7Istria, Croatia

Another super affordable corner of Southern Europe is Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula, where you could buy an apartment in Pula, for example, for US$1,313 per square meter.

Croatia borders the Adriatic Sea and offers two appealing retirement lifestyle options — coastal and, inland, in Istria, a region of meadows, vineyards, and olive groves. Istria is a fairy-tale land of fortresses and bell towers that so attracted and impressed the Romans that they invested in some of their best building here, including a large and largely intact coliseum at Pula where lions and Christians once entertained.