Why Day Ten Matters More Than Day Two

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

Picture a couple named Priscilla and Dean who have narrowed their retirement to three towns. They decide not to choose from brochures. They rent each town for two weeks, in the same season, and they keep a notebook.

Each evening they write three lines: what we did, who we talked to, and how we felt, from 1 to 5.

How Priscilla and Dean felt, from 1 to 5 (an illustration)

On day two, Town B wins easily. The view from the terrace makes them gasp, and they send their children a photo. By day ten, the terrace is the only place they like. The nearest shop is a long walk uphill, the evenings are very quiet, and they have spoken to nobody but the owner of the rental.

Town C is lively, and by day ten the noise from the harbor bars has become part of their sleep.

Town A does not impress them at first. On day two they write a 3 and almost nothing else. By day ten they know the woman at the greengrocer, they have a table at a cafe that feels like theirs, and the walk home from the market takes twenty minutes with no effort. Their score is a 5.

They choose Town A. They rent for six months before they look at houses.

Dean says later that the first days showed what surprised them, and the tenth day showed what living there is like.

You might say two weeks is short. It is. Two weeks cannot show a winter, a holiday or a hospital stay. It can show the ordinary days, and ordinary days are most of them.

You could rent each town you like for two weeks and keep three lines a night. You could compare the first days with the tenth. You could also add one test, something ordinary done in the local language: a visit to a pharmacy, a haircut, a walk to the shop.

Our calculator can price each town’s way of living before you go. The notebook records how you feel. The calculator shows what it costs.

What did day ten feel like in the last place you stayed for two weeks? Tell us in the comments. Someone reading may be about to pack a notebook.