Hoping to obtain some ideas where we can stay cheaply to escape our extremely cold winter in Canada.
My husband and I are late 50s. Like to walk. Like city life.
I am thinking southern Italy, Spain or Portugal.
We like to have access to views of the water, cafes and if not too expensive my husband enjoys golf. ( i understand that reasonable golf is a long shot in Europe!)
Any suggestions for cities to aim for, or actual condos, or apartments would be so gratefully accepted.
Regards...

Portugal is very economical and it's southern half often has quite mild weather for most of the winter. Don't know anything about golf in Portugal although I seem to recall flying over a golf course on the way into landing at Lisbon's airport.

If you are counting winter as Dec 21 to March 21, it is really hard to imagine getting any golfing done. Most coastal parts of Sicily get mild January weather, but for the rest of the winter it can be wetter & colder. It tends to be more expensive to get there too, and overall it is not as cheap as Lisbon in every way.

Really don't know about Spain's sunshine destinations in winter.

Meant to add you might check out Malta to see if it has what you want. Don't know anything about it other than likelihood of warmer temps than Canada...

Sorry -- my post wasn't clear.

I meant to write it's hard to imagine golfing anywhere it Italy in winter. Not a lot of golf courses and only Sicily might have the weather for it all winter. But Portugal? I think there must be courses & the weather can be nice enough in winter.

Better weather in Mexico than anywhere in Europe, by far. I met a number of Canadians in Oaxaca in February.

I should have mentioned, very easy on the pocketbook as well.

We have left Toronto for the winter for the past 15 years - have been to Italy 3 times during that period. (Rome/Tuscany and Venice areas). Weather is OK but variable. We've had times when we were sitting out in cafes and we've had snow (admittedly that was rare and funny). It was fine for us - our game plan is anything that is consistently above about 5C during the day time.

We have spent the last two winters in Spain (and a bit of Portugal) and have really enjoyed it and had fabulous weather (YMMV). And we find Spain and Portugal to offer excellent value for our beleaguered currency - good meals are inexpensive (compared to Toronto) and we've had excellent accommodation around $100-$120 CAD/night. Plus rental cars are very reasonable at that time of year.

It sounds like you want to stay in one place? We spent a month in Altea on the Costa Blanca. Lovely white village with a significant ex-pat community but still enough locals during the winter so you know you're in Spain! Easy walking on the long beach promenade. And a convenient tram connects Altea with other towns- Javia, Denia, Alicante, etc. Lots to do (not sure about golfing).

We spent 10 days in Malaga and loved it - bigger city but charming old town with a significant cultural component.

West of Malaga is Estepona - also spent a week there and liked it a lot - similar in feel to Altea.

We didn't spent anytime other than in Lisbon but drove the coast road from Cadiz (Spain - another candidate) - a lot of cute towns like Tavira and Faro along the Algarve might be possibilities as well.

Hope this helps!

Plenty of golf courses in the Algarve.

The golf in Portugal, along the Algarve, is excellent and there are
championship standard courses that will test the better golfers around. There are around a couple of dozen courses, maybe more, along the coast between Faro and Praia da Luz so I'm not sure why you'd struggle to find a reasonable course.

Stay in any of the resorts along the coast and you'll find good hotel deals and far fewer people than in the summer.

Vale de Lobo has two Championship courses and great accommodation.

At a local spring travel show, they were touting very good prices Canada to Azores (islands off Portugal). They also have golf courses. No snow, but not shorts weather either. When I was looking for March, numerous short let apartments under $100Cdn.

I too think Mexico is a good bet for you. Cheaper flights than Europe and cheaper but very interesting places to stay too.

We spent some very pleasant days in southern Spain in late February some years ago. We flew into Gibraltar (which I like, others less so) then drove to Tarifa and stayed at the very nice Hotel Hurricane - http://hotelhurricane.com/ . We spent the days visiting the beaches, nearby Roman ruins, several of the white villages in the hills, and just enjoying the Andalusian sun. Not golfers, but if memory serves there were plenty nearby. We contemplated a day in Morocco but the timing didn't work out.

Fly into Malaga, Gibraltar or Seville and badda bing.

We've gone to Mexico frequently in Jan/FEb time frame and generally had nice weather in most places. I agree that it's an option that you should explore. Not sure about airfares, but once there it's very reasonable. Not sure about golf, but can't imagine they don't have it. We went to Puerto Vallarta years ago and its still popular and a couple people on this board are strong advocates of it. It has exactly what you say you'd like.

We're following Elizabeth's ideas and going to Southern Spain this Jan/Feb. Airfares from the US to Europe have been very low. Apts we have looked at tend to be ~$USD100.

Go to Ajijic or similar snowbird destination in Mexico. Ajijic is a short taxi ride from Guadalajara, inexpensive, and shot through with gringos avoiding the cold. Much of Europe, including decent sized portions of Spain, will be a crapshoot wrt the weather.