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It now gives up to 90 days to explore the country - from the wine lands around Table Mountain and the surfing beaches of Durban to the arty, urban scene in Johannesburg. Better still, while visitors need to show a negative Covid test to enter South Africa, there is no quarantine on arrival.
Portugal will end its golden visa programme, which offers residency rights to non-EU nationals in return for investments including in real estate and has been criticised for boosting house prices and rents. Successful applicants can apply to obtain a passport after five years.
Experts say that as well as the chance to get to know a destination properly, a long-stay holiday can offer great value. A deep discount can normally be negotiated with a hotel or apartment, and escaping tourist traps and using local supermarkets and restaurants will also make holiday money go further.
Housing groups said the measures would mean little if the government continued to promote other policies to attract wealthy foreigners to Portugal, such as the "Digital Nomads Visa" introduced in October, which gives foreigners with high monthly income from remote work to live and work from Portugal without paying local taxes.
Perhaps surprisingly, the one part of the world where long-stay holidays are set to get harder is Europe - and that's before the news that we may be denied entry altogether due to our high Covid count. From New Year's Day, countries in the Schengen area, which include tourist favourites France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, will limit the number of days sun-loving Britons can spend there visa-free.
A top tip is to make for the Khao Sok National Park, where you can hike through some of the oldest evergreen forests on the planet before taking a boat ride past jagged peaks of rock rising almost vertically out of the ocean.
The idea is that travellers can start off slowly, exploring the golden temples and palaces, the reclining Buddhas and madcap markets of Bangkok before heading out to tour the country's interior and islands at their leisure.
LISBON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Portugal announced on Thursday a hefty package of measures to tackle a housing crisis, including the end of its controversial "Golden Visa" scheme and a ban on new licenses for Airbnbs and other short-term holiday rentals.
Low salaries, a red-hot property market, policies encouraging wealthy foreigners to invest and a tourism-dependent economy have for years made it hard for locals to rent or buy, housing groups have said. Portugal's 8.3% inflation rate has exacerbated the problem.
Rents and house prices have skyrocketed in Portugal, which is among the poorest countries in Western Europe. Last year, more than 50% of workers earned less than 1,000 euros per month while in Lisbon alone, rents jumped 37% in 2022.
The new rules set the maximum stay at 90 days in any six-month period, and it will have implications for those who like to escape the gloomy British winter by spending our coldest months golfing on the Algarve or relaxing on Spanish beaches. Do that for the first (and coldest) three months of 2021 and the new rules mean you will not be able to enter any Schengen country again (even for a day trip) till July.
Would you like to spend a few months visiting the farmers' markets and waterside restaurants of sunny Cape Town? Or to really take your time experiencing life amid the skyscrapers and shopping malls of Dubai? Then the new generation of long-stay tourist visas are worth a look.
It now gives up to 90 days to explore the country - from the wine lands around Table Mountain and the surfing beaches of Durban to the arty, urban scene in Johannesburg. Better still, while visitors need to show a negative Covid test to enter South Africa, there is no quarantine on arrival.
Portugal will end its golden visa programme, which offers residency rights to non-EU nationals in return for investments including in real estate and has been criticised for boosting house prices and rents. Successful applicants can apply to obtain a passport after five years.
Experts say that as well as the chance to get to know a destination properly, a long-stay holiday can offer great value. A deep discount can normally be negotiated with a hotel or apartment, and escaping tourist traps and using local supermarkets and restaurants will also make holiday money go further.
Housing groups said the measures would mean little if the government continued to promote other policies to attract wealthy foreigners to Portugal, such as the "Digital Nomads Visa" introduced in October, which gives foreigners with high monthly income from remote work to live and work from Portugal without paying local taxes.
Perhaps surprisingly, the one part of the world where long-stay holidays are set to get harder is Europe - and that's before the news that we may be denied entry altogether due to our high Covid count. From New Year's Day, countries in the Schengen area, which include tourist favourites France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, will limit the number of days sun-loving Britons can spend there visa-free.
A top tip is to make for the Khao Sok National Park, where you can hike through some of the oldest evergreen forests on the planet before taking a boat ride past jagged peaks of rock rising almost vertically out of the ocean.
The idea is that travellers can start off slowly, exploring the golden temples and palaces, the reclining Buddhas and madcap markets of Bangkok before heading out to tour the country's interior and islands at their leisure.
LISBON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Portugal announced on Thursday a hefty package of measures to tackle a housing crisis, including the end of its controversial "Golden Visa" scheme and a ban on new licenses for Airbnbs and other short-term holiday rentals.
Low salaries, a red-hot property market, policies encouraging wealthy foreigners to invest and a tourism-dependent economy have for years made it hard for locals to rent or buy, housing groups have said. Portugal's 8.3% inflation rate has exacerbated the problem.
Rents and house prices have skyrocketed in Portugal, which is among the poorest countries in Western Europe. Last year, more than 50% of workers earned less than 1,000 euros per month while in Lisbon alone, rents jumped 37% in 2022.
The new rules set the maximum stay at 90 days in any six-month period, and it will have implications for those who like to escape the gloomy British winter by spending our coldest months golfing on the Algarve or relaxing on Spanish beaches. Do that for the first (and coldest) three months of 2021 and the new rules mean you will not be able to enter any Schengen country again (even for a day trip) till July.
Would you like to spend a few months visiting the farmers' markets and waterside restaurants of sunny Cape Town? Or to really take your time experiencing life amid the skyscrapers and shopping malls of Dubai? Then the new generation of long-stay tourist visas are worth a look.