In March 2018 I boarded a plane to Larnaca with a few suitcases, a long list of reasons and an honest question: will this actually work? Back then I wrote about why I moved to Cyprus with the enthusiasm of someone who had just landed. Six years have passed. Long enough that I am no longer a tourist, but not quite a local either. Somewhere in between, which is exactly where you see both the good things and the annoying ones most clearly.
This is not a guide or a relocation brochure. It is a personal stock-take: what I got right, what I got wrong, how Limassol has changed and what I would tell anyone thinking about making the same move.
What I got right
Almost all the reasons I came for have held up. The weather is exactly as advertised: sunshine most of the year and a winter that feels more like a long spring. The sea is a few minutes from almost anywhere in town. The air is clean. Society is open, and nobody looks at you twice because of your accent.
I also got the business side right. The state is fair and transparent with entrepreneurs: the rules are written down, they apply to everyone and they do not change overnight. Payroll taxes are more reasonable, so you can hire people who live decently on their salary without accounting acrobatics. And English is everywhere. Officially the country’s languages are Greek and Turkish, but in practice English feels like a second official language: at government offices, at the bank, at your accountant’s, in every business meeting.
What I got wrong
I underestimated the pace. I assumed a small island meant a slow life, but Limassol turned out to be busier than I expected. Calm on the surface, very active underneath.
On the other hand, I overestimated how fast paperwork gets done. Bureaucracy exists here too. It is friendlier and more predictable than the kind I grew up with in Romania, but it is not digital everywhere and it takes patience. I wrote about this in my first year, comparing doing business in Cyprus and Romania, and the conclusion still stands: paperwork takes time, but it usually ends with a clear answer.
And I thought homesickness would hit me hard. It did not, quite, but more on that below.
How Limassol has changed
The city from my first impressions of Limassol is not the same city. Over these six years more and more international companies have arrived, along with people relocating their lives and work here, and after 2022 the wave became impossible to miss. You hear more languages on the street, new schools, cafes and offices keep opening, and the entrepreneur community is much larger.
That comes with a price, literally. There has been an enormous amount of construction: new towers along the seafront, whole developments under way, cranes everywhere. Rents and prices have gone up noticeably, and rush-hour traffic sometimes reminds me of Bucharest. If you are coming now, Limassol is no longer the cheap, sleepy town described in older articles.
The upside is that the city has become far more cosmopolitan. You have access to people, ideas and opportunities that six years ago were a flight away. For an entrepreneur, that matters a lot.
Quality of life, in short
If someone asked me what changed most in my daily life, I would say: time spent outdoors. Here, the outdoors is not a weekend event. It is just normal.
- Sea and sun. A walk along the seafront or a swim after work is not a luxury, it is a habit.
- Diving. The waters around the island are clear and warm for much of the year. For me, it has been one of the best gifts of the move.
- Family. My wife, my daughter and my son have grown up here at a healthier pace, with more time outside and less time stuck in traffic or in front of screens.
- Safety. You feel safe on the street, in the evening, with your kids. It seems like a detail until you have it.
The business side, six years on
Cyprus remains a good base for anyone who works internationally. It is an EU member state, it uses the euro, and English makes almost every conversation, from contracts to banking, straightforward. As an advisor who works for equity and mentors startups in several countries, I value having a stable, predictable base that is easy to explain to foreign partners.
One detail people often forget: Cyprus is not part of the Schengen area, so you still go through passport control on flights within the EU. Not a tragedy, but worth knowing. And, ironically, since the end of March Romania has joined Schengen for air and sea travel, so now it is my adopted island that is waiting in line.
I wrote at length about the clichés in Cyprus, the business island: myths and reality. The short version is still the same: it is not a paradise where problems disappear, it is a place where the rules are clear and you can build on them.
What the brochures don’t tell you
For this to be an honest review, here is the less photogenic part:
- Summer heat. July and August are tough. You end up planning your day around air conditioning and early mornings.
- Car dependence. Public transport exists, but life without a car gets complicated. And the more the city grows, the more the traffic grows with it.
- Distance. You are on an island at the edge of Europe. Every trip means a flight, and direct flights are not always at the time or price you would like.
- Bureaucracy. More predictable, but not faster. Plan any important paperwork well in advance.
What I miss about Romania
My answer today is the same as in my first-year piece on expat life: I miss my friends. That is it. Everything else can be brought over, ordered or recreated. Friends cannot.
But I never really left. I am in Bucharest often, to see friends and for projects. Most recently, at the start of this year, I founded AI Expo Europe in Bucharest, a business event dedicated to artificial intelligence. For me, the connection with Romania is not nostalgia, it is work: concrete projects, people I build things with and an ecosystem I want to see grow.
Advice if you are thinking about moving
- Come for a few months first, not for a holiday. A week in June shows you the beach. Three months, August included, show you real life.
- Run the numbers on today’s prices. Not on what you read a few years ago. Limassol has become more expensive, and rent will probably be your biggest expense.
- Get a good accountant and a good lawyer from day one. Money spent on sound advice early on is the best money you will spend.
- Don’t move just for taxes. If tax is your only reason, you will get bored fast. Move for the life, and let the tax be a bonus.
- Keep your roots. Friendships and networks back home do not maintain themselves. Plan your visits like any other important project.
Would I do it again?
Yes, without hesitation. Cyprus is not perfect, and today’s Limassol is busier and more expensive than the one I arrived in. But it is also more open, more international and more energetic. For my family and for the way I work, it has been one of the best decisions of the past decade.
What about you? Would you move to another country for a better quality of life, even if it meant your friends were a flight away?