Expat shares why he moved from the UK to Cyprus

Moving abroad and fitting into a different culture can be difficult. For Alex, it took him and his family six months to adjust.

He said: “Once you fit yourself in here, there are so many different activities and options that you can find. It is much safer and calmer, the lifestyle is very easy. You can get from one point of Paphos to another in five minutes.

“The relocation of Cyprus never felt like a relocation. It is so friendly here and everyone is helpful. I think the process of integration and adaptation of life in Cyprus is the easiest of all and this is the main competitive advantage of Cyprus.”

What makes the fitting-in process much simpler is most people can speak English.

Alex said: “I believe if you move abroad, you have to take a language course. The issue in Cyprus is you do not have to, everyone speaks English and this makes it extremely difficult to push yourself to do it.”

Cyprus’s main issue is it takes a long time to ship stuff into the country, which can be frustrating.

Alex explained: “It does have its issues with supplies as it’s a small island with only one million people, so there are no big providers.

“You have to wait when you want to buy something, possibly up to six months. Having said this, the advantages of Cyprus outweigh the small disadvantages.”

Another expat in Cyprus shared their experience of living abroad. He said: “When I first came to Cyprus in 2008, I’d research on the internet and it said Cyprus was very reasonable and very affordable but when I arrived here, I had a bit of a shock because, to be honest, it was more expensive than downtown Chester.

“Although that corrected itself over the next couple of years and prices in Cyprus came down. I believe it is still much cheaper to live in Cyprus today than in the UK.”

He also said that the locals are very friendly people and welcome everybody of all nationalities to their nation and “most of them are very helpful as well”.

“I can spend many an hour sitting with Cypriot friends of mine,” explained the expat. “They are very friendly.”