Following a recent holiday to the wonderful resort of Salou we fell in love with the place. We being myself, my partner and our two children, aged 11 and 12. Before we came home we decided that we would love to give living in Spain a go, wonderful weather, beautiful scenery, who wouldn’t be tempted! Unfortunately, when we arrived home, we realised we have absolutely no idea where to start. Our main priority would be schools for the kids, jobs and accomodation (rented, of course, just to see how things go!)
Please could anyone who has had a similar experience and perhaps made the brave move please advise. All input would be most appreciated!!
Hi, first of all, give Salou a lot of second thought! In my opinion this place has nothing to do with Spain. It’s just a collection of buildings, housing tourists for a few months. Try going there of season, I bet you have second thoughts.
Come to think of it, it would be a good idea to give a few places a good look in the of-season period. After all that is the period you will be spending most of your life in 😉
I must admit I don’t know a lot of places in Spain, but from what i hear,
- the coast would be your preference.
- Not a too idyllic little town, you would want the kids to have something to do.
- Probably would like (some) expats around, especially in the beginning to get around.
My best bets would be (around the Barcelona area),
-Sitges: nice little town, with a foreign touch to it, but not overly (like Salou) touristy.
-Costa Brava; Plenty of nice towns there, with there touch of expats.
Another benefit as these places is the aviallability of airports (BCN and Girona) close by. Call me crazy, but i’m back in holland in 2.5 hours flat!!!
I live in Castelldefels, I wouldn’t recommend it for that authentic spanish feel ( kind of landed here, and never left, you know, friends girlfriend etc etc),
but i do know there is a British School here.
As i said, have a look around, and don’t fall for the ‘‘It is summer, i feel fantastic here!!!!’’
As anywhere, all the other things count a lot more.
If you do find a place at the end, first try to find a place to rent with a short lease, they rent loads of places for half a year (of season/ furnished). That way you can always get out. Once you sign a lease here, you’re stuck for at least a year.
Thanks for replying to our recent post. We have taken aboard all you have said and are going to go out in the next month or so and take a look at some of the spanish towns and see what they have to offer our family. We have been looking into british schools in different areas and that will probably heavily influence our final decision of where we go in spain just to see if it works out for 6 months. Also, out of interest, where abouts in spain do you live and is it easy to get to from salou?
I live in Castelldefels, I wouldn?t recommend it for that authentic spanish feel ( kind of landed here, and never left, you know, friends girlfriend etc etc),
but i do know there is a British School here.
Castelldefels is about an hours drive up the coast, just south of Barcelona. If i remember right, Taragona is about 80 km. from here.
As I said, nothing special here (except for a 14 km long beach 😉 But a lot of foreigners here, prob because it’s the first town outside of Bcn that has houses on offer, and not just ‘‘pisos’’ (first spanish lesson…) See http://www.castelldefels.com for (a bit ) more info.
Hi my first time on forum so HOLA to all, i am moving to spain with my wife when house in the UK has sold. We are moving to a small town on the east coast called Empuria Brava its in the bay of rose’s, my wifes family moved there about 4 years ago. It’s a mix of spanish, brits, and french, close to girona airport and the French boarder is only 30 mins away. Also Barcelona is only about 1 hour 40m away great for you girls who love to shop, we hope to start a family when we move there. Had enough of the UK my wife wants us to see more of each other, and spend time enjoying life. Empuria would be a great place for first timer’s to start from, you have all on your doorstep.
vetlel - 23 June 2007 08:32 PM
Hi, first of all, give Salou a lot of second thought! In my opinion this place has nothing to do with Spain. It’s just a collection of buildings, housing tourists for a few months. Try going there of season, I bet you have second thoughts.
Come to think of it, it would be a good idea to give a few places a good look in the of-season period. After all that is the period you will be spending most of your life in 😉
I must admit I don’t know a lot of places in Spain, but from what i hear,
- the coast would be your preference.
- Not a too idyllic little town, you would want the kids to have something to do.
- Probably would like (some) expats around, especially in the beginning to get around.
My best bets would be (around the Barcelona area),
-Sitges: nice little town, with a foreign touch to it, but not overly (like Salou) touristy.
-Costa Brava; Plenty of nice towns there, with there touch of expats.
Another benefit as these places is the aviallability of airports (BCN and Girona) close by. Call me crazy, but i’m back in holland in 2.5 hours flat!!!
I live in Castelldefels, I wouldn’t recommend it for that authentic spanish feel ( kind of landed here, and never left, you know, friends girlfriend etc etc),
but i do know there is a British School here.
As i said, have a look around, and don’t fall for the ‘‘It is summer, i feel fantastic here!!!!’’
As anywhere, all the other things count a lot more.
If you do find a place at the end, first try to find a place to rent with a short lease, they rent loads of places for half a year (of season/ furnished). That way you can always get out. Once you sign a lease here, you’re stuck for at least a year.
