Retire abroad without being far away
Ranked by hours to the gate at home, because grandchildren and funerals do not reschedule.

Ranked on flight home. The second column is the counterweight: the thing this ranking deliberately does not look at.

#	Destination	Flight home	Monthly cost, couple	vs overall
1	Indonesia (Bali)	6h	$1,700/mo	+12
2	Philippines	8h	$1,500/mo	+2
3	Malaysia	8h	$1,900/mo	+2
4	Vietnam	8h	$1,400/mo	+13
5	Thailand	9h	$1,800/mo	-3
6	Mauritius	12h	$2,000/mo	+6
7	UAE (Dubai)	14h	$3,500/mo	+9
8	Mexico	18h	$1,700/mo	+3
9	Cyprus	22h	$2,200/mo	0
10	Malta	24h	$2,600/mo	-3
11	Italy	24h	$2,400/mo	-3
12	Spain	24h	$2,500/mo	+2
13	Portugal	24h	$2,600/mo	+2
14	Greece	25h	$2,200/mo	-8
15	Panama	30h	$2,100/mo	-14
16	Costa Rica	34h	$2,000/mo	-6
17	Uruguay	38h	$2,300/mo	-14

Every figure comes from the same fact store as the country pages, carries its own verification month and its own re-check window, and disappears rather than ages. The “vs overall” column is places gained or lost against our all-criteria ranking — the bigger the number, the more this one dimension is disagreeing with everything else we measure.

What proximity costs you elsewhere

Ranked against the overall order, the near destinations reveal what you give up for the shorter flight — and occasionally reveal that you give up nothing.

Hours in the air, and the things hours cannot measure

Hours here are realistic door-to-door flying time from the main departure city for your passport, including the connection almost everyone actually takes rather than the theoretical direct routing that exists twice a week in high season. Change your passport at the top of the ranking and these numbers change with it — this is the one column on the site that is about you rather than about the country.

What the number does not carry is time zone, and for many families that matters more. A destination eight hours away by plane but nine hours out of phase gives you a two-hour window each day where both ends are awake, which is thin for a weekly call with someone elderly. Time zone offset sits on each country page beside the flight figure.

Nor does it carry price or frequency of the route, which move independently of distance. A short flight on a monopoly route can cost more than a long one into a competitive hub, and a route with one carrier is a route that can be cut.

The same 17 destinations, cut five other ways

No two of these orders agree. We measured every pair of them against each other and the closest two still disagree on nearly a quarter of all country pairings, which is why each one is a page rather than a filter on this one. Read across at least three before you shortlist anything.