The Skiathos Bulletin Board

muriel2308 · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 4

Hi all
My hubby and i have fallen in love with Skiathos. We have been to the island 3 times in the past 2 years and love the place. We are seriously considering our future here in britain and think that life would be amazing in Skiathos. What does everyone think about living the dream in Skiathos?? We are both in our forties with 2 older teenagers and a 21 year old. We do not have trade skills but both have skills within customer services, management etc. What do you think about giving up this british way of life that we destined to and changing our boys and our own lives, hopefully for the best by moving to the amazing island of Skiathos???
Please help!!

allan · Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 100 Location: Preston Lancashire

I think you are probably feeling the same as many other people in the Uk right now...disfunctional government,high interest rates,rocketing fuel prices,lack of real policing to stop crime,yes there has to be somewhere better to spend your life.

But I know only too well the grass always looks greener on the other side!

As a family we relocated to the USA -Florida, after taking a couple of holidays there mid 70s before Orlando became fashionable with British tourists.

We did enjoy life there for a time but in the end after 2 yrs we came back home to the UK as living there and holidaying there bared no resemblance.
We found it very difficult to adjust to the different culture, our children both under 10yrs at the time found the school curriculum difficult to adjust to.

Still not happy with the UK within a couple of yrs we were on the move again, this time to South Africa following a job offer too good to turn down, we adapted to life in SA better than the USA, I think mainly because we lived among many other ex pats. Who of course could guide us along during our early months of settling into our life there. In fact we stayed for almost 10yrs,and could have probably stayed on for longer but for the ever increasing violence that was part of everyday life, I made the decision to bring my family out of the place before one of us became another statistic on a crime file!

Ok Skiathos will never be SA, but it is very easy to look at somewhere with rose tinted glasses, visions of waking up in the sunshine every day, no rat race to contend with, you say you have had 3 holidays on Skiathos, sorry but I don't think that is enough time to know that you should sell up and relocate you and your families lives there.

You have to remember Skiathos goes to sleep during winter; many locals have to leave and work on the mainland to survive the long winter shut down.

You have to ask yourselves what are you going to do all year? What will your children do? As teenagers it is an awkward time to take them away from their friends and environment they know.

Relocating anywhere is I believe easier to do and be successful if either your children are still very young or the other end of the scale they have grown up and flew the nest and you are retiring to a new life.

Yes there are Brits who have made the move to Skiathos, many of them visit the board, and regular contributor on here Darrell is in the process of making a new life there for his family in 2008,so they may be better qualified than me to give you advice.

Sorry if my comments burst your bubble a little, but any move is best to be very carefully thought out or I promise you it WILL end in tears...

We have been visiting Skiathos for 14yrs,fantastic holidays,but live there? I'll take a rain check on that one... Wink

But regardless of our personal experiences of overseas relocations,niether I or my family have any regrets[regret is a word I have no use for anyway] So Good luck with whatever you decide for your future.
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Darrell · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject:

What Allen is saying is basically right.Going to Skiathos 3 times for a holiday is not enough island experience to qualify anyone for a move out there for good but and it is a big but,it has to be very carefully thought out.
If you are intending to sell you home in the UK and just live off the profits and then do 'a bit of this and a bit of that' once the money runs out,you will end up in a caravan regretting it all.
First of all you need to suss out what you will do business-wise.If you have equity from your home you must use it wisely.You said you children are late teens and 21.Do they speak Greek,are they planning jobs,apprenticeships,college or uni? It would be terribly unfair just to pluck them from their everyday life and plonk them in Skiathos.I would have been mortified if my parents did this to me when I was 19.Skiathos in winter is not the Costas with a good all year round temp.
I will give you a run-down of how we are doing it.
I am 40 and a qualified plumber and heating engineer,I have run a successful construction firm for 6 years.I repped in Skiathos in the early nineties,have holidayed there for 15 years and got married there in 2003.I have spent years asking questions to locals,ex-pats and just about everyone I can think of.My wife is in customer services for BUPA and our daughter is 2.She will never know any different.I also spent years looking for a business to buy.A bar was a first thought but there are plenty of them,take a look down bar street to see how to squander your equity.
We finally spotted the business we now have,check it out www.perigiali-skiathos.com we have sold our home and I have jacked in an 80,000 a year job.I also have been for an interview with Olympic holidays to try to kick-start my repping career and I will try to start a plumbing company in the winter months.
This is how serious you have to be,if you rent out your house and 'try it' for a year,you will be back in the UK before you know it because you still have one foot in the UK (your home).
You must think long and hard about this.
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Foxy · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:07 pm Post subject:

I didn't realise you were going repping again. I got the impression you'd applied before you'd decided to take on the business.

