Why did you move to Malta?

Why did we move to Malta? Good question, came over June 2015 for holiday, loved the island/people, sold up and moved January 2016. Both in our 50's, kids all grown up, no ties except our wee dog, sometimes you just need to think let's start working towards retirement, want to slow it down. Loved every moment we've been here so far. No regrets at all. We've found our paradise, and happy to see our years out here. Recommend it to anyone. You only live once, make the most of it, we left it late but not too late. 👍☀️✈️

After two holidays here we decided to retire in Gozo and have never regretted it, only like others have said that we wished we had done it earlier.  Have no intention of going back to the UK as the weather here is so
much better especially the mild winters.

We moved to Malta for almost a year back in 2013. We moved without having visited beforehand - we're young so thought why not. We don't need to work locally so that wasn't our motivation. We just wanted a change of scenery.

The main reason why we picked Malta was that it's easy. It's easy/cheap to get started in Malta (at least it used to be - rent prices were way lower in 2013). I can honestly say that you can pretty much do anything you want when living in Malta and, at least until you get properly settled, no one is going to care. It's much harder to get settled in many other countries.

Malta was an amazing experience and a great starting point for us. We did eventually leave the island and haven't really looked back... but in some way Malta will always remain in our hearts as the place where it all began.

Reading my post back I realise I sound a bit like a  moderator haha. Not intentional I genuinely am interested/nosy 😄

Interesting question!

I've been planning to move to a warm country ever since I can remember. Originally I thought about Spain or Italy (Malta never even crossed my mind), and I did live in Spain for half a year while studying... But somehow plans changed, we got married, my wife got quite a good job, the kids came, ...

About 3 years ago I decided to take a CELTA course. The only time that was possible for me was February, and when I had to decide between Britain or Malta, the decision was not too hard, given British winters vs. Maltese winters (I hadn't been to Malta before, but had experienced winters in Spain and southern Italy).

I enjoyed the month in Malta, and since English is an official language here, and both my wife and I are fluent in English, Malta became an option... In addition, I met and made friends with a Dutch couple on the CELTA course who had just moved to Malta for the same reasons I have (mainly, the weather and the southern lifestyle, i.e. a more relaxed attitude to everything compared to Austria, Germany, Holland..., where people like rules, rules, and rules).

Later that year, I took my wife and first-born son to Malta for our summer holiday, and they liked it here (as tourists). We came back the following year in February (my wife was pregnant with our second son, then), and half a year later we finally agreed to give life in Malta a try for a few months and then make a decision.

So we came over again this year in February to find a flat and arrange a few other things - we found a relatively affordable flat in Mellieha and rented it for 8 months (from February), I came back twice in May for job interviews, and now we've been here since June.

We're going to stay for another month or so before I'll need to be back in Austria again at the beginning of October, to start working there again.

I guess we're really lucky to be able to try out life here before taking a decision... As I am a freelance teacher in Austria, I wouldn't have much work during the summer there anyway, so I had time to come here. As I have a CELTA, it was rather easy to find (part-time) work as an EFL teacher here in Malta for the summer season. As our second son is just one-and-a-half years old, my wife isn't working (yet). And our first-born son doesn't go to school yet, so he was free all summer, too.

Of course, our option is quite expensive - we're paying the rent here in Malta, we're paying the rent for our flat in Austria (we couldn't just give up the flat, as we're going back there after the summer), but we saved up for it all last year...

I am definitely enjoying my time here - there are some things that could be better (the flat really isn't too great...), but I like my work, I love the fact that it's always warm and I can go swimming every day, I love buying fresh fruit and veg (especially at the farmer's market in Ta Qali), and the fresh fish from the fish shop!

So are we going to come back for good? I don't know yet - and I am aware that Malta for me (and for us as a family) would possibly always just be a compromise, in that I like other places much more (especially certain areas in Spain and Italy), but at least at the moment the circumstances (language-wise, economically, ...) speak for Malta.
What I can say for sure is that whatever we will do in the end, this summer here in Malta has been one of the best experiences in my life.

Sorry for the long post, I guess I got a bit carried away
Bernie

Bernie - do you not get decent summers in Austria? I know it wouldnt be as hot as the south med but I was always under the impression that the summer would be pretty dry and mild there. I know the winters, especially in the mountains, will be colder. Unless the föhn comes in of course we were in Salzburg for Christmas once and walking around without jackets

Since I moved here I've realised that I don't actually want to live in a hot country, I'd just like to live in a sunny country. Temperature isn't actually so important - it's more the lack of rain I like! In fact I think more than anything I'd like consistency, so that you could plan and be more certain of the weather, whether it is hot or cold.

felinefine81 wrote:

Bernie - do you not get decent summers in Austria? I know it wouldnt be as hot as the south med but I was always under the impression that the summer would be pretty dry and mild there. I know the winters, especially in the mountains, will be colder. Unless the föhn comes in of course we were in Salzburg for Christmas once and walking around without jackets

Since I moved here I've realised that I don't actually want to live in a hot country, I'd just like to live in a sunny country. Temperature isn't actually so important - it's more the lack of rain I like! In fact I think more than anything I'd like consistency, so that you could plan and be more certain of the weather, whether it is hot or cold.

Well, depending on where in Austria you live, summer can be nice - especially in the southern part, where the lakes are. But winters there are really bad, fog for months on end!

