Moving to Barbados from London when I was three months pregnant was not ideal timing but actually brought some advantages (says Tessa Holladay, 40).
I first visited Barbados five years ago on a holiday with friends. Back then I was straddling my time between my job and building my men’s beachwear company, Saint Luke. My husband, Paul, loves surfing and we travelled extensively but always ended up returning to the Caribbean.
Saint Luke launched in 2015, starting with just travel bags. On a shoestring budget I used Paul and our friends for photoshoots and, pictured with the vibrant backdrops of Barbados, the business started growing. After a few years I gave up my day job.
It was during a work trip for a campaign shoot in Barbados during the pandemic that we started having a look at properties to rent there. Paul and I realised that moving might be achievable.
With great broadband he would be able to develop his proptech business from there, but our main concern was medical care — by then I was pregnant with our daughter, Cossie. Our son Malo was two and I loved the idea that as a family we could have an adventure.
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We didn’t want to be bankrupted by costly American medical bills if anything went wrong, but the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown has a neonatal ward and is free of charge for citizens. I was also recommended an excellent obstetrician on the island by a friend, and in the end I had a better experience with both my antenatal care and Cossie’s birth at the private Bayview Hospital than I’d had with Malo in the UK.
Finding a place to rent long-term on the west coast was hard — it was super competitive and we kept getting gazumped. Our first home near Oistins in the south of the island felt a little isolated and I spent too much time in traffic driving up the coast.
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Six months later we found a three-bedroom house in Battaleys Mews, a gated development in Mullins, which we loved until we found a place to buy two years later. It was close to Speightstown, the area of the west coast that has become very trendy, with its eclectic restaurants like Baia and Caboose attracting a younger crowd. The old Nikki Beach, which seemed too Ibiza for Barbados, has been bought by Pendry Hotels — I am excited to see that part of the coast evolve.
We would have preferred to have lived there if we’d found the right house, but two months ago we completed on a fabulous four-bedroom bungalow that backs on to the polo field up Holders Hill in St James. By then we felt comfortable that life was working out on the island, and we sold our London home. The location is ideal, five minutes’ walk from Paynes Bay Beach, supermarkets and easy access to my store at Haymans Market.
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Settling in was harder than I thought. Heavily pregnant, I was exhausted and too tired to go out and socialise. A constant flow of visitors from back home also made it difficult to grow roots in our new life. We struggled until we were introduced to another couple on the island by a friend back in the UK, and sundowner welcome drinks at a neighbour’s house led to more connections. There’s a joke that everyone here is from either London or Toronto.
The children have settled well into nursery and school, and weekends are spent at the beach or at a friend’s, not a TV in sight. Paul is able to catch some waves most mornings, and between running the business and school runs, I grab an exercise class at Singita, a beautiful wellness studio in Mullins.
The exorbitant cost of groceries — about double that of London’s — is balanced by lower childcare costs, property taxes and attractive tax rates [the top rate of income tax is 28.5 per cent]. We are also going to rent out our home when we are back in the UK for holidays — over the peak Christmas season £1,200-£1,600 per night may be possible via Airbnb.
When we first arrived we got the Welcome Stamp visa, designed for remote workers, which was easy to do, but I am now applying for a three-year work permit. This means we can all live here, I can pay myself a salary in local Barbados dollars and after four years we can apply for residency.
We may well move back to the UK for further education — like many families do — but we are keen to take life year by year. At first I was reluctant to admit to friends back home that my dream new life wasn’t quite as idyllic as it seemed, but adjusting takes time and we’ve now found a perfect balance and feel lucky to be part of a wonderful community of people.
