My wife and I have been dreaming of moving to Spain (Catalonia specifically), where my maternal grand-parents were from. I've traveled extensively and lived on four continents, and Spain is easily the only place I could see myself living permanently. We've looked at a number of properties, condos/apartments and small country houses. Areas we really like are Murcia (especially villages like Moratalla and Totana), Valencia (Xirles, close to Benidorm), Barcelona and area (Sant Carles de la Rapita), Menorca (Alayor and Mao, where my grand-parents are from), but preferably a few kilometres inland in smaller mountain villages away from the beaches where the hordes of well-oiled northern europeans in speedos gather from June to September, but still under 30 minutes from the coast. Prices are attractive, weather is beautiful almost year-round, food and wine are good and cheap, people are generally friendly, the cost-of-living is low, and the quality of life for expats who have a steady income is very high. I could buy a nice piece of land near Benidorm, about 20 acres with trees such as olive almond lemon etc., belonging to our family heritage for under 25,000 euros, and build a small house for about the same price. In the end, we decided not to buy, and opted to rent. Our reasons are personal and may not apply to your situation. While I have EU citizenship and can settle there permanently and work without problem, and also have relatives and friends in Spain, France, Italy, I have five adult kids who are in Canada for the time being, so this is probably where I will keep a permanent home. So instead of buying, we plan to rent a small apartment or a little house for extended winter stays when the weather is crappy almost everywhere in Canada, alternating between summers in Canada/USA, and winters in Spain, Mexico, and wherever we feel like going at the time.
ADD: but when I am too old to go anywhere, it will be Spain for sure, and I want my wife to park my wheelchair every morning with a nice plate of pinxhos and a bottle of wine for the day, in front of the mountains of Xirles, where my cousin has a little house waiting for me, next to hers.