Living Between UK & Cape Town: Summer Truths, Costs & Expat Life

This is what summer in the UK looks like.

Of course, you have to pick your days carefully in the summer in the uk because it also looked like this. And this is what it looked like six months ago in Cape Town. Same season on the calendar. Completely different experience. For the past few years we've been living two different lives and if I'm honest, one of them feels much more authentically like us. We are back in the UK for the summer and in today's video I want to compare what living in the summer in the UK is like to living in the summer in Cape Town. Now, this isn't a which is better kind of video because they're completely different. Although later on I will share with you if we were forced to choose one, which one we would pick. Now, right now we can only spend 90 days at a time in South Africa on our visitor's visa, but we have applied for our residency and I'm going to talk more about that in next week's video. VIDEO. And when we retire, our plan is to spend six months in the UK and then six months in South Africa where we'll be fortunate enough to become a swallow, those people who are chasing the sun and avoiding the gray, gloomy, dark and cold winters in the uk. Now, of course, the big, big difference and the thing that we probably need to start with is cost of living, because there is a big difference between the cost of living in the UK and the cost of living in South Africa. So that feels like a really good place to start to make some comparison.

In both the UK and South Africa, there's a big coffee culture. As you can see, there's a couple of really popular cafes on our beach. Big difference being the price. Here you're going to pay about 3 pound to 4 pound 50 for a cup of coffee in South Africa you're going to pay about 35, maybe 40 rand.

In Cape Town we can definitely eat out more often, we can definitely buy food at the more bougie supermarkets and we can afford to have a glass of wine with our meals or a bottle of wine with our meals. Literally a fraction of the cost of the uk. And I'm going to put a chart up now showing some comparative cost between what sort of day to day things cost in the UK versus what they cost in South Africa. Now, of course, the UK has many perks and positives over South Africa in terms of security and in terms of politics, although that seems to be changing and in terms of kind of consistency of services that you expect, that you always expect to be available, but sometimes aren't available in South Africa. However, when it starts costing you more than ten pounds for a coffee and a pastry, you start to wonder, is this really the best place to be living? And, of course, costs are continually going up here, as they are everywhere in the world. And that difference is a big part of why our retirement plans will work so well, because we can live so much more cheaply in South Africa than we can in the uk. And I know some South Africans get offended when I use the word cheap, but I'm not talking about South Africa being cheap. I'm making the comparison to the cost of living compared to the UK or Europe or the usa. In fact, when we are living in South Africa, it actually costs us considerably less than if we were living in a winter in the uk, where we'd have our heating on every day, we'd be using the car a lot more often because, you know, it's too cold and dark to walk. And so it suddenly makes living in South Africa much, much more viable and attractive. Now, the other thing I want to talk about is the weather, because, you know, us Brits like to talk about the weather and it makes a huge difference. I'm not just talking about the fact that it's sunny in South Africa when it's dark and gloomy in the uk, I'm just talking about the fact that you can usually see blue sky. I don't know about you, but blue sky definitely makes me feel better. And like many people, James suffers from SAD seasonal affective disorder and so uses a light box when he's here in the winter. And of course, you can get that naturally from the blue sky and sunshine in the summers in South Africa. Now, the other thing is, well, as I'm recording this video, it's a beautiful. Let me just show you outside. It's. If you can see, it's a beautiful sunny day, but this isn't guaranteed. And I think if the weather was guaranteed like this, say, from sort of May till September, we were going to get sunny blue sky days in the UK with temperatures in the mid-20s, then the UK would be such an attractive place to be. But quite, quite frankly, we'll get three or four or maybe a week of this weather and then it will turn dark and gloomy again. Typically in South Africa, although I know Cape Town can be really changeable with the sea in the mountains causing all sorts of weather changes and a lot of wind. But typically in South Africa, a summer's day is going to be like today. It's going to be in the mid-20s, where we are in Bantry Bay isn't too windy, we're a bit protected from the wind. And you can be fairly certain that that weather is going to be consistent. Yes, of course, you get some, a few gray days and you get a few cloudy. But the summer weather is much more consistent in South Africa than the summer weather is at the moment in the uk. Now, the next thing I want to talk about is social life and friendships because we have fantastic friends both in the UK and in South Africa. But I think the difference is in South Africa, because of where we're based and obviously we're living in a big city that our friends are all much more close by, which means we can often walk to our friends and the social life is a lot more buoyant than it is in the uk. We have to be a lot more planned where we are at the moment. We can't walk to friends, we have to jump in the car. And our friends are a lot, much more dispersed in the UK than they are in South Africa. Now, that isn't something that is typical because it's South Africa, it's just how it is. But I also guess it's because we're living in a city there, whereas here we're living in a smaller town. And so our friends are a lot more dispersed in South Africa. The social life is a lot more active, I think, because of the, the weather and you can be sure that you'll be able to eat outside and of course you're invited to braise. And in fact, I learned in South Africa in the last couple of years that I actually have to turn down some of my social invitations because I can't be going out every single night. So I need a bit of balance of like, going out one night, staying home, going out, staying home. In the uk, we're much more likely to see friends at the weekend. In South Africa, we could see, definitely see friends during the week as well as the weekend. So let's just talk typically about a typical day in the life, both here and in South Africa, and I'll use the weekend as an example.

