A family who moved to the UK from Canada say they love M&S and darts - but are baffled that people wear shoes in the house.

Jaclyn Walton, 33 has swapped Ontario for Hampshire and described her 'cultural shocks' - including some phrases and accents.

The family enjoy taking their children to the pub to play darts, visiting the Cotswolds and the Devon coast.

They say phone bills and insurance is cheaper here - but groceries, petrol and heating are more expensive.

She is also shocked by the size of the roundabouts on the road and the narrow streets.

Other differences are the fact that British people don't take their shoes off in the house, she said.

Her two boys Ryker, 7, and Kal-El, 9 love the football here and are even part of a local club and joined the Junior Premier League (JPL).

She says that despite the language being the same, there are many expressions and accents that she struggles to understand.

Since moving to England two years ago the mum-of-three has turned to Instagram to document their experiences, with her page @jaclynabroad attracting nearly 16k followers.

She said: "I do get all the time people asking 'why would you move from Canada'.

"I wasn’t thrilled at first, I wanted sunshine and low taxes and all you hear about England is the rain but I got so excited with it.

"We have moved here and have never looked back."

She added: "There's so many opportunities that England provides.

"It has great weather compared to Canada and we can still go out in the winter for beautiful walks.

"My kids are playing football and they love it.

"The picturesque little streets, the quiet country side, the castles -there's never ending lists for things to do in England."

Jaclyn wanted to leave Ontario, Canada behind due to the cold weather and "seasonal depression".

When her husband Kevin Walton, 35, suggested they should move to England, Jaclyn was not convinced as she wanted "sunshine and low taxes".

But after some research, Jaclyn fell in love with the idea to immigrate to England.

In July 2024 Jaclyn and Kevin alongside their two boys Ryker, 7, and Kal-El, 9 and daughter Ariella, 6 packed up and moved to England.

Jaclyn said the biggest shock was the "driving culture".

"It's not just the other size of the road, is the street sizes, the huge roundabouts and the small streets," she said.

"It took me a year to feel comfortable driving.

"You just have to be more alert whereas I feel like in Canada there’s more stop signs and in England you have to be more on it."

She added: "In Canada we take our shoes off in the house and I feel like people here don't.

"We have a lot of different words that I’m learning - even though it’s the same language.

"It feels like sometimes we are speaking different things.

"And then there's the different accents and sometimes there's words that I'm not understanding."

Jaclyn added that the phone bills and car insurance is less expensive in the UK but that groceries, petrol and heating cost more.

She added: "In Canada we think we spent approximately $250 a week in groceries, where here we spend £150.

"Things are a bit more expensive now everywhere.

"Asda is quite similar to Walmart and we shop mostly at Sainsbury's which I compare to a Target.

"We do enjoy going to M&S - higher end here but cheaper than Canada higher end grocery shops.

"A phone bill I think in Canada might have one of the most expensive in the world, here you can pay £10 and there you’re paying $60."

Jaclyn used to home teach her children back in Canada but when moving to England she decided to enrol them in a state school.

She said: "There's loads of children activities in school which we never had in Canada

"They are memorable.

"We think there’s a stronger emphasis on education here and we think it’s a better quality.

"I home educated in Canada and we were willing to put them in the education system.

"All and all we feel like moving here and the life style and providing for our children is better than what we had in Canada."

Another motive for their move to England was her boys ambitions to play football.

They are now part of a football club and a JPL league.

She said: "They both have high ambitions for football when we were looking for areas to move we factored those dreams and ambitions.

"I have had to dive in to the football here. My husband was already a fan.

"They’ve gone full force and absolutely love it.

"In Canada our experience of football was a summer sport - where here football is basically all year.

"Hockey is the life style in Canada."

Another difference in the UK is the pub culture, to which Jaclyn said she was surprised you could bring your kids to.

She continued: "You just bring the kids to a lot of the pubs and we bring them to play darts - but I feel like we’ve never experience it fully.

"We feel like everyone is very welcoming rather than it being a negative drinking culture."

She added: "There's so many place where you can just seat down in a picnic chair with a kids play - Canada needs a more of that."

Her husband works in cybersecurity and she works for a start-up company in their marketing and editing department.

She said: "The big reason we wanted to live Canada was the weather - I don't like the cold.

"I wanted to live somewhere I could just live.

"I feel like our lives where getting squished into those three or four summer months and the rest of the winter we were just having seasonal depression."

Jaclyn added: "Now we are really close to the tourist destinations.

"Just being in the south getting that bit of sun and there's Oxford, the Cotswolds and Bath.

"I wanted to move out for so long it wasn’t hard when it finally happen.

"It was a breath of fresh air, we felt stuck for so long.

"We miss the people - family, friends, events, when hardships are going on but we can’t be there to help.

"But missing the country is not happening, but we will always miss friends and family."

Currently they are loving their life in Hampshire but Jaclyn revealed that her nine-year-old would love to move to Manchester to get close to his favourite football club Manchester City.

She said: "It's been an adventure for our family - it's created so many opportunities.

"It is worth it taking that leap of faith and taking that risk.

"It's so easy to catch on to negatives about countries.

"Obviously if you are comparing to other European countries it doesn't have the best weather but here we can live the best lives."

To follow the Waltons’ lives in the UK, check out their account on Instagram at jaclynabroad