landlord

we run a pub in cambridge and are thinking of relocating to Spain. we have 4 kids, aged 12, 8, 6 & 4. the childrens schooling and ability to settle would be our biggest concern, are international schools worth the expense or are the spanish schools welcoming to english kids. Regrets or a good move? any advice or feedback much appreciated.

lcortez

Answer to your question appears to be a bit of a mixed bag,I'm afraid.
The general consensus on here appears to be that the pub trade is not a particularly good one to get into in Spain,owing to over saturation.
Picture on the schools front seems more positive, though, Spanish schools,from what I've seen on BE,(to young for kids myself),seem to be pretty welcoming to youngsters,the standard of education seems to be good,and the children themselves seem to fit in ok and pick up Spanish pretty quickly

With regard to the pub thing,personally I would find a family friendly pub,serving pints,with good food (as in not just chips with everything)welcoming.Most of the Brit pubs around here,(La Nucia,Benidorm),seem pretty seedy and I avoid them like the plague
Not sure what other posters will think,maybe the have a lot of the sort of places outlined around their areas!

Which area were you thinking of moving to?

valenciatim

Hi and welcome to the forum!
A lot will come down to what you expect from your move, where you wish to settle and how you plan to earn a living!
With regard to the children, general thought are that the younger they are, the easier it will be on everyone. I have an 8 year old and a nearly 4 year old, both in the local state school and both doing very well after having been there for 4 years and 1 year respectively. They both do 9 - 4,30, stay for lunch and travel to and fro on the free school bus.
If they are young enough, it does not take them long to settle in at all, even though in our case, none of their teachers have spoken any English whatsoever! So it's the parents that struggle with school meeting and helping with homework!!
The hardest part about moving here, is money. The nest egg never lasts as long as you think it will, so earning a reasonable wage is should really be paramount in your minds.
If you intend to continue in a similar line of work as you do now, do a search on here for threads about running a bar! There have been countless threads about it, but generally, be prepared to work extremely long hours for very little reward.
Above all else, do as much research as you can and learn the language.
Regards
Tim

PS, Also be prepared for all the inane banter which goes on in most of the threads on here!!

rugbymatt

I thought you were in London?

GCM

I see some positives in that you already run a pub - the problem for most Brits running a bar is that they are not used to it (having never run a bar before) and can't cope with the long hours and low rewards.

Presuming you work very hard and long at the moment - then that won't change at all - in fact you will almost certainly work harder and longer - but at least you will be in Spain if that is what you prefer.

Mark

ex reg

The kids will be the least of your problems.
IMO.

Joe King

Kids shouldn't be a problem - 12 year old may struggle in state schools especially if in non-Spanish speaking region. There are some excellent international schools here, but also a few poor ones unfortunately.

Agree with ex reg, you'll find it harder because bars here are no way to make a living and the way the economy is going in Spain it isn't going to get any easier.

Lucy_

Of course that Spanish schools do welcome English kids!!! There´s no problem about that.

On the other hand if you are still thinking about that pub project feel free to PM me

Katya

We are also in the plans of relocating from Scotland to spain ( Had too much Blooming Snow ) !! LOL

Anyway with regards to the schooling - im doing lots of research also - as i have 2 boys 6 months and 6 years - my gut instinct is to go for the local school. However ive heard that the childs english can suffer - but rather than stress over that - then perhaps an English tutor once or twice a week can help.
One other comment ive had is that it is the parents that find it harder as the teachers may not speak english - so parents night could be hard !!!! Im already looking into spanish lesssons !

Kat x

Lucy_

hehe, parents should learn spanish as well

Mitzyboy

My experience is that the kids end up being the interpreters for the parents, they pick it up very quickly.

Lucy_

Smart kids!

zel

Completely agree with Mark, the vast majority of the negative threads/conversations on here about people moving to Spain to open a bar are concerning people that have never done it before and thinking "Sun, Sea, Bar.. The good life!" etc.

Seeing as you're already in the trade you've got a big head start already. There is a living to be made out of running a bar/bistro but you have to do your research, mainly location and the competition and unless you want to buy a lease on a popular expat/holiday makers location then learning Spanish is a must.

I have a friend who started out with a small bar in Ibiza, he still has that but now 3 others across Spain, a nightclub and several convenience stores. He does extremely well and when I asked how he managed it when so many people fail on that market place he basically said it was pretty simple actually as he had worked in that trade for years, knew it inside and out and only took him about a year to get used to the Spanish way of doing things.

Where as most of his competition are either expats who have absolutely no grasp on the trade or expats that just finance the venture thinking there is huge money to be made to later discover there is not and pull out.

He has a nice lifestyle, doesn't need to work proper hours anymore as everything is run smoothly by decent staff.

It just proves, if you know what you're doing and prepared to put the hard work in (including learning the language) it can pay dividends but you will need some capital behind you to live on while you build the place up, like any new business!

You also have to remember that most expats that do the move and run a bar thing have very limited capital and that's why it fails for the most part as they can't afford to weather the storm until (hopefully) things pick up, hence why Bar leases are ten a penny!

I would also take a serious look at the economy in UK and Spain as mentioned, if things get much worse either side then one of the very first things to get hit are the families holiday or the locals spending down the pub as you're obviously well aware of running a pub in the UK with our famous boom and bust scenario!

In my personal opinion the next six months will be critical if we can weather the storm then I would look into moving out before the holiday season 2009 and get it all set up for that.

madcarole

had a thought .careful...

.would it be an idea to take one of the commercial units on costa escura or one of the big expats builds...ayomonte springs to mind...


carole

Carol&John

carole, the OP might get lost with those directions! I heard a percentage of the earnings would need to go to the developer.
How about the idea of a juice bar? How popular are they in Spain? V. healthy... 5 a day...you know...