What would you say we typically do a weekend and what are the differences?

I would say the majority of weekends are boring because it's full of chores, but there's a lot on our doorstep. We're lucky on the south coast, we're close to the South Downs National Park. You've got loads of beautiful villages, Petworth, Arundel, all those sort of lovely Lewis Rye there's. All these beautiful villages along here. So if you want to go out for a day out, you are spoiled for choice.

And we're only, and we're walking on the beach now, we're only five minutes away from home, but our friends don't live close by. So if we're going to visit friends, we have to get in the car and drive to see them. And that's a big difference compared to Cape Town. And also I think Cape Town has so many more things right on its step compared to the uk.

So you, but it's a city in comparison to a town so you kind of have to balance it.

You can get to the beach really easily with big shopping malls, walk to get out in the car to the winelands or to explore little towns that we've never seen before. We're always experiencing new things when we're in Cape Town. And I think, I guess in the UK that's not quite the case, although we still do discover a few things.

Now. You'd think given that South Africa is a developing country and the UK is a first world country, that things would be much more efficient in the uk. Well, to be quite honest guys, I think things are typically more efficient in South Africa when it comes to sort of daily life. I think going to a bank is more complicated. In South Africa there's always going to be a queue, you need to make an appointment. But you know, I don't go to banks very often. I don't know about you, but otherwise shopping in the supermarket is more efficient. There's more cashiers, there's more people packing your bags. The quality of food is great. As I said, booking restaurants is great. Paying for things is much more efficient in South Africa. You can use a thing called Snap Scan, which is an app where you can pay for your food or you can split the bill between people. It's just more efficient. And service is great in South Africa. So I, I wouldn't say that because the UK is a first world country, things run more efficiently. Yes, we don't have load shedding, we don't have water shortages. And of course those things are becoming more and more scarce as people have pointed out in the comments in South Africa as well. I've got to say that sort of weekend life in the UK feels a little bit more of a grind, whereas it feels more an adventure in South Africa. And this may be because we've only been doing this sort of spending longer periods of time in South Africa the last three or four years. So perhaps it feels More of a novelty. And when we are living there six months, it might feel different. But I know for all my friends who live six months in Cape Town and then six months in somewhere else, Europe or the us, that they're always more excited to get back to the Cape Town than they are to return back to their other second home base. So the last section I must touch upon, it would be really remiss of me not to talk about is healthcare and security. Of course, when you are spending extended periods of time in a country, healthcare becomes a big consideration. And when you're getting older, you need to really think about that. You can't just ignore it. In the UK we have the National Health Service, so you can get seen, in theory by a doctor or treated in a hospital if you need to. In reality, that's getting harder and harder. And I have in the last couple of years, since I turned 60, taken out private health cover, which touchwood I've never had to use, but it gives me that security blanket in South Africa. As a non South African, I need to take out private health care, which I haven't done yet because I'm not living there long enough. But a lot of my friends use discovery for their health care and it is surprisingly cost effective. So as you'll know if you followed this vlog for a while, that last year I had to have a tooth extracted, I also went to see a dermatologist as well and the tooth extraction was amazingly good and really cost effective. In fact, where I had the tooth out, I'm going to have an implant put in and just to give a comparison, the implant's going to cost me about £450 in South Africa. In