Moving to the caribbean

Jillianalessandro · 2010-08-31T15:09:19+02:00

Explore the best Caribbean islands for expats with families, focusing on English-speaking options, international schools, and low bureaucracy for opening a restaurant.

Jillianalessandro Member

Member since 31 August 2010

JillianalessandroMember31 August 2010 13:09:19

My husband and i would like to move to' the caribbean. I am Danish, grown up in Africa and he is italian. we have 2 children, 11 and 2 and a half. We want to' leave italy and nove to' the caribbean but we are unsure of which island to choose. Our check list is as follows:
English speaking
International school
Ability to operate a small restaurant/bar business
Rental house round 1500 US per month
Less bureacracy on immigration and starting business
Less crime
We have enough savings to take our time but we would like to' take over a bistro or small restaurant business. It would be' a kind of chic european fusion place (contrasting to' the passe tropical style and hopefully whooing locale as well as tourists). The idea would be to buy an existing business with the property on lease. Important factors to consider is 150K start up fund and certainity of cliental.
Lines to' this we could also pursue a boutique shop catering to' expats for luxury food and products that would come part for the restaurant and part to' sell to' expats.
Please can you give an idea which place in the caribbean would be' best suited for us. At present we Are meaning towards Antigua.

buffbenj New member

Member since 30 October 2010

buffbenjNew member23 November 2010 10:27:33

It seems to me you need to carefully consider your target population: tourists who have the $ and are willing to spend it, and who are hungry.聽 Stay away from all-inclusive resorts and cruise ships: those tourists have already paid for their food, and they know it.聽 You want to be near a strip of hotels or condos/apartments where people dont want to be bothered with cooking.聽 Best example is Aruba. Hardly any all-inclusives. Strip of hotels on NW end of island, compacted, with very expensive food in the resorts.聽 Right across the street: TONS of restaurants making a killing on US dollars.
For targeting locals, you need to do demographics on the locals, with respect to their incomes.聽 These statistics may be difficult to obtain or interpret.聽 I was told St Lucia has a fair number of wealthy people who have moved to the island (now locals).聽 But for resorts in St Lucia, Sandals (all inclusive) has the lion's share of the market.聽 I dont see the market there for you.
In my opinion, Aruba is the business model you need.聽 Go see it! Then look for that type of arrangement elsewhere in the Caribbean.

thisismyurl Member

Member since 17 April 2011

thisismyurlMember17 April 2011 15:39:33

I have a very similar question to the original poster, I am looking at living the Caribbean but do not have a lot of knowledge of the specific islands and unsure how to decided where to start looking.

We are both English speaking, I am Canadian and she is British. We have kids, and are looking for a clean, safe place with a comfortable lifestyle. I work remotely for clients, so we do not need jobs on the island, just good Internet access for Skype and airline access to the US.

Is there a basic starting guide to cost of living that you could share? House and apartment guides for example?