Essentials to live in the Cayman Islands

Hi,

As an expat living in the Cayman Islands, what would you advise the ones about to pack to bring along?

What are the items you can easily find in the Cayman Islands? On the other hand, what is less common or quite expensive?

Share with us what you would recommend to bring in one's suitcase or container when moving to the Cayman Islands.

Thank you in advance,

Christine

Cayman has a First World standard of living for all but the poorest migrants. The latter are imported as indentured servants with few civil rights, mostly from Jamaica, Central America, India and Philippines. Migrant workers from Europe and North America will find pretty much everything here that they find at home. I'm probably not allowed to reference anything I've posted on other web-forums, but anybody looking to work here can get the feel of the place by checking out my personal blog/journal, especially the earlier posts.
barlowscayman.blogspot.com

Basic clothing is hard to find- as in "oh I want to buy a black polo shirt in size medium." You can find purple shirts or black in small sizes. But almost never exactly what you are looking for. I remember one trip back to the US and I had a shopping list for friends, for maternity tops and girls shorts and everything in between. I would always bring an extra suitcase and when I returned it was full of generic cold meds and basic tshirts and bedding. The selection on island is incredibly limited and very expensive.

Yes, it's not great for clothes, even for our small population of 50,000 - although (to be fair) everybody I know chooses to shop in Florida for clothes.