Thanks for your recent reply, we are still looking into moving out to spain somewere but are finding it extremely difficult to get schools sorted for the kids its just so hard trying to sort things out from Northern Ireland. We are hopefully going to go out for another week and have a look at some more areas to live in a few weeks time. If you dont mind me asking how long did it take for you and your wife to get the big move sorted? Thanks for taking the time to reply to us i hope everything goes great for use out there.
:coolsmile: We have not moved just yet waiting for house to sell, but took a bit of time getting pension’s and removals set up. Am
going to use Britannia their quotation was spot on, am selling my bike and car as you have to pay tax on them when you move to spain
and insurance cost more to. And the wheels the wrong side anyway ha ha, took me and my wife a few weeks to get things setup. we
just want to be there now, there are some good schools for kids near Empuria and one for us to learn Spanish. I can get by but my
wife is struggling a bit, hope things go well for you.
Be careful about selling the bike too hastily, the replating for the Spanish matricular (getting Spanish numberplates) is considerably less than the money you will loose on the sale added to the fact that bikes are significantly dearer here to buy in the first place (eg a new 1200 Bandit is 4000? (yes, four thousand euros) dearer here than in the UK). The insurance for the bike and for a UK plated car is not much more than the UK, admittedly you have to go through the faff of getting them changed but IMHO the bike would be worth it. There is not so much range of big bikes here (over 600cc) either so all depending on your taste you might have a very limited choice.
We have had several bikes here since we came 5 years ago and in hindsight we should have brought the ZX900 with us, we came with a UK plated car and changed the plates, drove it here for 3 years, sold it on and it’s still going strong. If you need any more help email us .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ... I don’t want to hog the thread!
brit - 03 August 2007 10:33 AM
:coolsmile: We have not moved just yet waiting for house to sell, but took a bit of time getting pension’s and removals set up. Am
going to use Britannia their quotation was spot on, am selling my bike and car as you have to pay tax on them when you move to spain
and insurance cost more to. And the wheels the wrong side anyway ha ha, took me and my wife a few weeks to get things setup. we
just want to be there now, there are some good schools for kids near Empuria and one for us to learn Spanish. I can get by but my
wife is struggling a bit, hope things go well for you.
Hi thanks for the info on the bike and car have got a gsxr600 k5 may bring it with yet. Have had it up for sale
but not much interest yet, but am not taking the car. Would seem a bit odd having the wheel on the right and not
on the left, not good for overtaking ha ha kind regards
Thanks for your recent reply, we are still looking into moving out to spain somewere but are finding it extremely difficult to get schools sorted for the kids its just so hard trying to sort things out from Northern Ireland. We are hopefully going to go out for another week and have a look at some more areas to live in a few weeks time. If you dont mind me asking how long did it take for you and your wife to get the big move sorted? Thanks for taking the time to reply to us i hope everything goes great for use out there.
GARETH+CHRISTINE
Gareth and Christine - I would be interested to hear how you are getting on with your plans to move out to Spain. My family (husband and 2 daughters (ages 2 and 6) are looking to move out to Sitges this summer. We have had our house on the market since July 07 but not had much joy - therefore rather than sit back and wit for things to happen we are now looking at options of renting the house out in the UK. Despite attending spanish lessons - progress is slow and I am keen for us to get out there and immerse ourselves. Therefore we are currently looking at timelines to get the big move sorted, similar to you in your posting !.
Hi there, myself, husband and 3 children have recently moved over to Costa Blanca to Guardamar in September 07, we love it here, just the right mix of expats/spanish our eldest son is 8 and has settled into school beautifully even though his teachers speak no english at all apart from the english teacher obviously and there are only 2 other british children in his class, he has made alot of spanish friends and this has helped loads with his spanish I cant belive weve only been here a few months when I hear him chatting away in spanish, its lovely. The beaches are to die for and the markets are great, especially the mid week one which is full of spanish people ot so many tourists. Please PM me if you want any help, have any questions etc, im happy to help if I can as Iv been through it all myself, its not easy but well worth it Terri
Hi Tezza did you wonder if you had made the right decision? before the move, wife is now uncertain about going her mum and dad live in Spain and are upset that she may change her mind. Its taken so long for house to sell in the uk, that even i feel alittle uncertain now? any help or comments would be grateful. kind regards Mick
Hi there, yes I did wonder, it took us months to sell our house too and when it did sell and everything got going I really started to panic, right up to the day we moved, and even more so for the first few weeks over here. The only regret I have now is that I wasted years thinking about coming when I could have been here. Everyone we’ve met have been so friendly and helpful, probably because everyone is in the same boat. Dont get me wrong it isnt easy especially the first few months, it was a nightmare dragging 3 children to do NIE’s, padrons, Centro de Salud, school etc etc, but we got there and we have found the benefits are fantastic, our change of lifestyle is great even though my husband works most days he gets to start earlier and finish earlier because of the weather and we spend so much more time together as a family socialising, its great. Terri
Thanks for that Tezza will get my wife to read what you put, we are going to sit down over the weekend and sort things out. Hope the weather is good for you over there, and the sun shines on you for many months to come Kind regards Mike
