Your Expat Life Podcast with Special Guest - Alastair Leithead on November 19 at 12PM ET
AlastairâŻLeithead is the voice behind Offâgrid and Entertaining in Portugal, a Substack where he documents life after the frontline â swapping his longtime career as a foreign correspondent for the BBC for solar panels, corkâoaks and wild beaches in the Alentejo region of Portugal.
With his wife Ana, Alastair bought a remote property, built an ecoâluxe offâgrid lodge, learned how to run waterâsystems and hospitality from scratch, and now writes about the triumphs and misâsteps of building a life thatâs as wild as it is intentional.
From powerâcuts to wine tastings, guest checkâins to solar failures, his stories reveal what happens when you trade the noise of bigâstory journalism for the rhythms of rural Portugal.
What does it look like when you move abroad not once, but into a whole new way of living?
On this episode of YourâŻExpatâŻLifeâŻLIVE, host SonayaâŻWilliams sits down with AlastairâŻLeithead to explore how he turned his life as a warâzone correspondent into a life of nature, community and offâgrid possibility on the Portuguese coast.
Weâll dive into:
Why he and Ana left the highâstakes world of global news and logistics for seven hectares of corkâoak and coastline
The unexpected challenges of building an ecoâluxe lodge offâgrid â from solar panels and water tanks to guest logistics and wine dinners
What heâs learned about belonging, selfâsufficiency, and redefining success when your backdrop changes from headlines to horizon
If youâve ever wondered what it takes to turn the âmove abroadâ dream into a meaningful life beyond tourism, this conversation will give you something real to consider.


