We loved living in Baltimore. We just went back for a 3 week visit. Still love it, but three weeks was enough to convince us our logic for leaving was sound. We simply cannot afford the retirement we want there.
Here's a budget break-out of 3 weeks of living in Cuenca Ecuador vs Baltimore Maryland. This isn't our whole budget at either place, but just the elements where we could make a head to head comparison. We stayed 3 weeks in a city central, well located, studio apartment Airbnb in both places. We ate out at least once per day in a restaurant in both places. We didn't have a car either place, so we had to use available types of transportation. That means light rail, cab, uber, zip car in Baltimore, and walking or cab in Cuenca. We excluded medical, since we only had that in Cuenca, and a goodbye trip to the Owl Bar with friends, which we only did in Baltimore.
Here's the breakout. For a similar experience, with the same kind of lifestyle, Baltimore was more than twice as expensive.
| Cuenca | Baltimore |
Accommodation | 650.00 | 1895.00 |
restaurants | 707.49 | 1300.00 |
transportation | 20.00 | 843.00 |
grocery | 312.15 | 242.88 |
TOTAL | 1689.64 | 4280.88 |
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