karenkaren1

other thing I wanted to add, yes things can be more expensive and we have moved from a large detached house in England to a comparatively smaller apartment, but for us its the quality of life. Beach picnics after school are preferable to my kids coming in the dark rain and being stuck in front of a TV for hours. Each local area nearby puts on regular events for its residents (concerts, food trucks, firework displays, open air movie nights to name a few). Road trips to the Keys, Sanibel Island, cheap cruises with no flights... I could go on forever but factor this in when people talk about how u will be no better off than the UK, for me the quality of life especially for my kids is incomparable.

zzrmark

For playing in the grass, dog shit would be my biggest gripe, the fire ants and mozzies would be an issue, pygmy rattlers would possibly be the greatest concern, roaches are only a pest but they are everywhere and if you have some kind of roach intolerance then you may want to look elsewhere, I've only seen scorpions indoors in Florida.

As for the schools there must be some that are OK in the area, we are just a little further up the coast, my wife had a National Merit Scholar this last year and the county picked up three in total, not too shabby when only 1000 are awarded nationally each year.

spouse of scouse

Jeez, and people say Australia's bad for bitey things!

civilservant

Yours are MUCH bigger

Rete

Fire ants are my biggest 'hate' in Mississippi and in the south in general. We have a contract for pest control and if once in a blue moon we see a roach, it is belly up. Think I've only seen 4 in my 3 years down here. And they were all dead. Mozzies aren't a problem for me when out of doors. If I'm going on a nature hike I will use an insect repellent. Around the house, our yard and in town, I don't get bitten.

How do you feel about geckos??????

zzrmark

No gecko's here but we do get lizards.

We quite like the full eco-system we have in our yard, taking out the roaches and mozzies would probably upset the rest of it, if we wanted sterile we'd live in a fully sprayed up HOA or apartment in town (which were the only places we saw scorpions, had major issues with Ghost ants and racoons).

​​​​
Outside, in our yard, the food chain mainly consists of mozzies, roaches (which also inhabit the outbuildings), a few spiders (no Black Widows, yet, they were fun when I was doing stuff in SC!!), lizards, frogs, a Black Racer snake, a family of armadillos, the occasional possum, Cardinals, Pileated woodpeckers, big ass owls and Red shouldered hawks.
If you're into plants, the tropical stuff in the yard makes a nice change from the British classics, bananas, oranges, limes, grapefruit, avocado, various palms, all sorts of air plants, old oak trees, aloe and more.
Down the lane we have Egrets, Wood storks, Blue herons, Night herons, Ospreys, Whistling ducks, horses, goats, pitbulls, a 100lb African tortoise and very recently a Water Moccasin.

So it's not all bad, but if you do want to go all negative we also have plants that want to rip your skin to shreds ( pitcher plants and some kind of evil spiked palm trees) or nasty tropical stuff that will irritate your skin, poison oak and just two miles as the crow flies is the viral Buffalo Creek gator

In the house we have bouts of Ghost ants and, (mutter, mutter) only the once so far, a rat and a mouse. They get dealt with!!

Rete

Sis is in Ft. Myers and they have geckos and lizards. She freaks out when a gecko finds it way into her screened in patio. Here we enjoy watching them tease the cats who are behind the screen on the patio.

Here in MS we have a possum in the back of the far acre, a large tortise, cardinals, hummingbirds, finches, blue jays, a 2 woodpeckers, red squirrels, black squirrels and mutated black squirrel with a blonde tail.

Gardening is difficult as the acre is all hard packed clay soil and difficult to work with. So I use a lot of large container gardening.

zzrmark

...And as a more general post script, a better life is not attained by more money, it is what you make of it. I like mountains and proper cold weather but circumstances see me living in the US's favourite tropical swamp destination. Not my cup of tea but as a life experience it gives me something I'd never have had in my home country, you have to go a very long way to beat all that rural South Devon has to offer.
I work outside so I can't avoid the heat, the bitey's, scratcheys, irritants (including old scroats and terrible drivers), etc, etc, I'm not one for lounging on beaches but they are beautiful to walk on, the sunsets take some beating, canoeing on the rivers is out of this world - on one trip, camping beside the river, cooking on an open fire, with a gazillion pairs of red eyes highlighted in the torchlight on the opposite bank (gators) was quite possibly one of the best night's camping I've experienced, right up there with high altitude bivvying in the Alps. Yes, I hate all that Florida isn't but can love all that it is - happy in the knowledge that it will have only taken a decade of my life, if all goes to plan....

Jerseygirl

We have viewed houses in St Pete’s/Clearwater where geckos have ran in as soon as the door is opened. I’ve heard they get into cars too.

Nutmegger

To sell you insurance?

MMcD

made my coffee sputter all over the screen

NYer

As always, the usual ex-pats are here to assure you that you'll be eaten by an alligator, shot by a teenager, stung by a scorpion or killed in a car crash. <snip>. Florida is a nice state with lots of sunshine and no income tax. You'll only run into an alligator if you live near a lake or a river or some other body of water - excluding the ocean. I've been in South Alabama for a year now and I've been told I'd be eaten alive by mosquitoes, killed by giant roaches and shot due to open-carry laws.I do have to laugh at the comparison of Florida to Bournemouth, though! Just keep an open mind and remember you are in a foreign country and they do things differently there.

Nutmegger

NY, NJ, now Alabama --you certainly do get around! And I think most posters suggested that the OP could have a good life in this country, while responding to the OP's own fears..

carcajou

You forgot to mention that Trump will personally throw them into a concentration camp, and they will be ripped to shreds by a hurricane, even if living inland.

johnwoo

I'm not well informed regarding Visa requirements, but aren't L1 temporary, six years. How does one become a permanent resident?