Good places to live in Spain?
 

I want to live in Spain for the European winter season...

What are good cities to look at? I need to fly out there so don't want to waste time.

Thanks

Any city with a good football team. Providing that you are a football fan of course ;)

Barcelona is cool place.

11 sweaty men chasing a ball? not so much lol

Ive seen both Barcelona and Madrid very nice cities but if i had to make the move it would be to Ibiza

lots of people like the canarian islands - like Teneriffe or Gran Canaria. perfect weather in winter (mostly sunny and about 25°C).

That would be great but I'm concerned about internet connections, thinking it's better to aim for a big city...

a couple of german webmasters went there, Internet is not the problem. the only issue i see is that you are kind of limited where to drive since it's islands.

If you want good weather then the South, Valencia is a nice city, cheapish and there's an airport close by. Alicante's a shit hole I live here so I should know, hehe.

Murcia city isn't bad and again it's near an airport.

Not sure about the Adalucian cities, as there's not many airports down there.
Seville is lovely, so's Granada, you can ski there awell. Malaga's horrible, marbella's alright if you don't mind 100's of Russians.


Only if you speak Catalan, you can't get any info from banks, council or health centres in Spanish. The catalans are fucking idiots when it comes to their stupid pissy dialect.

Well I live most of the year in Gandia (when I'm not shooting...my studio is in Budapest). It's a little place just south of Valencia. Has it's own micro-climate, 15Km of sandy beach and I have a 20mbt connection. Barcelona is cool, (I lived there for over 7 years)...but too many distractions!

Been pretty much all over Spain. However I went to Barcelona last month and I have to say its one of the best cities I've ever visited. I went for a weekend with 3 friends and my girlfriend and loved it. I will say tho its very expensive. I went Saturday till Tuesday morning and I spent close to $2000 with all things taken into account. Its just one of those places money goes away fast.

ATM we still live in Azalea beach, its a little urbanisation close to puerto banus, climate is warmish. Internet over here is sometimes a problem, same goes for electricity...

Puerto Banus is a great place, lotso f tourists come there and theres a great load of the rich and famous hanging round.

Alltho it all sounds cool, we decided to move back to the good ol netherlands, we kinda miss the socialising and our own language.

Altea is very nice..

"All the usual ones"...

Is Catalan an officially spoken language in Barcelona? Wiki didn't mention it...

Sounds very interesting, will be looking in to this, thanks!

you'll be fine, pretty much only the older folks seem to speak catalan.

I just moved here and pretty much everything I came across is in Spanish.

Barcelona if you like to live in big cities.

If you're looking for a big city, Barcelona is probably the best place to live in Spain. It's one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe. Catalan is not a problem. Locals speak both languages. I've been living for 2 years in Barcelona, I still don't speak catalan and I don't care about it. Let me know if you move here !

Much luck dealing with Telefonica...

Thanks man, I'll be looking in to it. Any idea what the prices are like there? I'm looking for 3-4 bedrooms. Been checking some "inmobiliarias" but I don't think the online prices reflects the local market...

Do they have monopoly or something?

Barcelona is really a cool city!

Any specific districts of Barcelona that would be worth looking at? It's quite big :)

They used to have. But it´s a pain in the ass to get a DSL line working. Once it works, never let a technician from Telefonica touch it again. The results will be worse.

Other than that, Spain is fine usually. Regarding Catalan, don´t worry. Even in restaurants you are asked if you want the menu card in Catalan or Castellano. Speaking Catalan was forbidden during the dictator Franco reign. So Catalan is some kind of sainthood there, especially for older people.

I´ve got friends living in Ruby, which is a kind of suburb of Barcelona. Barcelona is a great place to spend some time of your life.

He is looking for a warm place.

I have to have a beach, so Barcelona area.

Madrid has nice hookers.

I used to live in l'Esquerra de l'Eixample 'Entenca metro stop' it's a pretty good area. Not right in the centre but walking distance, or 3 metro stops.


I've lived in the Basque country aswell, and they never make you try to speak basque.:)

Just Spain, anywhere really lol

for the winter definitely the south or better yet, the Canary Islands. It's much warmer there and you should have a good time. You won't find many tourists at that time of the year, but if you want good weather, I think it's the place to go.
If you're thinking about mainland Spain by the sea, then try Malaga, Marbella.

Heard people in Malaga is a bit stuck up in comparison to other places in Spain?

I'm really looking for something laid back, Gandia is looking interesting so far.

Marbeilla, if you got the money.

Europeans Billing Europe!
 

I really enjoyed Marbella too :thumbsup
That looks like three votes for Marbella :1orglaugh

Actually Marbella seem to be more bang for your buck then anything else I've been looking at.

What's so expensive, night life?

A bit more detail....Gandia is a truly Spanish working town. And that's why I moved here. No tourist in the town (the beach is 3 km away). With regard to rent, well it's falling all over Spain, with the biggest drops in the larger cities (where rents were outrageously overpriced over the last few years). Lots of building, now no-ones buying, so peeps have to try and rent, hence the falling prices. Where-ever you lay your hat, you'll need to pony up around 3,000 - 6,000 Euro deposit (don't worry, it sits in your bank getting interest but you can't touch it). I have a 3 bedroom 166m2/1710sq ft flat and pay 550 Euro per month including 2 parking spaces under the building. Make sure the flat/house you're looking at has a working phone already installed (actually pick it up and listen for a tone). If not, walk away. If you need a fast internet connection, then you'll need to get hooked up yourself. To do anything official in Spain, including getting your internet, you'll first need to cue up at the police station and get you official NIE number. This is nothing to do with tax, it's just an official ID number. I don't know if you speak Spanish. If so, then like me, you can pop into any bar and within 5 minutes you'll be chatting with all and sundry (the Spanish like to chat!). If not, then Gandia might be a bit too quiet for you. I have my little boy at school here, and so a lot of our socializing revolves around other parents. On the plus side, even though he's at one of the most exclusive schools in the Valencian region, I still manage to score chocolate off one of the parents (private banker's wife!). So it's not all bad.

Thanks a lot for the info, I do speak Spanish so that won't be an issue.

Quick Q, did you move there from outside of EU? Just thinking about the money deposit, never heard of something like that before. Maybe it's a Spanish thing or I'm thinking they do it for foreigners?

I were to live in Spain -- I think I would choose Majorca FTW!!!

It's a spanish thing, they do it with everybody.

Spain is a lovely place. But i love kicking it at the French Riviera! But they are both stunning places to live and party.

ugh there goes my beer money.


thanks everyone, I have a few leads now :)