To think if you have enough money to travel frequently, the UK is the best place in the world to live

Furthermore, I’d been living in Japan for a few weeks working, and one night, the wind got up a bit. Ha ha how funny I thought. Then the roof got ripped off my house, and floated off in the river, the electricity went out, the cockroaches came out in their millions because the lights were out for miles around. A typhoon literally tore the heart out of the village I lived in. There I sat in my sunken bathtub with the howls of wind that will stay with me forever, thinking - this is it. I’m about to die. Some people did die that night. The next morning, I remember thinking - wow this would never happen in the UK. We don’t know how lucky we are. Truly.

I agree. The history and countryside in the UK is so good. I've been on holidays in Europe and the US, but i honestly prefer staying in the UK. I love a city break, and our beaches are the best. I love our little houses and big gardens, winding roads, countryside in every direction; you only have to go 50 miles and the geography and accents are all different. Miles of coastline where every beach and seaside town is different. Village churches, coffee shops, tiny train stations, local cheeses and ciders/beers, castles and stately homes peppered everywhere. So many little walks and long treks/pilgrimages you can do.. i love it here.

Edited to add: i can't believe i forgot to mention the wildlife, and even the farm animals! Who doesn't love an Exmoor pony, or a lake of swans? I saw a field of cows yesterday that looked just like humbugs with stripes round the middle. A field a bit futher on was full of hares chasing around, about the most beautiful animals i have ever seen.

Well I actually live in Belfast and I love it! Best of both worlds - Ireland with the NHS and much lower house prices 😄. I used to live in Dublin but it’s ridiculously expensive now. Let me know if you need to know anything specific !

I wouldn't day absolute best...but definitely top 10.

It's a bit too wet! I'd either want proper cold (Scandinavia) or longer summers (Italy, or Spain).

The no terrifying animals is good though! Continental Europe has bears and wolves (Not that I've ever seen one, I've seen wild hogs in Italy though and they are massive and angry looking)

I like it here but I have to disagree with the food. The food is bland, tomatoes fruit, milk etc just doesn’t have flavour.
I go abroad to eat and soak up sunshine.

I agree op. Though as soon as I quit working we will be driving down to the algarve or costas for extended periods each winter - hate the dark in winter

You've said earlier that you've visited Kefalonia and Skiathos in Greece - so tourist destination islands. Skiatos have stable population of 5000 people for the whole island!

That's hardly like for like comparison with London.
I'm pretty sure that food in central Athens will be varied similarly to London, while food at Isles of Scilly would be a bit limited.

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Maybe use your travells to put things a bit into perspective. Which part of the UK would be the best comparator to X? Population size, demography, economy focus, the biggest issue the locals face. 20 minutes online will give you an idea.

Many tourist destinations on your list are heavily adjusted to being tourist destinations. That's not necessarily wrong, but it doesn't give you a real feel of how people in that country live.

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It is interesting when you mention varying countryside as an asset of the UK, that you than go to tourist destinations for your holidays.
It is understandable, because that's what is the easiest and cheapest to get to, but maybe you'd love the villages of Austrian Alps or Balkan mountains more.

We took an organized trip of Slovenia, stayed at 4 places and visited about 10 altogether. It was wonderfull how varied landscape you can find in such a small country. And we were still only scratching the surface.

I have enjoyed living in many countries and a few parts of the UK too. If you have enough money, travel is easy, living in other parts of the world is easy, the place you choose to live in the UK can be easy. You can buy good healthcare and good education, the thing we couldn’t buy was the cultural connection that comes from a shared feeling of social history. Feeling like you belong and which ever part of the UK we’ve lived in, we have still felt like we belong. So it’s UK for us, with a healthy dose of travel to escape Jan - Mar every year - it’s bloody hideous weather!

And Brits in Poland are seen as disgusting drunks. Would you agree that it’s true?

Petty bribery isn’t common in Poland. There are different problems—some very similar to Britain’s, such as the issues with respirators during COVID—but good luck trying to bribe a police officer or civil servant. You’d be arrested on the spot.

Polish civil servants are much nicer than British ones, and the whole system is easier to navigate.(for starters you can just go to the office and speak with a real human being, with a face and name…)

A Polish tax return is something like two or three pages of simple questions, and the standard form can be done by the tax office for you (e-PIT), and you just sign it digitally. Ah, also, school exams are the same for everyone, designed and organised by the state. Everyone gets the same “award,” and you don’t pay for it. And you don’t need a special code for the exam. You use your security number (which is also a hospital/NHS number). it stays the same for your whole life. Schools are just state or public (called private in Polish ;) ). No academies in Poland.

Passports? A lovely woman explained every step of the process and didn’t get annoyed by the difficulty of British surnames. Try registering children with Polish names in the UK. Somehow, “Agata” is beyond comprehension—and it’s your fault if they didn’t listen when you explained that it’s the same name, just without an “h.”