the UK it would be about two to two and a half thousand pounds. So a massive difference in price. And I think that I got treated really well in South Africa with a private dentist I went to see and he'll do the procedure for the implant as well. And I went to see a dermatologist. I had a couple of skin tags removed. I also had a body check and that only cost me £45, which is crazy and God knows how much that would have cost me if I had to pay for it privately in the uk. So private healthcare in South Africa is very good. Now, I totally get that not everyone can afford private health care and we are really privileged to be able to do that. But I'm making this comparison between me living in South Africa and me living in the uk. The other factor that I wanted to cover in this section is safety and security. And of course, this is where there is a massive difference between the UK and South Africa. I wouldn't think twice about walking around with my camera or holding my phone in my hand in the uk. Maybe in London I'd be a bit more cautious, but certainly where we live by the sea in the south coast, I wouldn't even think twice about it. I have left the front door of my house open a few times by accident. Accident or the back door open, I've left the car unlocked even a few times as well. And nothing has happened. So obviously safety here is way, way, way better than it is in South Africa. I'd be crazy to do all the things I just mentioned in South Africa. And although nothing bad has ever happened to us, I totally understand that crime rates are super high. There is a lot of petty crime because people have no money, so they are trying to get money to buy food or even drugs, unfortunately as well. So you have to have your wits about you. You know, don't walk around at night on your own. I've said all this before. Don't walk around with your phone in your hand. Be really cautious about carrying valuables and cameras around your neck. Don't leave your wallet in your back pocket. Have it, have a pack on you, which you wear on the front. Don't walk around with one strap on your backpack. All of these things kind of broadcasting tourists, tourists, tourists and asking for trouble. So there is a massive difference between safety and security in the UK versus safety and security in South Africa. You really need to take the right mindset when you go there and not just be sort of thinking you're on vacation and the sun is shining and everything is wonderful. Because that isn't necessarily the case. And you could end up having an unfortunate situation happen to you like it has happened to other people. But as I've said before, in 10, 11 years of visiting South Africa, nothing bad has happened to us. Touch wood. After spending time in both places, people always ask us the same thing. Hey, Rob and James, if you had to choose just one, where would it be? And the honest answer is Cape Town. There's just something about the light and the energy of the people in South Africa and the adventures that are all on your doorstep and the lifestyle, that is just something that's really attractive to us and something that we really want to do more of when we both are retired. Now, this doesn't mean that the UK doesn't matter, because it's home. It's where our families are and it will always be home for us. But if we're talking about where we feel most alive and excited and energised, then it definitely is Cape Town. So we're designing a future lifestyle around the seasons. Two homes, two communities, two different lifestyles, two different ways of living that both complement each other. And once James is fully retired and we've got our residency, then we'll be spending our life between those two different places. Summer followed by summer. That's the ultimate goal that so many people desire and that's what we are kind of gearing up towards achieving. So what about you? If you could spend your summers anywhere, where would you choose to be? And if you, like us, don't enjoy the winter, where would you like to be living when the Northern hemisphere is in its winter? Do let us know in the comments. As ever, we love hearing from you and you'll know we reply to every single comment. But other than that, this is James and Rob and we will see you next week where we're talking about the painful process of applying for our residency. It.