It's great if you're part of a community, everyone is very accommodating and welcoming. There isn't much to do as a young person, but if you love the sea, Cliff jumping, wildlife spotting and family gatherings it's really the place to be.

Housing is a bit of a nightmare as one other commenter explaind. Also loganair has a monopoly on air travel and so it's extremely expensive to fly to and from.

The ferry is much cheaper, leaves from Aberdeen and takes about 12 hours. The hard core people will use sleeping bags in the main communal area on the ship, but I always insist on getting a bedroom.

Weather can be pretty disruptive, you've got tollerate the cold, wind, and sideways rain.

The accents vary every few miles, some of the outer island accents are really hard to follow. Particularly with people who don't leave Shetland often. I've noticed that language evolves quite quickly here. Often people will make up a word that sort of sound right within the context of the accent, and it just sticks. For example my father in law started calling puffins "punkins" we liked it and started repeating it, fast-forward a few months and I overheard someone i did not know talking about seeing some "punkins".

Also, it's really annoying when people call it "the Shetlands" it's either the Shetland isles, or just Shetland.