I'm from Tyrol, the mountainous part (the name of the city is Innsbruck, which is also nicknamed capital of the Alps sometimes), and you usually don't get really long periods of really good weather there in Summer. My parents have told me that there hasn't been one week without rain this summer. It may have been nice half the day, but then there was a thunderstorm, and everything got wet and it cools down quickly. They've probably been able to have dinner in the garden 15 times since the end of June, the other times it was either raining or it had rained and everything was wet. I prefer dry weather!
Autumn may be better. But then again, my wife and I got married on the 13th of September, and we had rain and 5 degrees in the evening (5, not 15!!!)
It is better in South Tyrol, which is the German-speaking part in the north of Italy, and which is very close to my city.

Yes, the föhn winds make winters bearable sometimes, but then they do give you headaches...

And then there are mountain valleys in Austria, such as the one where my wife is from. Maybe nice for a holiday, but there are mountains everywhere (it's as if you were looking against a wall wherever you look), and in winter the sun sets at midday. I could never live there!

We're from the UK, but we'd been living in France for eleven years.  We started in the south and loved it for nine years, but felt our time there was done so planned to move out of France then.  Instead we thought we'd give another area of France a try first and moved towards Toulouse.  We hated the weather, far too much rain for us, so we wanted the consistent blue skies back.  I'm not too keen on heat to be honest, but sun and blue skies usually doesn't come without it so it's the price you pay. You never go backwards so we started looking at the easiest way to get out of France and get the blue skies back.

We have two children who are now five and sixteen. We couldn't force another language on the sixteen year old so wanted English speaking.  That's the only reason we looked at Malta, quick to do and English speaking.

It all happened very quickly, we thought about moving in late November, came out for a weekend visit early January and said if it felt right we'd put a deposit down on a rental apartment.  We did and we moved out here at the beginning of February last year . Reading the forums about the roads, rubbish, etc, I had visions in my head of a run down awful dirty place.  We loved it though and took a chance, we'd done the same with France and that worked so we didn't really have much to lose.  I don't tend to compare things with England, or others places, we've been gone for so long so I think we're more open than some.

We're self employed, working from home, so location isn't an issue for us.  I'm not sure whether it's our forever home, it's definitely the right place for us to be right now though. It's hard to think of anywhere as forever when you've moved about though, so it's  nothing to do with Malta.

C, luckily I work internationally but set up businesses and base here

Thought it would be a struggle but we both really love it here. Health better, partner super happy in a sunny climate, etc. So we will stay for the foreseeable future, busy getting more perm accommodation now.

felinefine81 wrote:

Since I moved here I've realised that I don't actually want to live in a hot country, I'd just like to live in a sunny country. Temperature isn't actually so important - it's more the lack of rain I like! In fact I think more than anything I'd like consistency, so that you could plan and be more certain of the weather, whether it is hot or cold.

Check out Andorra for year-round sunny skies, decent temperatures and low humidity.

We came to Malta after having visited the island for 8 years and on our last trip in October 2015 asked ourselves what on earth were we going back to the UK for. We are both retired, although continuing to contribute to an organisation to which we have links going back many years that teaches herbal medicine,  my wife being a consultant medical herbalist and me being a healer, a gift with which I was born and from which I can not retire.

I was invited to undertake some activity related to my esoteric area of speciality, which gave an extra push to make the move.

Although it meant leaving many friends behind, we are both aware that you can not live your life through other people, as to do so often ends up as a form of abuse by control and are therefore quite happy to exchange the odd email and Facebook message. As far as family goes, we were more than happy to distance ourselves from their dysfunctionality........"all unhappy families are unhappy in their own particular way."

We had been looking to retire to an island for many years, as the sense of community is much stronger than on the mainland of any continent. Having travelled as far afield as New Zealand and back, experience told us that it had to be Malta.

Although arriving in June was a bit of a shock to the system after the sunny climes of England, the climate has been beneficial to the ravages of time on the body. After we get to move in to our new apartment, we are looking forward to sipping the odd glass of wine on the balcony, as the sun goes down on the evening of our life. Where could be better?

Hello

for me it is the first time vistiting Malta.
I´m come to Malta, because I make an internship which I´m supposed to do from my studies.
So I´m going to stay in Malta for 5 month and I´m hoping that this would be a great time.

mantasmo wrote:

felinefine81 wrote:

Since I moved here I've realised that I don't actually want to live in a hot country, I'd just like to live in a sunny country. Temperature isn't actually so important - it's more the lack of rain I like! In fact I think more than anything I'd like consistency, so that you could plan and be more certain of the weather, whether it is hot or cold.

Check out Andorra for year-round sunny skies, decent temperatures and low humidity.

Don 't give up on Malta yet, wait and see what you think of the other seasons.

a.) First visit here for 1 week to find an accommodation 2 month before the final move
b.) no job offer, I started looking for a job after a few months timeout
c.) no financial/tax/business reasons, only to change to a more relaxed lifestyle, more sun, more holiday feeling the whole year
d.) it was time for a change, time to escape the treadmill which leads nowhere

Hi there! 
I think some  times it's a combination of all the things you are mentioning in your post.
When you want to make a change in your life and you start thinking about it or even researching , the opportunity  presents itself.

Best regards,
Jenny

My husband and I are thinking of retiring to Gozo in a few years time so we're going to spend as much time as possible visiting and getting as much information before we make the move are there any pointers , do"s and don't"s or any kind of information you think we should have before we go ahead Yours Ina Comrie