The honest guide to moving to Guernsey

Almost every other guide to moving to Guernsey is selling something: a house, a legal service, a jurisdiction, an idea of island life with the weather edited out. This one is not. I live here, I like it here, and I will still tell you what is difficult about it.

Two rules for everything published in this guide. Every factual claim is sourced from gov.gg or another primary source and linked, so you can check it yourself. And every page names at least one genuine downside, because you cannot make a good decision about a place from a brochure.

The guide is reviewed and updated quarterly, so each page carries the date it was last checked.

The guide

  • What Guernsey is actually like to live in

    Most of this guide is about the difficult parts. This page is the other half of the argument, and the reason people stay.

  • Healthcare in Guernsey

    Guernsey is not part of the NHS. What you pay to see a GP, what the specialist scheme covers, and what to sort out in your first fortnight.

  • Work permits and the Population Management Law

    Employment Permits, Resident Permits and Certificates in plain English, including the restrictions that stop families travelling together.

  • Local Market and Open Market explained

    The two housing markets, who can live in which, and what that means for your family and anyone who joins you later.

  • Cost of living, honestly

    Housing, groceries, fuel, freight, flights home. Where the island is cheaper than the mainland and where it very much is not.

  • Schools and education

    States schools, the colleges, and the practical question of when to apply and what places are realistically available.

  • Will my partner find work

    The question that decides whether a relocated family is still here in three years, and what to do about it before you move.

  • Guernsey or Jersey

    Size, tax, GST and character compared, including the tax change that could reshape the difference by 2028.

  • Getting around

    Driving, buses, flights and ferries, and the adjustment nobody warns you about when travel stops being merely inconvenient.

  • What winter is actually like

    The season nobody shows you on the relocation brochures, and why the second one decides whether families stay.

  • Making friends as an adult on a small island

    Why arriving somewhere small is harder than it looks, what actually works, and the honest timeline.

  • The unwritten rules

    The rules everyone here learned by osmosis, and the ones newcomers break without knowing they have broken anything.

  • Your first 90 days

    A practical sequence for arriving well, from permits and doctors to the things most people leave far too late.

If you are moving here and would rather ask a person than read eleven pages, that is what I do for a living.

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