sites with many monthly furnished rentals?

Any advice for them?

Thanks on advance to anyone who replies.

Few?

Googling "renting apartments in" plus the name of a city seems to do quite well

Many agencies/sites (most probably) that rent vacation cottages by the week, also have listings for longer periods. Estate agents will also have short term listings

What countries are they interested in? They may run into the time limitations for allowable stays.

googling 'renting apts. in" did bring up many more results.

I think some books about living abroad would be a good idea for my husband's coworker.

They are thinking UK, France, Spain, Italy, Netherland, Switzerland...all Western Europe and probably Eastern Europe. About 4 months in each place. Probably visas wouldn't allow that in some places. They need to do research. But I'll tell them to google 'renting in..." so they can get a taste of what's out there for rentals. They were saying 3,000 euros a month, they were expecting to pay. It is conjecture. He has 2 more years to retire and be a gypsy.

OK - they have a problem from the get go. They will be limited to 90 days total within a 180 day period in the Schengen zone countries.

that includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. So no 4-month stays and no multi-country stays totalling more than 90 w/i any 180 day period

Well - they can stay longer - they just can;t do it as tourists. If they're serious about this they need to start contacting governmnets to see what type of other visas might be available to them - considering they they will be retired and have significant financial resources - rather than "students" that don;t study or vacationers that end up with a lot of illegal job and become an expense to the welfare and medical systems.

And that's another thought. Medicare doesn;t cover you outside the US and the foreign governments wouldn;t want to cover non-nationals except in a rare emergency - so they will have to buy private health insurance.

Maybe they could do 2 month stays.

But they will still be limited to 90 days w/i any 180 day period. So they can't (w/o visas) stay in any two of those countries for 2 months each within any 6 month period . . . .

My husband and I go 3 months each year. We live in N.E. Pa. and it gets cold in the winter so we go to a warm climate. They could rent out their house if they didn't want to sell it. We have medicare but have a co-insurance which will pay emergency visits or will pay providers to BC/BS so we are covered for traveling. Hopefully they talked to a financial planner. $3000 per month is about right. We've been to France, California for two years and this year Spain, Portugal and Sicily. Tell them to have a great time and go for it!

Couldn't they stay in one of the Schengen zone countries for 90 days and then return to the UK or US for 90 days or so?

Yes, they can stay 90 days in one (or several) of the Schengen countries, and then go to US or UK for another 90 days, and then come back to Schengen for another 90. OR they can apply a visa and stay that 4 months or more. They just have to prove that they have the means to support themselves.