Is this to make sure you've got some guaranteed income?

Woodmonkey · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:26 pm Post subject:

I have to agree wih Allan, we have been here for five years and although we are selling the house for personal reasons, we do not regret coming . If you are coming here to live, do not do this without substantial reserves.

Darrell · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:37 pm Post subject:

I had my interview on Thursday.Will know the outcome by the end of next week.
We made the decision based upon the fact that most of the time I would be hanging around the studios like a spare part and now the in-laws are coming out we have got two extra pairs of hands.I always enjoyed repping and it is very good for making contacts for the winter.
The cleaners at the studios are so good and experienced at what they are doing,Claire and her mum can handle the rest of it.
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bee · Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 82 Location: Leicestershire

Hi Muriel.
I'm afraid I'm going to be completely the opposite to the other postings. Personally I think people spend too much time deliberating and not enough time taking risks - although before I go any further you must bear in mind that I do not have children (yet!) so I can afford to be a little more carefree than most.

I too went on holiday to Skiathos and fell in love with the place, as did my husband. We've only been 3 or 4 times ourselves but we are currently in the process of planning our great escape from the UK to the island. I have travelled all over Greece, and spent a year living in Lindos, Rhodes, so have a little experience of local life in Greece - particularly out of season. And I would swap my life here in the UK (although I have a great house/car/well paid job etc etc) any day!

I agree that you should think long and hard about it - especially if you have to sell up in the UK to fund moving there - but I also think you should think long and hard about staying in the UK. Has anyone been reading the reports lately? Approximately 500,000 people are moving to the UK every year (and that's just the official figure!) what kind of a hell are we destined to live in... our infrastructure just can't take it. Apparently approx 200,000 are deciding to leave - so maybe your dream isn't that far from most other people's. And with regards to your kids - they are pretty much adults so let them have a decision on it too. If my mum and dad had moved abroad when I was in my teens I would have gone with them. And I would have learnt Greek the same as I am having to do now.

I say go for it! What's the worse that can happen...? You go back to the UK cap in hand and start again.

Can I ask a question of Darrel? Do you really think that the people who own bars on bar street are squandering their equity? Don't you think some of them make a pretty decent living out of their takings? They certainly seem to do so to me. I think it comes down to the same thing with any business - hard graft will get you everywhere! And when we spoke to the owners last year they all said they don't regret a single thing.
Any further info you have about this would be appreciated - because we just may decide to buy a bar ourselves.
Stop dreaming - start living !! What a great motto for life.
Bee.

Darrell · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:24 pm Post subject:

Hi Bee,
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you have lived in Greece and experienced a couple of winters.If you haven't got any children and you have got an idea for a goer in business then by all means do it.I am full of admiration for anybody that does this.
What I meant in my posting to the first question is to think long and hard about what you are sacrificing and what you will do once you arrive.

Regarding the bars in bar street,I just get a vibe that a couple of them aren't doing that well.To make a bar work,maybe you need a theme of somekind eg Benbows,Kasbah and Destiny.They are all doing reasonably well.What I meant was that from a personal point of view running any kind of bar 10 years ago would have been right up my alley but as time goes on and with family I didn't want to start work at 9pm and finish at 3am.This may suit some people but not me.

I hope you didn't take offence and I hope yours and the first posters plans come to fruition.
Best of luck.
Darrell
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bee · Joined: 25 Sep 2007 Posts: 82 Location: Leicestershire

Hi Darrell.
No offence taken - I was just genuinely interested in any info you may have about bars in Skiathos. I agree - I think a few are struggling, but you are right that if you can find a niche in the market with a clever theme then it should be a hit. At the end of the day 80,000 people visit Skiathos (I got that figure from somewhere...) so it should be possible to make a business work if you put in the hard work. I think we are just about young enough and child free to work silly hours (although our dogs may disagree!).

Best of luck to you too with the move and business - I've been watching your updates with interest. I too admire people that are willing to make the jump from this "island" of ours that doesn't offer much to the hard working middle Britain - to a sunshine island with low crime, friendly locals and beautiful scenery, as long as you are ready to put up with cold, quiet winters and hard slogging during the high season (ie no time to sunbathe, eat out in tavernas every night etc like you do on holiday. It is a different experience - but still one I think it worth having.