Doctors inform you what is going on and give you any physical copies of your test result - it is about you. and they explain their reasoning. Oh, and every child in Poland has a screening ultrasound of their hips as an infant, so any problems can be identified and treated early. That’s why Polish children tend to have better posture etc. Shall we talk about access to gynaecologists?
fruit and veg selection at Polish Lidl looks like posh food chain in comparison to my Surrey „posh” one.

there are things that are better in Britain. However, the thing I hate the most about Britain are people who are ignorant and can’t accept that some things should be improved and that some countries do them better.
I am not saying that is typical British thing, only that some people are insufferable. Same as everywhere. However, some cultures tend to thing they are the worse in the whole world. Other otherwise. Look at you French ;).

Shall we talk about access to gynaecologists?
I never understood why women don't have gynecologist in UK automatically and have to "beg" GP to send them to one

Thanks for your reply. I guess I’m not surprised you’re offended. ..
I really am simply curious . I know a Polish lady who goes there very often and she told me that.
Really, I don’t feel strongly about it, just thinking every country has it’s drawbacks .
I think we don’t appreciate in England how free we are.

Yes, I'm the same. I spent a long time living in the UK and prior to that other EU countries. Now I am back in my native Sweden and the standard of living here is so much better than it was in the UK even if I on paper was richer in the UK. The money just didn't go very far at all there. We also have lovely nature, nice and varied food, safety, proper seasons with snowy winters and nice summers.

I would not choose to live in the UK again. I like visiting though and I don't think it's a horrible place at all, I just don't think it's great to live in. If I had my family there or if I had grown up there I would have felt differently, I think those are the things that makes a place the most appealing.

We left London a couple of years ago. Now in Montreal and loving it.

I love it, but I’m from here.

I’ve lived and worked in a number of countries and I liked all of them. Japan is fantastic, for example, and you can travel to all sorts of different places on holiday from there.

However I like it here because it’s home, I “get” everyone and they “get” me. Our men are really nice too compared to other places (or always used to be, seems to be changing with Andrew Tate.)

If we had fewer people it would be perfect t

No. I’ve left UK post Brexit after 19years, and moved my British husband and three small children to live in EU. V happy with the move.

@Muffsies oh you sound like me! Full of wide eyed child like joy over the Uk. I grew up here but left at 30 - came back at 47 for good and just think it’s wonderful here. I went to the new forest recently and there are wild horses just romancing around everywhere- it’s awesome and magical. See foxes at dusk all the time - and a massive deer crossed my street last week which was so exciting to me. I just love that you can travel an hour in any direction and have a totally new exciting experience. Nothing ever looks the same. Amazing country.

It is not bad. The summers aren't too hot, the winters aren't too cold, I like the variation between hunkering down during short dark days and being energised by the long days that barely get to nighttime . The joy of living on geologically boring land.

I like the humour, the landscape, access to swathes of land, proper pavements, and as the parent of a sen child - far more tolerance and acceptance here than across most of the eu and the rest of the world.

Actually, when you get away from the Internet moaners and bellyachers with their monologue of misery - it is a very cool place to live.

'Limited', have you been to Athens OP? I spend a lot of time in London for work. The food scene there, compared to Athens, falls short in recent years..

Having said that, your jolly hockey sticks, upbeat posts are fun to read. But come from a position of significant privilege, and I say this as someone who lives very well too.

I think living in abundance can somehow blunt our wider understanding of how things are for many others.

@Diosmoneti do agree. Being poor in UK would be awful. Living in oz poor would be much much better. However I don’t think you need to be wealthy to live a lovely life in UK. Just not dirt poor. A decent wage, decent housing and enough to travel a bit. Don’t think you need heaps for that.

The UK is fantastic, we are far too mealy-mouthed about it.

I went to an amazing restaurant in Athenssa few years ago in a very nice area- luckily we were taken by a business associate - can’t remember what it was called but huge round table, absolutely superb Mediterranean food - quite posh and about £250 for 8 of us feasting like kings with wine - some truly great food to be had if you are going up from the cheap and cheerful tourist end of the market - I really like Athens -

Very cool place - Canada I do like - great food too -

Hey @Snoken. We are just about in our early to mid60s to submit our visas for Sweden and hopefully move to Stockholm area and take our business with us and set up another - I’m effectively ‘transferring myself’plus husband some hoop jumping but not impossible - we did 20 months in Copenhagen 2020 to 2022 but had to come back for elderly parent reasons - I like the UK in many ways but we will still be here a lot for business , liked Sweden and Denmark more lifestyle wise - better housing for much less money, higher tax but far more for it and far more protections, I like snow too! And love the woods and lakes - we went to both Skane area and Stockholm lots and go every new year!! I like the order, the great air and water and the fact I think a lot of people have higher standards that aren’t particularly money related - I think unless you have been it’s hard to know what I mean - I also unlike what many say didn’t find it unfriendly, just far less sticking their nose into others business unless asked - !!

England is a shithole and getting worse. We won’t ever recover now.

I cannot wait to be able to afford to sell and move abroad. Hate the place. Especially with this lot in charge. Turning us in to a third world country