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Best place to move temporarily with deserted beaches, good wifi, safe & low mold?
Best place to move temporarily with deserted beaches, good wifi, safe & low mold with small children?
Have been looking at Cayman, and have enjoyed the beaches of St John, St Thomas, Tobago, Puerto Rico. With hurricanes many places are moldy and we have allergies. Want calm, warm waters. (Had even considered Greece again briefly...) |
Good Lord you've been looking for a perfect place to move to for a very long time.
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To move you need a lot more than WiFi. Islands have tons of requirements. Business lisence renewed annually are extremely expensive ($7000$10,000 for the right to work, even from home with WiFi). Renews are slow and crazy to come by, and you can’t keep working when waiting unkess you get residency ($3000 per worker, fees for rest of family) you have to renew your stay every 2 months (which can take days) and leave overnight every 90 days schools for kids are average at best—many ship kids off somewhere else to boarding school ypu want isolated beaches, that means no population, which means no schools, basic hit or miss utilities cost of living is high—expect 3 times what you think banks are funny—making a deposit at a branch can put you out 90 minutes in line. Opening an account good luck with that one! because of tropics- storms do cause molds. Depends how well a place is kept. Many places have a/c only in bedrooms and bills can still be upwards $700 a month things break line crazy, cost more than double to repair, and 3 times as long. Everything is imported in. Things on islands are dated—much of it is rigged. Salt air is cruel this is the best most upscale islands supermarkets are 3 times what you expect (even fish from the sea!) things take a long time to repair hurricanes happen do you really want to do this with your kids? |
The OP has been asking the same question since 2016 and has been getting the same answers from the same posters over and over.
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Yeah, same questions will always yield same answers but OP doesn’t want to take anyone’s advice. Or perhaps she doesn’t actually want to do any actual first hand research. Ypu can’t find the “perfect island” without actually making an exploratory visit. If she’s serious, she should come up with a plan to actually visit the different islands on her short list to see which ones she likes and which ones she doesn’t. Most of of us who relocated to the Caribbean spent months or even years island hopping before choosing our piece of paradise. |
My Dad always said "there is no Shangri-La".
At one time, we thought we had found ours on Saba, I think we had been to two dozen Caribbean islands before finding this unspoiled place that was more like "what the Caribbean used to be like." Best known for its scuba diving, we also found world class hiking trails that we had all to ourselves even at the park of the season, In truth, there was little uptick of business during the peak of season, given that there were only about five dozen hotel rooms and a handful of vacation rentals. It has few, or arguably no, beaches, but we had some special shore spots. Until the advent of cell phones and satellite TV, Saba was well removed from modern civilization, but it has remained a bit backward in a wonderful way, polite and friendly people, with well cared for property. No have or have nots; no racial issues we ever observed. The highest peak in the Dutch kingdom. A large (relatively speaking) but welcoming government that included a Governor who notarized a document for us when we had a little emergency back home. For locals who didn't have insurance, or enough of it, the Dutch military and Dutch government made sure you got a new roof and whatever else you needed. The down side for us was the distance of an island that has air service (smallest runway in the world, with cliffs at either end) almost as costly to get to St. Maarten from the US. And, we soon realized that was too far from family that needed us, and we needed them. Once the blinders came off, we needed to adapt our eating to fewer choices and options, especially with fresh produce (since the island imports most of what it sells). Food and even water can be very expensive. There is little competition from trades people; and we sometimes had to fly in people to do work for us. Health care often requires trips to far away places. You couldn't burn bridges. Often there was only one or two sources for a product or service including banking. Great memories, as with most places we have been. But my Dad was right. |
Wifi means there are services available and people around. Deserted beaches means there are not people around. Contradiction in your requests.
When you say move "temporarily" are you talking one month, three months, one year, three years? You need to visit with the family (and stay at lease a month) the various places you are considering to see for yourself if they actually suit you. |
Anywhere there's water you can have mold
Most long term rentals don't have A/C except for bedrooms--can create molds . (and bring mosquitoes) If kids, most board the kids in States It really sounds like you're not researching enough! |
Lindsay, I agree with your initial impression. Grand Cayman is the place for you. The wifi is pretty reliable and not outrageously expensive. 10 MB about USD100 and 50 MB USD about USD 150. Electric for a 2 bedroom condo would be 250 to 350 a month if you have a high efficiency HVAC unit. All of the condos on Seven Mile Beach (SMB) will have central air conditioning, so no mold problem. The condos on SMB are beachfront with uncrowded beaches but not isolated, you would have to go to the East End or North Side for isolation. Once you have a bank account set-up, which takes a lot of paperwork (its not like the movies), banking is very easy and efficient, with many ATMs on the island. Visitors permits are for 6 months and you could leave for a day and have them renewed for another 6 months. Supermarket cost is about 150% of US and the supermarkets are as good or better than the US. English is the official language. The US dollar is accepted everywhere.
The downside is that the cost of lodging is not cheap. |
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