Here's to all those Brits who have had enough! Yammas!
Bee x

Darrell · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:55 pm Post subject:

Thanks and good luck.Any help you need don't hesitate to ask.
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june · Joined: 07 Jan 2006 Posts: 96 Location: preston

I can't speak from experience only from what the people we stay with in Skiathos tell us of their lives. Its sounds like very hard work, all summer long they are tied to the apartments looking after tourists and although they love it there's no rest. Quite a lot of winter is then spent decorating apartments and general maintenence.
And aparently the tour firms are not over generous with the money, luckily Darrel you won't have the money problem as your independent of the tour firms.
But if your happy with this were better to live?
We lived in Canada for 2 years our daughter was 12 then. She adapted to life over there very well and now looks back on it as a something she would'nt have missed,
But as everyone.s saying think long and hard about it.

Elle · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:38 pm Post subject:

I would hope that any of us considering a move to Skiathos - or to any Greek island or village for that matter - not only considers all of the things that might be best for us... how will we cope with cold, dreary winters on a very small Greek island? how will our children get along? how can we make a living?...
... but that we also deeply and honestly consider how we can contribute to the life there... how would be be affecting locals?? In a positive or negative manner??

Is our business just bringing US money, or is it bringing money to the locals as well, in that we encourage our customers to eat in local tavernas, (not just the Brit or Scan run tavernas...) and go on the small boat excursions from the old harbor, etc... ??

Will we learn the language, rather than just expecting them to speak our language (in their land) ???

Will we be good stewards of the land - hoping to pass along good environmental practices... recycling... not acting like our U.S. companies that outsource and go to other countries that are cheaper, make a killing and trash the place not following any enviro. protocol instituted in their home country???? ...makes me furious... they should be taxed out of existence... but enough of that... Smile

Will our actions be those of someone the locals will eventually embrace as people who are contributing to the good of the island, and who are not taking business away from anyone who is native? We are the implants... (I say 'we' because 'we', too... in our dreams... would love nothing more than to be able to live the rest of our lives on Skiathos...)

My great fear is that the islands are being colonized - and not always by those with the best of intentions, who deeply love the islands and their people and the way of life...

Wherever we go, there we are. Right? If we don't venture into this move WITH the very best of intentions and follow through on them, we'll just make a grand mess of our beloved isle and righteously piss locals off as we turn it all into the very thing we are running from. And then have to run home with tail tucked between legs...

I know of wonderful foreigners who live on the island, have made a good life there and who are respected by locals, don't get me wrong....

I've also seen a few people make a grand mess of things there over the years, folks who forgot to 'give back' to Skiathos. Forgot to 'Pay it Forward'. Oops. But then, they don't really seem to last long.
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Val & Kev · Joined: 17 Jan 2007 Posts: 130

Well said Elle. We must view ourselves as outsiders and try very hard to fit very positively. We feel our ties in the UK are such that at least in the near future the best we can aim for is 6 months there and 6 months back in Blighty. We only feel we can even do this, when we are fully able to support ourselves financially. That doesn't mean that we won't work there I'm sure we will, but because we want to, not because we have to. One of the main problems we have with our lifestyle here is getting on that hamster wheel every Monday morning and running like mad all week to drop off exhausted on Friday evening. We do not want to replicate this in Skiathos! I hope that we have sufficient skills to perhaps help people in a voluntary capacity. We are trying to learn Greek and learn more about the history and culture, this way we believe we will best enjoy our little corner of paradise!
I think the people who just go for it are fantastic and I wish them every success but we're all different!

Bladerunner · Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 77

A whopping 87% of Daily mail readers would now consider emigrating.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/dmpolls/results.html?in_poll_id=19428&in_page_id=711&in_question_id=18976&in_exists=Y&in_answer1=59148

The UK is now the third most overpopulated country in the world courtesy of Labour, and i would imagine that winters in Skiathos with deserted roads, few people, zero speed cameras, and a general feeling of calm with the odd trip down to a deserted beach is a hardship most sane people would happily endure.

I think Darrell is right about the bar thing, unless it's well and truly established already forget it.
I like a drink, but the last thing i want to be doing abroad is sitting in a British run bar watching sky sports on a hot afternoon with a load of northerners staggering about wearing red wigs and kilts Wink

sueintroulos · Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 66

If you've only ever been in the Summer, I would seriously suggest that you first try and spend a winter there. It's totally different.