GRAPEVINE
36
JUNE 2023
GRAPEVINE
BY DAN SULLIVAN AND KATY PAINE
MENORCA BABY TRAVEL HIRE In December 2020 Daniel, Katy and their 8-month-old son moved to Menorca. They have started their own business, Menorca Baby Travel Hire, and Dan has become Captain of Menorca Cricket Club. Katy tells us their story. We had just come out of the second lockdown in the UK and things were very uncertain. With rising covid rates and restrictions we decided to take the plunge and move to Menorca. We applied for residency but aside from that we had not really planned very far in advance, it was quite a spur of the moment decision. Covid and Brexit were still having an impact in Menorca, but restrictions had eased due to lower Covid rates. Daniel and his family have had a very long relationship with the island. They had been coming here for nearly 3 decades and had always felt it was like home. I had been coming to the island with Daniel on holiday for years and, in fact, we always used to buy our copy of the Roqueta whilst here too! Moving during restrictions and away from family and friends has been tough at times but now we are fortunate to be able to travel back to the UK and have our family and loved ones visit us too. I think when you meet people on holiday here and they tell you how beautiful it is and what a wonderful time they have had, it makes you realise how lucky you are to
be living in Menorca. We had never been on holiday here out of the spring/ summer season, but we adore the winters, you really do notice the change of seasons here. We’ve even been swimming in the sea in December and January, albeit not for very long! In the UK, Daniel was operating a property maintenance company. I was an English literature graduate and having trained as an English language teacher had taught adults English in a London language school as well as working as a property manager.
STARTING OUR BUSINESS Once we were here, we decided we wanted to do something where we could work together and that would be flexible around childcare. Having travelled with our son, we knew travelling with baby equipment was not easy. The sheer number of items you need makes travelling stressful, so we talked about a baby equipment hire business for families with young children. We started researching and stocking different items from car seats, pushchairs, sterilisers, travel cots and more. Daniel then constructed a website to give the business an online presence. We decided on the name Menorca Baby Travel Hire and when we heard the traffic light system in the UK had been implemented and was green for Menorca, we were hopeful our business
D O N ’ T M I S S A N E D I T I O N , S U B S C R I B E T O D AY ! V I S I T: R O Q U E TA M A G A Z I N E . N E T
