A British journalist who moved to the Cayman Islands for a new adventure says she hopes to stay for at least the next few years thanks to the warm weather, sociable expat community and much higher pay.
Sarah Bridge, 52, had only just started a new job in London at a magazine when she saw a job advertisement on LinkedIn for a journalist in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean which takes no income tax, making it popular with expats.
“Life had become a bit routine,” she says. “It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t quite enough. I wanted a new, amazing experience.”
Ms Bridge had spent years travelling for her work, living in Italy, Greece and the United States. “I love living in a new country and exploring new places and people, having challenges I wouldn’t have in my UK life,” she says.
So early in 2024, unable to shake the idea of moving abroad again, she applied for the Cayman Islands job – and got it.
“I gave my three months’ notice, found someone to rent my flat, sold my car, and got rid of loads,” she says. Her new employer sorted out a temporary six-month work visa before her move in August. “You can’t just turn up in the Cayman Islands and get a job,” she says.
Now, just over six months later, Ms Bridge says life on Great Cayman, the largest of the three Cayman Islands, is “brilliant”.
She lives in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom flat share on a condo complex that has facilities including a swimming pool, tennis court and gym.
“I wake up early with the sunrise and can see the ocean from my window,” she says. “I throw back the curtains and go for a swim at the outdoor swimming pool, do some yoga or just sit by the waves eating breakfast in the sunshine.”
Instead of a 90-minute commute into work, Ms Bridge opens her computer for a quick Zoom team meeting before making the nine-minute journey to the office to start the day doing a job she loves.
“I’ve been reporting on Parliament, courts and fun assignments like fishing competitions and food festivals,” she says. “It’s a really varied job, unlike [the one] I had back in the UK.”
Because the weather is typically high 20s centigrade to the low 30s, Ms Bridge spends lots of her time out of work outside. “Not only is it beautiful to have the sunshine all the time, but you get to see the sky,” she says. “It’s incredibly uplifting.”
She swims nearly every day in her complex’s outdoor pool or the sea, does yoga every Sunday on the beach and has taken up tennis, pickleball and snorkelling.
Meeting people has been relatively easy. “People are very sociable here,” says Ms Bridge. “You have to put yourself forward, but I’ve made friends from lots of different places.”
She has also made friends through Facebook groups. “There are regular social events listed,” she says. “You can just put a notice up asking who fancies meeting up.”
On her birthday, Ms Bridge put up a post on one of the Facebook groups inviting people to celebrate at a local bar. “Loads of people – people I didn’t even know – turned up,” she says. “And they then become friends.”
She believes that people are so warm because many are expats who know what it feels like not to know anyone. “People are very keen to make friends,” she says.
However, the cost of living is not cheap. Her rent costs around £1,400 a month with an added £250 for bills, and she pays £500 a month for her car, a 14-year old Honda Fit, on a long-term lease. For a basic shop of milk, bread, eggs, butter, coffee and yoghurt, she might pay upwards of £50. To eat out costs about £30.
“It seems incredibly expensive,” she says. “The rule of thumb is that you should be taking home about £5,000 a month in order to live here fairly comfortably. I’m sharing to keep costs down but if you want to a get a place of your own then it’s more like £3,000 a month, not including bills.”
The upside is that there is no income tax. And with a higher salary, she takes home nearly double what she ended up with in the UK.
Although she loves nearly everything about her new life in the Cayman Islands, there are a few things she misses, including seeing her mother, and being able to walk down to the shops. Here, unlike in Britain, the infrastructure is not set up for walking and most people drive everywhere.
“And I miss little traditional little British villages,” she says. “Here feels quite American in architecture. There are lots of shopping malls and plazas where you’d find pubs or restaurants.”
Looking to the future, she says: “I hope to be here for a few years at the least. But who knows – I’m taking it month by month.”
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