Hi everyone!

My name is Tracey. I’m 22, and me and my husband are currently saving ready for the big move to Spain in March 2011!

I’ve come here looking for a bit of advice and wisdom from people currently living in spain really, just to top up the research we have already done.

Our plan so far:

Save approx ?6000
Pay 3 months rent for an apartment upfront, so we don’t need to work right away, so we can get used to our new life. We are looking at apartments/houses that have bills included in the price.
Drive from Bristol UK, to our final destination in spain (this is because we have a dog, and don’t want him to fly)

Once we settle:

Look for jobs with English companies to start - for example tour reps for thomas cook etc

How does this sound to everyone so far? We already know about the finer details of pet passports and getting our NIE numbers for when we do decide to start work. I just want other people’s ideas on our budget, things we maybe havent accounted for etc

We want to live in Southern Spain, but not too close to resorts, because we want to enjoy our new life, not live in a busy resort.

If anybody could give us any pointers/tips/advice/widom to help tiongs go a bit smoother it would be great.

Thanks

Tracey

traceypritchard2k1 [at] hotmail.com

Greetings Tracey. Sounds like a good plan to me - that is one hell of a drive, though! :D M?laga is a nice, medium sized capital city, big enough to have a diverse population, close to many expat enclaves and very well connected (the AVE high speed train is available here). Fuengirola is smaller and much more of an expat enclave, but is also a lot of fun. M?laga is a lot more ‘serious’. The Costa del Sol is a very well-heeled part of Andalusia so there are more jobs here, but, alas, the cost of living is also somewhat higher - still not even close to Madrid or Barcelona high, though. 😉 I’ve never seen any apartments for rent with utility bills included - rooms in shared flats, sure, but not whole apartments. When I shared flats I’d look for bills to be included so as not to subject the apartment owner to my terrible math skills when it came time to leave and fraction remaining bill payments to determine my share, but living on my own this is fortunately not a problem. xD

Hopefully by the time you two come over in 2011 the world famous Crisis will be on its last leg and there’ll be more jobs to go around! Good luck to you both!

Thank you for your reply! 😊

We are very excited about moving, and the sunnier it gets here in England (yes, it does get sunny, sometimes! haha) the more we want to be in Spain!

We’ve been looking at findaproperty.com, in their overseas section, and some rentals say that they include bills, but we are a little wary incase the finer details have been lost in translation!

The drive from Bristol, UK, to wherever we decide in Spain is what excites us the most at the moment - we can’t wait to get stuck into this! We are still looking at possible routes and campsites so that we can get enough sleep for the drive.

We are really stuck on locations to live though - we quite like being isolated, but not so isolated that we are cut off from everything!

I’m glad I’ve joined this site now, it’s getting me very excited about the move!

Hi Tracey

Regarding the location would you prefer to live in the moutains, potentially staying in a place with some land around, or would you prefer to live on the coast, where this is more life, you’ll be close to a beach and it’s more likely that you’ll be staying in apartment?

There are so many potential places to live here that it makes it hard advising.

If you stay in Estepona area on the costa del sol you’ll be close enough to gibraltar which is another option to find a job.

I live in the Axarquia region, which is 30 minutes east of Malaga airport. There are some lovely places around Granada too. But considering you need jobs, the costa del sol is probably a better bet.

Good luck with the move!

Keidi x