“I Wish We’d Done It Sooner”: An American Retiree on Moving to Yalikavak

One of the nicest parts of this business is that clients sometimes become friends.

Last year, Ayşegül and I helped our friends Randal and his wife find their villa in Yalikavak. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch and watched them settle into life here, learning their way around, discovering favourite restaurants and shops, making friends and, before long, seeming much less like newcomers.

We normally see each other fairly often, but summer in Bodrum has a way of getting busy. When Randal and I finally caught up recently, our conversation turned to their decision to leave the United States and retire in Turkey.

I thought it was worth sharing.

Why They Chose Yalıkavak for Retirement

James: You’ve been living in Turkey for about a year and a half now. Looking back, how do you feel about the decision to leave the US?

Randal: You’ve heard me say this before: I wish we’d done it sooner.

We’re very happy here. And I should say that we weren’t unhappy in America. We had a perfectly nice life there. We were simply ready for something new, a bit of an adventure and, after many years in the Pacific Northwest, considerably better weather.

At some point you realise retirement doesn’t necessarily have to mean staying in the same place and doing the same things with more free time. It can be an opportunity to completely change the scenery.

James: Was moving abroad something you’d been planning for a long time?

Randal: Not really. It started as idle curiosity, the sort of “What if we actually did this?” conversation.

I’ve always been an armchair traveller, and YouTube suddenly made it possible to explore places in a way you really couldn’t before. I started watching channels about living overseas. Andrew Henderson at Nomad Capitalist talks about “going where you’re treated best,” and that idea stuck with me. Traveling with Kristin was another useful source.

We also looked at International Living and the countries that routinely appear on the retirement lists. We researched quite a few of them seriously, but there was always something that didn’t quite work for us.

Turkey wasn’t really on our radar.

Then one evening we were watching Refika’s Kitchen. Refika is a well-known Turkish chef in Istanbul, and there was this beautiful drone footage of the Bosphorus. We both looked at the television and thought, “Where is this?”

That started us down the rabbit hole.

The more we learned about Turkey, and particularly the Bodrum Peninsula, the more interesting it became. Eventually we focused on Yalıkavak because it seemed to check an unusual number of boxes for us: climate, scenery, restaurants, the marina, good healthcare, easy access to an international airport and a lifestyle that can be very relaxed without feeling isolated.

From Research Trip to Buying a Villa

James: There’s quite a leap between watching the Bosphorus on YouTube and actually moving to Turkey. What happened next?

Randal: We started looking at Turkish real estate online and contacted several agents, including you.

We arranged to meet you during an exploratory trip in September 2023. That trip was important because there’s only so much you can learn from the internet. We wanted to see the area as potential residents rather than tourists.

By the time we went home, we were pretty convinced.

We sold our house, organised our affairs and returned in March 2025 ready to buy. You met us at the airport, and the next morning we started looking at houses.

James: Nine of them, if I remember correctly.

Randal: Nine. [laughs] But they were nine properties that actually fit what we were looking for, rather than twenty random houses.

And one of those nine became our home.

What Does It Cost to Retire in Yalıkavak?

James: Now that you’ve actually lived here for a while, has anything surprised you about the cost of living?

Randal: The real estate itself wasn’t a surprise because we’d done our homework and you’d helped us understand the market.

Yalıkavak is not a cheap property market, particularly if you want something fairly specific. If your list includes a newer villa, private pool, gated community and a good sea view, you can easily be looking at $1 million USD or more. There are obviously properties at many different price points, but people shouldn’t come here expecting prime Yalıkavak real estate to be inexpensive.

Day-to-day life is different.

A lot of ordinary food and household expenses are somewhat less than we were accustomed to in the US. Fuel is more expensive. Private medical and dental care, on the other hand, can be remarkably reasonable by American standards.

I recently had a filling replaced at a very modern dental clinic with equipment every bit as good as I was accustomed to in the States. It cost me the equivalent of about $92 USD.

Clothing surprised me too. I can buy a very nice, well-made 100% linen shirt for around $35 USD. Something comparable in the US could easily be $100 USD or more. Good casual shoes or trousers can be surprisingly reasonable as well.

Because our retirement income is primarily in US dollars, we convert into lira as we need it rather than thinking of everything in dollar terms. Obviously exchange rates and prices change, so I wouldn’t tell someone to move here based on a particular exchange rate.

What matters more is the overall lifestyle we can afford. Our Social Security income covers our normal basic living expenses, which is roughly what we had hoped for.

Moving to Turkey in Retirement

James: Moving countries in retirement sounds exciting when you describe the end result. The actual move must have been another story.

Randal: Oh, it was a production.

We flew to Turkey with two dogs, ten boxes and seven pieces of luggage. Then we shipped our furniture and two cars in a 40-foot container.

There were definitely moments when I wondered what on earth we were doing.

But here’s the funny thing: once you’re sitting beside your pool looking across the Aegean and seeing the Greek islands in the distance, the aggravation involved in getting there becomes a surprisingly distant memory.

That’s probably something I’d tell other retirees. Don’t confuse difficult with impossible. Moving to another country involves paperwork, logistics and moments of frustration. But you don’t have to figure out every single thing yourself.

Why Local Support Matters When Moving Abroad

James: Was settling in harder than you expected?

Randal: Actually, this is where I think we were extremely fortunate.

I recently read a CNN story about an American couple who moved to Switzerland. The headline was, “‘There’s no welcoming committee’: This US couple struggled to adapt after relocating to Switzerland.” They described their first year as horrible.

What struck me wasn’t really Switzerland. It was that phrase: “There’s no welcoming committee.”

Moving abroad made me realise how important it is to have one.

In our case, you and Ayşegül effectively became our welcoming committee.

You picked us up at the airport and took us to an apartment you had arranged for us. You helped us open bank accounts, recommended a rental car company, helped us get our phones and internet sorted out and showed us where to have documents translated and notarised.

But it was also the little things.

Where do you buy this? Who do you call for that? Is this a reasonable price? How does this work in Turkey? We must have asked a thousand questions.

James: It might have been more than a thousand.

Randal: [laughs] It probably was.

And you introduced us to other clients who had made similar moves. Some of those people are now good friends.

That matters more than you might think. You can buy a beautiful house, but that alone doesn’t make somewhere feel like home. You need people, you need a sense that you belong somewhere.

We found that here surprisingly quickly.

Advice for Americans Considering Retirement in Turkey

James: So if another American couple were sitting at home right now, perhaps watching YouTube and wondering whether they should retire overseas, what would you tell them?

Randal: First, don’t romanticise it. Living abroad is different from taking a holiday abroad. There will be bureaucracy, there will be language misunderstandings. There will be days when something that should take ten minutes takes half a day.

But don’t be frightened by it either.

Come and look for yourself. Spend some time here. Walk around Yalıkavak. Have breakfast by the water. Go to the market. Drive around the peninsula. Visit the marina in the evening, but also see what ordinary life is like away from the tourist areas.

And talk to people who actually live here.

I think a lot of Americans in particular know very little about modern Turkey. I certainly didn’t before we started researching it.

So I wouldn’t tell anyone, “You should move to Turkey.”

I’d simply say: put it on your list and come see it before you rule it out.

You may be very pleasantly surprised.

James: I think that’s a pretty good place to stop. We’ll have to do this again, maybe talk about what everyday life in Yalıkavak is actually like once you’ve settled in.

Randal: Absolutely. Although after this interview, I may start charging you.

James: I’ll buy lunch.

Randal: Done.