We escaped "rat race" of UK to start a new life in Costa Rica - life is much simpler over here

Naomi, 31, and Johnathan Jules 30, decided they wanted to leave the UK behind them when their daughter was just two-months-old.

The pair put their three-bedroom semi-detached house in Darlington on the market, and bought one-way tickets to Guanacaste, Costa Rica. They are living in a two bedroom apartment with a swimming pool for £900 a month with bills included - saving them £330 a month compared to the UK. The family moved to live somewhere which "isn't materialistically driven" and are loving their new life packed with sun and outdoor activities.

Their daughter is due to be enrolled in a jungle school when she is old enough and they visit the beach and local market most days. Naomi, who is on a career break from being a health and safety officer, originally from Darlington, County Durham, said: "I have wanted to do this for years, but my husband wasn't always on board. "We have been raised to go to school, college, university and then onto jobs. I am a free thinking person and I haven't been happy in this system that we have been brought up in. I had a goal to get out of the UK and when I got pregnant that feeling intensified.”

She added: "Life is so simple over here which is what we wanted - it is not driven by fancy cars or money. It is not materialistically driven, which is lovely. I was living in my overdraft. We never bought anything for ourselves - I never bought new clothes. We were living to work and not getting any enjoyment from our lives.” "The cost of living out here is only a little bit less than the UK but the quality of life here makes up for that." In May 2024, Naomi and Johnathan bit the bullet and put their £215,000 home on the market. Naomi and Johnathan were on a plane from Gatwick Airport, London to Costa Rica to start their new life, earlier this month - and are now loving life.