Many expats<\/a> are seeking a better quality of life, and cite varying factors \u2013 cold weather, high cost of living, extortionate childcare, stagnant wages, dwindling opportunity, lack of work-life balance<\/a>, and even poor romantic prospects \u2013 among their motivations for leaving the UK. The i Paper\u2019s Expat Files<\/a> follows Brits who have taken the leap and settled elsewhere, detailing the ups and downs of their journey.<\/p>\n Hattie MacAndrews, 34, left London for South Africa in 2023. Here, she tells why she could never imagine going back.<\/p>\n __<\/p>\n Modern dating<\/a> is an absolute minefield \u2013 especially somewhere like London, where it\u2019s mostly on apps<\/a> and it\u2019s easy to make a lot of quick judgements. People are stressed, busy and often treat each other like they\u2019re disposable or like there\u2019s always something better<\/a> out there.<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n At the end of 2022, I was single, 32, and living alone in London<\/a>, paying \u00a31,800 a month for a small one and a half bedroom flat. I had just been through a break-up and was fed up with dating apps. I had a good life, was earning good money as a confidence coach, and my friends and family were nearby \u2013 but I\u2019d always felt something was missing. I was lacking a sense of freedom and adventure. After the pandemic, with the freedom to work remotely<\/a>, I thought \u201cif ever there\u2019s a time to leave, it\u2019s now\u201d. <\/p>\n I knew I wanted to be somewhere sunny, where people lived an active lifestyle<\/a>, were social, where there was a sense of community. Ideally I wanted to be by the beach or in the mountains, without being too remote. And I wanted to meet someone and have a family. It felt like an impossible ask and I didn\u2019t think the perfect place existed. <\/p>\n Growing up, my family had spent many holidays in South Africa<\/a>, and I remembered a small town we visited called Plettenberg Bay, where my parents had friends. It\u2019s a beautiful seaside town with endless white sandy beaches, mountains lining the coastline and endless nature and wildlife. It was one of the few towns in South Africa that felt really safe, yet had this amazing vibrant community lifestyle. <\/p>\n In January 2022 I got my tourist visa and flew there. I was planning on spending a couple of months here working remotely and having a wholesome break from city life, but within a fortnight I started to think that I could live here. There was an amazing community within the town, with lots of young people<\/a>. I flew back to England, sold my car and packed up my stuff.<\/p>\n About two weeks after I returned to Plettenberg Bay in June, a friend invited me to watch the rugby in the local sports bar. I sat down next to a man called Kieran, and we then spent the next couple of weeks hanging out as friends while he showed me around Plett. Two and a half years on, he is my husband, and the father of my child. <\/p>\n A South African country boy, he\u2019s so different from any man I\u2019ve ever met: genuine, wholesome, rugged. If I had met him in London, we never would have \u201cmatched\u201d as it were. I am so grateful we met at the right time, in the right circumstances every day.<\/p>\n There\u2019s not a huge big boozy culture<\/a> here \u2013 especially when it comes to dating. Our first couple of weeks were spent hiking, going for morning cold dips in the sea, on coffee dates or playing padel together. Our first proper date was at 4pm on a Tuesday, where he cooked me prawns on the fire on a quiet beach and we spent hours and hours chatting. <\/p>\n We cut through the noise pretty quickly, and soon figured out whether we were on the same page about life\u2019s biggest questions. Just five months after we met, we had a real f**k it moment and thought, let\u2019s get married. A couple of weeks later we had family members visiting, so we found a beautiful venue and pulled together a stunning but simple ceremony. We said \u201cI do\u201d in front of our immediate families and a small group of close friends, overlooking the Tsitsikamma mountains. <\/p>\n Living in Plettenberg is similar to living in a small seaside town like Margate<\/a> or somewhere in Devon. I wake up each morning to the most incredible pink sunrises over our lake, with elephants at the end of the garden. But we are still just 10 minutes from the town \u2013 which has amazing vineyards, padel courts, beautiful hotels and rooftop bars and plenty to keep us busy. Cape Town<\/a> is the nearest big city which is roughly six hours by car or just over an hour to fly.<\/p>\n Our lifestyle feels a million miles away from London life. I am fundamentally happier on so many levels. There\u2019s a big emphasis on living a healthy, clean lifestyle<\/a>, which means better sleep, more movement and less drinking. It\u2019s very normal to meet friends here for a morning swim and a coffee before starting the working day \u2013 which in London would have been a horrifying concept. <\/p>\n I moved in with Kieran on his farm very soon after moving here, but for about \u00a32,000 a month you could move into a big four-bedroom house with a swimming pool and a sea-view. The cost of living<\/a> is remarkably cheap in comparison to the UK, and apart from a food shop (which costs about the same as London), I spend so much less on a daily basis than I used to. A coffee is \u00a31.20, a breakfast out might cost \u00a35, a game of paddle \u00a34 and I can get an incredible manicure for \u00a315. You would be hard pushed to spend more than \u00a330 on a night out \u2013 including dinner and drinks.<\/p>\n Soon after moving I took out a private health insurance plan, which costs around \u00a3110 a month. When I fell pregnant, everything from my scans to the birth was covered with no extra cost. Kieran has his own storage business which he runs from home, so he\u2019s around a lot to help with raising and taking care of our baby, Juniper, <\/strong>who\u2019s now six months old. We are incredibly fortunate to have found a brilliant nanny, who we have with us three days a week. Nursery care costs around \u00a315 a day. All this means that I have been able to return to work at my own pace, and do an exercise class or play a game of paddle. It gives me the time and space I need each day, so that I can be the type of mother I\u2019d like to be \u2013 calm, happy and relaxed.<\/p>\n We recently spent a month in London, and it was really eye-opening to see friends in similar life stages to us \u2013 friends with good, well-paying jobs who couldn\u2019t afford nannies, struggled to pay nursery fees or simply weren\u2019t able to afford having more than one child. Mothers having to sacrifice careers they had worked so hard for, because it now didn\u2019t make financial sense for them to continue whilst paying extortionate childcare<\/a> fees. Or mothers who had to return to work and leave their small babies at home, feeling overwhelmed with guilt.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t enough support for new families in the UK \u2013 I do not know how relationships survive it. It really hit home for me what an enormous privilege it is to raise our child outside of the UK. <\/p>\n I spent many, very happy years in London and have a huge fondness for my life in my twenties and early thirties there \u2013 but since leaving I have never looked back. My life is infinitely happier, healthier and more fulfilled. I feel so fortunate that I finally took the plunge and moved here when I did.<\/p>\n As a coach, I help women to be brave and make fearless choices, and get off dating apps and into real life \u2013 and I\u2019m glad I took my own advice. I feel I am the perfect example of what can happen when you have a little faith, and that the untrodden path is sometimes the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am fundamentally happier on so many levels and spend so much less on things like coffee, exercise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,12824,487,393,20291,126,4884,257,2196,179350,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-563085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-brits-abroad","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-expats","13":"tag-features","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-south-africa","17":"tag-the-expat-files","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115529866065949419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_273848667-e1762791582410.jpg\")
Hattie and Kieran met weeks into her return to South Africa (Photo: Hattie MacAndrews<\/strong>)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_273850920.jpg\")
Hattie and Kieran\u2019s wedding was a small family affair overlooking the Tsitsikamma mountains (Photo: Ruan Redelinghuys)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_273848659-e1762808734179.jpg\")
\u2018My life is infinitely happier, healthier and more fulfilled,\u2019 says Hattie (Photo: Hattie MacAndrews<\/strong>)<\/p>\n