Visiting your home country

[PaulB]

Hi Everyone

 

I am just looking to gain some insight into how you guys manage to divide your time and planning visiting your home countries whilst living in the Philippines.

I have 4 children in the UK aged between 23 and 30 and also 5 wonderful Grandchildren. This will of course mean visiting the UK from time to time.

I do have a plan as have purchased a static caravan near to where my children live and when I retire full time in 3 years we will use this as our accommodation and base when we visit. This will mean we can stay for a month or so and ensure we see everyone we need to. I might even get a part time job to keep the finances ticking over and covering the trip costs. the rest of the year the caravan gets rented out which covers its costs. I do still need to hire a car when there but that can be cheap.

I am just wondering if anyone else has plans similar to these or others? I feel it is important to see my children and grandchildren and to get them all to the Philippines at the same time would be difficult.

 

Like to hear any experiences.

 

Kind regards.

 

Paul

[Dave Hounddriver]

29 minutes ago, PaulB said:

I am just wondering if anyone else has plans similar to these or others?

Seems like your plan will work.  I know some guys who go back to visit their relatives every year but, me, I only go back every 3 to 5 years.  They seem to get on fine without me.  Some guys I know never go back, others go back and stay.  Seems like everyone is different but there is nothing wrong with your plan.  Enjoy yourself, its why we retire here.

[stevewool]

We are hoping to come back here to England once we leave that is, but with the internet and cheap calls too, who knows when it will happen,

My biggest worry is trying to get if someone falls ill,

[Dave Hounddriver]

24 minutes ago, stevewool said:

My biggest worry is trying to get if someone falls ill,

Good topic!  When do we decide someone is sick enough to fly half way around the world to go see them.  The expense is huge if it turns out to be just a cold but . . . . I watched my mother go through that when her Mum, then her Dad, then her two sisters eventually got sick and passed on.  I can't count the times she flew from Canada back to England to see them.  Its a serious problem for those of us on a tight budget when our close relatives get older.

[expatuk2014]

I find for us its cheaper to fly my son,daughter and grandson here to to the Philippines !

As the UK is a very expensive place compared to here ! we have seen most of the UK when we lived there

but our family have only seen a few places here !

most likely we will fly them here in march next year when my annual pension is paid out

[scott h]

We flew back to the States in Sept 2013 and are planning to go again this Sept, so about every 3 years. We have flown to Guam each year in between (3 hour flight) to do our shopping for "Land of the PX stuff".

For us it is not so much about the cost of the flights, its the HASSLE and length of the flight. We can get 99.9% of what we need here in the PI, its just not worth it to put up with the pain involved of going "home".

[mogo51]

I have been going twice a year, but cutting back to once a year now. Too expensive.

[frosty (chris)]

My Father passed last October and I had to go back to sort his papers out. Funny all the family were squabbling about who gets what and where but when it came to organising all that needed to be done no-one wanted to know. I am lucky in that my daughters mother always puts me up and even lends me her car if need be. I only go back if I have to, both my daughters have visited here and they would like to come back again, makes it so much easier.

[sonjack2847]

On 7/10/2016 at 4:35 AM, scott h said:

We flew back to the States in Sept 2013 and are planning to go again this Sept, so about every 3 years. We have flown to Guam each year in between (3 hour flight) to do our shopping for "Land of the PX stuff".

For us it is not so much about the cost of the flights, its the HASSLE and length of the flight. We can get 99.9% of what we need here in the PI, its just not worth it to put up with the pain involved of going "home".

Yes those flights can be a bind and they can spoil a visit if anything goes wrong with them. I personally will not go back unless it is something very serious.It`s just too much hassle at the airports,getting the exit clearance to make it worthwhile for me.I do go to Thailand about  every 2 years to see some friends and only one of them has come here.

[skyskyper]

On 7/9/2016 at 6:37 PM, expatuk2014 said:

most likely we will fly them here in march next year when my annual pension is paid out

March is sooooo hot there.