It's February 9th and I've just come in from the terrace, where my wife and I had our lunch in warm sunshine with magnificent views onto the Adriatic just in front of the house and the Cornati Islands in the distance.

When we retired in 2001, we didn't need a degree in accountancy to figure out that our future would be rather frugal if we stayed in our house in Wales with an 8 month heating period, a rates bill of some 1500 UK Pounds p.a. and 6 miles to the nearest shop at a cost of nearly 90 pence for a litre of diesel.

When we scoured Europe for an alternative location with a good climate and where the proceeds from the sale of our house and our pension money would go furthest, we found that the Croatian province of Dalmatia was difficult to beat. In a few months' time, the Zagreb to Split motorway will be finished (barring a few miles near the Krka bridge) so that the logistics could not be better with nearly uninterrupted motorway driving from, say, Leeds all the way to our place in the sun.

Here we are then, in our seafront villa in a delightful place called Primosten. Our annual rates bill amounts to some 130 UKP, the diesel for our Skoda costs less than 9 UKP per month (although all amenities are within easy walking distance and there is excellent public transport in Croatia, so that we could do without the car), 1 lb of rump steak sets us back by 2.70 UKP and our 500-odd litres of excellent Babic wine in our cellar work out at less than 1.70 UKP a bottle. The shops are well stocked and even white goods are cheaper than in the UK. We switch our central heating on less than 30 days per season and between June and September we lead the lives of beach bums starting the swimming day before 8 o'clock in the morning. We can - if we choose - more than double our pension income by letting our 3 spare bedrooms to tourists and we could get a good return on our savings by investing in a roof conversion with another couple of en-suite bedrooms above.

For anyone intending to follow our example, time is money. Due to its EU membership hopes, house prices are rising and beach properties are becoming scarcer by the month. In other words, don't wait too long!

Place in the Sun (http://www.place-in-the-sun.biz) offers information for people considering retirement in Croatia.