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Life in Portugal.
By design.

Meet people creating lives of their own in Portugal—and discover the choices, experiments and possibilities shaping what comes next.

Meet the People
Watch the Conversations
Jellyfish Mode
Jellyfish Mode

When Annie Knecht and Bill Bangert moved to Porto, they arrived with a clear picture of the life they were beginning. Almost immediately, that picture changed. In this conversation, Annie and Bill reflect on navigating the unexpected, finding their footing, building community, making a home, and discovering what it means to create a new chapter together—one that looks different from the one they originally imagined.

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Becoming More
Becoming More

When Matt Bays moved to Porto, he expected life to be different. What he didn’t anticipate was how living here might change him. In this conversation, Matt reflects on finding home, building community, making space for creativity and purpose, and how life in Portugal is opening him to the world—and to a growing sense that more is possible.

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Who’s Next?
Who’s Next?

Know someone whose story belongs here? We’re looking for people creating interesting, meaningful lives in Portugal—people making choices, following curiosities, changing direction, building community, or simply finding their own way of living here. Tell us who we should meet.

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R E C E N T   C O N V E R S A T I O N S

Real stories about creating a life in Portugal

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The idea

There is a lot of help available for getting to Portugal. We’re interested in what happens after you arrive.

How do you make this place home? How do you build community? What do you want your days to look like? What might you create, learn or become? And what do you want this chapter of your life to be about?

Portugal By Design explores those questions through conversations, experiences and community.

Stay curious about what comes next

New conversations, ideas and experiences for creating a meaningful life in Portugal—shared occasionally, when we have something worth sharing.

We’re living it too

Portugal By Design grew out of our own experience of making a life in Portugal—and realizing that arriving here was only the beginning.

We came with decades of experience helping people navigate change, relationships and meaningful transitions. But Portugal presented us with many of the same questions we now explore with others:

How do we make a new place feel like home? How do we build community? What do we want our days to look like? What do we want more of—and what might we leave behind? What do we want this chapter of our lives to become?

Chris Evans is an executive and life transitions coach. Matt Bays is an author and relationship coach.

Together, we’re exploring what it means to create a life in Portugal with greater intention, curiosity and possibility.

Moving to Portugal is just the beginning. What comes next is yours to shape.