I have always been fascinated by islands-but I have lived on one (except briefly). I have a few questions for those of you who do:
-is live somewhat confining on an island? Do you get “cabin fever”?
-how much more expensive is it?
-if the island you inhabit has no doctor or dentist, how hard is it to get to the mainland?
-do your children plan to live there? Or do they want to leave?
I was reading about some of the islands in the Gulf of Maine-many are facing population declines…many young people don’t want to be so isolated.
Finally-what is most unique about living on your island?
ralph, you posted a similar thread a while ago… Some of your questions are similar, which is why I reposted the link.
Maybe we ought to ask him to draw a clock showing 3:00 and post it. 
I always wondered about how people live on islands around here, but they are small islands as in 7 acres, 10 acres.
I found out they have a small piece of land on the mainland with a dock which is where they park their cars and the mailman delivers their mail.
So they have to take a small boat back and forth to do their shopping and all.
Sounds like a big pain in the ass to me.
The one case I’m trying to figure out though is how some man around here managed to build a 5000 square foot house on a small island with no building permits and it took the state years to notice his house was there.
You’d have thought somebody would have seen all the building materials being carted over. Islands don’t come with brick, and sheet rock and plumbing supplies.
Thanks for that - I was having some serious deja vu there.
I live on a 76 sq mile island in the Western Caribbean. Our country has two other islands, each about 12 sq miles in size, that are about 90 miles northeast of my island. Those other islands are tiny and have little commercial development.
**
-is live somewhat confining on an island? Do you get “cabin fever”?**
At least on my island there are shopping centres, reasonable medical care, and rarely do I feel I am missing out on anything. But those few times I find something lacking is when I get a touch of “rock fever”. All of the expats living here learn to build up an overseas shopping list for trips to Miami. And a fast-food cravings list. (Taco Bell, Krispy Kreme, and Cinnabon are on my list for every off island trip.)
I live on one end of the island but work on the other end. Part of that is through relatively undeveloped parts of the island where speed limits rise to 50mph. I have many friends who live in town who never drive over 30mph. Never. They consider my commute to be way too long and don’t understand why I choose to live so far away.
At my first apartment I rented from a lady who had not been to the neighboring district in 11 years! And, other than for medical appointments, had not been to town for 4 years. People like this who live almost their entire lives within a short walk of their home do exist, though they are rare.
how much more expensive is it?
The highest standard of living brings the highest costs. Anything perishable (milk, produce, ice cream) costs double. Rents can be quite high, comparable to urban centers in the US, but at least we have beaches with warm water. 
**
-if the island you inhabit has no doctor or dentist, how hard is it to get to the mainland?**
We do have doctors and dentists. And a decent small hospital. Still more complex medical care or trauma care may require travel off island to Cuba, Miami, or Jamaica. An Indian surgeon is actually in the process of building a tertiary care cardiac hospital here so that should eliminate a lot of medical travel.
Still, one of the two other islands in our country only has about 200 full time residents. There is a nurse but no doctor. Travel to the neighboring island (5 miles by boat) is not difficult or to our island (40 minutes by plane) with several flights daily. Up until a few years ago flights were only available during the day due to a lack of runway lights. There is a story of the islanders lining the runway with cars with their headlights on in order to allow a plane to land at night for an emergency medical evacuation. (That runway was a grass field and it was customary for any resident to leave the keys in their car if they were flying off island so the car could be moved to mow the grass that made up the parking area.)
-do your children plan to live there? Or do they want to leave?
We are looking to move off island, but not because it is an island environment. Little Iggy is my step-kid. She and Mrs Iggy do not speak English. Our country has an English requirement to get a work visa - something that is not inherently related to being an island. We are looking to move so we can all be together and so Mrs Iggy can work.
**Finally-what is most unique about living on your island? **
There are many popular misconceptions about our island that form a meme that is repeated seemingly every time we are mentioned in the news. We are not a haven for narco traffickers to hide their money. We are not shuttling an endless stream of businessmen from the airport to the banks with suitcases filled with cash. We are not stone faced bankers who will launder your money.
We are a popular, and quite safe, tourism destination. We are a popular choice for celebrities and wealthy individuals to buy vacation homes - hang around long enough and you might meet a few of these neighbors.
I currently live on an island - Java - but it’s so large that for all intents and purposes it might as well be a continent. From 1986 to 1989 I lived on Pohnpei in the Western Pacific, which is very tiny (maybe 20km across) and remote (about half way between Hawaii and the Philippines), so I’ll answer based on that.
Some people do, but we didn’t, in part because we were outside so much, and went out on our motorboat almost every weekend. Plus we had a graceful view of the interior mountains from our front porch - I used to sit outside and watch the sunset almost every day. So the spaces felt very large, not small.
Well, Pohnpei wasn’t all that expensive for day to day living, but that was in large part because:
-
we had no heating bills (Pohnpei is practically right on the equator);
-
we had very few clothing expenses (everyone wore t-shirts and flip-flops all the time and there was no need to dress up, ever);
-
we had very few gas expenses (you could walk a lot of places and everything was close by; no one ever had to drive more than a mile or two at a time);
-
there were very few luxuries available (no worries about splurging on an expensive night on the town; there was no trendy restaurant or theatre show to spend money on).
Goods we would consider ordinary in the US were often hugely expensive; if you wanted Doritos you had to pay (in 1986) $5/bag. Not sure what that would be now, but probably around $15 or $20/bag. So we didn’t buy that stuff; as a result our expenses weren’t too high.
What costs a lot is if you have to travel. The nearest “real” destinations are Guam and Hawaii, both of which it would be expensive to travel to because of airfare, accommodations, and car rental.
We had basic medical and dental care available on island. More complex stuff had to be dealt with by flying to Guam (about 2 hours away by air) or Hawaii (about 8 hours away by air). We had cats, and there was no vet; we did a couple of “long distance” veterinary visits whereby we talked to a vet on Guam and described our cat’s symptoms, and got medication to take back with us.
We were childless, though many of our friends had small kids. Any local person (as opposed to us foreigners) hoped that their child would leave at least for a while - to go to college, at a minimum. My sense was that most people were comfortable with whatever later decisions fit with their child’s aspirations: return home and apply their skills to furthering their nation; living abroad for the greater opportunities, or whatever.
Well, not much was totally unique, except for Sokehs Rock and sakau, a local beverage based on kava but with a stronger sedative effect. But coming from New England in the United States, it was refreshingly unlike anything we were accustomed to. The local culture was very relaxed, we could go snorkeling any time (and diving, though I personally don’t dive), the trees and flowers were luxuriant and beautiful … all in all, it was magical.
