The next big step - preparing to move to Barbados

If you have been following my journey, you may know that we have been planning our move to Barbados for about a year now. We had some delays, but the paperwork for my house has now been signed and we can start to plan how we will get to Barbados and where we will stay. If you have just joined my journey, find all the trials and tribulations I have had so far in the travel section of my blog.

We have decided that my cat, Luna, will follow a little after our arrival so we don't have to plan everything at the same time. I can imagine trying to juggle my bags, finding a house that we haven't visited before and managing a complaining cat simultaneously. It didn't sound like fun! So we will get settled and then she can follow. I will make a dedicated post on how we get her to Barbados, once it has happened, as it does have quite a few steps involved and other people planning to bring their pet to the island might find it useful. That said, the authorities in Barbados have made the process straightforward enough, so that your furry friends can go with you too!

So, back to my journey plans. The date for our flights could be anytime after the sale of my house completes, so it really came down to comparing the costs and making sure we could find somewhere to live at the other end that coincides with the flight arrivals.

At the moment the main two companies who fly from the UK to Barbados, non-stop, are BA and Virgin Atlantic, though another company is starting in the summer, Norse Air. Having a look at the costs for the next month, some days were very expensive and others were around what I expected. Guess which one I went for? I then compared the two companies. It was amazing how different the costs were. One was nearly twice as expensive as the other, while both provided the same economy seat, meal and luggage allowance.

Normally economy would be the seat I would choose, but since we are going for at least a year, I think I will need an extra bag. Check out the post on how I maximised the amount of stuff I can take by making my own bag in this post. Build a Bag - Adventures in sewing (and lots of pinpricks) (onepawinthesand.com) An extra bag costs approx. £50 where the economy plus seats include a second bag and an upgraded seat for around the same cost. Since sitting for anything over a few hours can be very painful for me, the upgrade seemed like a good investment. So Virgin Atlantic won for me.

Now we had to find somewhere to live.

We had spoken to some of the leasing agencies in Barbados to find somewhere for the full year, but most of them don't accept animals and the ones that did tended to be in the middle of the island, where you would need a car. We want to be near the coast for at least part of our stay and be in easy reach of restaurants and supermarkets. And by near, I mean within easy walking distance, so that a hire car would not always be needed. I am happy travelling on the plentiful public transport, so I would prefer to only hire a car for a few days here and there. So I turned to my old friend Airbnb. On their site, you can specify that you need pet-friendly accommodation and can look on the map for locations and costs.

This has made it really easy to find somewhere to live and it includes internet, electricity and water etc so we shouldn't have any unforeseen expenses.

Now the countdown begins and the real excitement starts!