My experience of country hopping is that it's just as hard to go home as swap to somewhere different once you're legally resident somewhere.

If you want to do more time here but temporarily - come for , say, 5 months - go home for a good month and then come back another 5.

Simply it's a complication that can cause issues. I know it's no longer the case - but when I left the UK the dreaded POLL TAX was around. East Dorset tried to get cash from me though I was not resident in the UK any more. Why ruin your GAP year having to deal with red tape later.

You can live here as long as you want UNLESS (I dont know) there's a limit to the E111 (or whatever its now called), which covers health - but to work or buy/run a car you'll need an NIE - to get this you'll need stable address. The NIE gets you a NIF too (a fiscal number - tax in other words). And a year without my own transport would do me in.