Expats dreaming of home beware: Everything's expensive, the trains are awful and you'll never get used to the rain - one Brit reveals why she boomeranged straight back to Oz

Endless rain, exorbitant grocery prices and unbearable commutes to the office... we're all too familiar with how life in the UK can feel like hard work sometimes.

However, for British expats returning home to see family and friends, being back on UK soil can often feel soaked with nostalgia, serving up a comforting twang of familiarity - you can't get a better pint, or portion of fish and chips anywhere else in the world, after all. 

Beware those rose-tinted glasses, though, warns one Briton who quit her expat lifestyle in Australia to return home - only to last just six months before the sheen wore off.

Annie Symonds, 43, originally from Herefordshire, moved to Sydney in 2011 with her husband Stephen Moylan, 47, an Australian whom she met while on a meditation retreat in India.

Fast-forward to 2018, and the couple decided to swap their sunshine-filled lifestyle for Brighton in the UK, after feeling like they hadn't settled in quite the way they'd hoped.

Explains Annie: 'It was great for the first month or two, because we came back in the summer, and there was a heatwave at the time. 

'But I remember saying to my husband, this is the happiest you're going to see British people now, until next summer. Which was a bit of a shock for him.'

The pair stayed for just six months, before moving back Down Under, this time to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where they have been ever since. 

Annie Symonds, 43, originally from Herefordshire, left Australia to try to make a life in the UK

But just six months after being in the UK with her husband, Stephen Moylan, 47, the pair decided to end their time in Britain

Annie, co-founder of Londoner In Sydney, a travel guide and expat tip website, says the biggest issue she faced when returning to working life in the UK? The commuting - and an unpleasant atmosphere at work.  

'I had a job where I was commuting from Brighton to London, working in radio,' Annie, who also shares her adventures through her Instagram account @itsannieandsteve, tells the Daily Mail. 

'The job was super toxic, and it just wore me out. The commute from Brighton to London was horrendous. I would salute anybody who does that commute, because it was the worst thing I've ever done.'

She adds: 'It was just so draining, the trains were never on time, and they always took way longer than they should have done. It would always take about three hours each day just to get to and from work.'

The general attitude of Britons is also something to be wary of, Annie warns. 'I found that doing that commute, there was a lot of like passive aggression from people. It made me start to miss things about Australia that I never thought I would.

So what made her turn her back on life Down Under in the first place?

'Not only the homesickness, but also the culture shock, because I think a lot of people assume that England and Australia are really similar, but they're actually not at all. Australians are very, very different to the British as a whole. The banter is very different.' 

She says expats can 'really struggle' to make friends and that almost everyone feels some sort of 'pull' back to the UK. 

Annie and her partner missed the lifestyle in Australia - and good weather in the UK never lasts very long

'You start to miss all these little things that I took completely for granted. 

'When I lived in Australia the first time, there was a big part of me that felt like the beach and the weather was just not enough to keep me here. And I really missed the buzz of London, and I missed everything about the UK.'

However, once she moved, she quickly realised that being home wasn't all it was cracked up to be. 

Annie says: 'The life that I had in Australia, I tried to replicate in England, and it just didn't work, because getting up at 5am or 6am to go for a run in the pitch black around Brighton in the freezing cold, when you've still got people walking around from the night before, was not quite the same experience as what I'd get in Australia.'

It has been eight years since they moved to Australia, and they've never looked back

'I really found it difficult to keep up the healthy lifestyle in the UK, as I had in Australia. I just found a lot of people were very miserable and it was really hard to try and keep up a positive attitude.'

It's not just the lifestyle, but the financial situation too, that have negatively affected her. Brits returning should be prepared for a shock.

Annie says: 'There were a lot of things that were way more expensive than I had remembered, and that was just back in 2018. I remember us going out for Thai food in England, and it cost us double what we'd pay in Australia at the time.'

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The same happened when she returned in Christmas 2024 and went for a pub dinner with friends – mains cost £30, twice what she'd expect to pay in Queensland.

Plus, she adds, the perk of having Europe on her doorstep, which she often considered a reason to return, was largely meaningless. She was so drained from commuting that 'on the weekends, the last thing I wanted to do is get back on a train'.

Similarly, she adds, traffic in the UK is so much worse. 'It always makes me laugh when people think traffic in Australia is bad. I think, you haven't seen anything. Not only that, but then also the price of train travel in the UK is ridiculous.'

Among other perks are the weather and optimism of Australia, the expat says

'I ask my friends, "how can anybody afford to live here?" and they say, "Oh, it's all on credit cards, that's how everyone's doing it".

'Because the cost of living versus how much you're getting paid in the UK is not matching up.'

Weather and daylight hours also affected Annie negatively here. She says: 'I didn't realise how much I take that for granted in Australia. When I went back at Christmas, it took me time to get my head around the fact that at 7am, it's still dark, whereas I come from somewhere in Australia where it's light from 4am or 5am.'

What warning would Annie give to British expats abroad who are thinking about moving back to the UK?

'Really think about why you want to move back. A lot of people think that they miss their friends and family, and they're influenced by their friends and family as well.

Annie says the quality of life is great and people use their time outside work well

The Londoner In Sydney editor warns all expats considering a return to Britain to think twice about their decision

'But what people misunderstand is going back for a holiday versus living there are two very different things.

'When you go back for a three-week holiday, people make the effort to see you, but when you move back there, it might not be the same.

'I also say to people as well, if you do want to move back, think about what an average Tuesday looks like for you in Australia, and what it looks like for you in the UK, because while your main part of the day is probably going to be quite similar in terms of doing a 9-to-5 job, there's a huge culture over here in terms of people really utilising their time before work.'

Life, then, Down Under, is pretty sweet, and Annie says she feels properly settled for the first time ever. It's all far superior to the UK.