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Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Old Oct 25th 2016, 10:22 am
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Default Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Hi All,
I am new to the forum so please bare with me.

We are relocating to the Costa del sol in the new year around spring time. We are not cutting our ties with the UK and we have guaranteed income and enough savings to give us stability.

Having been to Nerja many times, it is a town we are very found of and ideally, we would like to settle there. However, I am concerned that we will be isolated when we first move over, as there don't seem to be many young families posting on any of the expat sites. We are a young couple (early 30's) with 3 children, very active, very sociable and friendly.

Can anyone reccommend an area more suitable in the malaga province?

TIA
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Old Oct 25th 2016, 10:25 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

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Old Oct 25th 2016, 10:37 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by C0C05
Hi All,
I am new to the forum so please bare with me.

We are relocating to the Costa del sol in the new year around spring time. We are not cutting our ties with the UK and we have guaranteed income and enough savings to give us stability.

Having been to Nerja many times, it is a town we are very found of and ideally, we would like to settle there. However, I am concerned that we will be isolated when we first move over, as there don't seem to be many young families posting on any of the expat sites. We are a young couple (early 30's) with 3 children, very active, very sociable and friendly.

Can anyone reccommend an area more suitable in the malaga province?

TIA

Well you will be in Spain, so plenty of Spanish families to mix with. Don't know about that area but I would assume anyone moving with kids would aim to integrate and wouldn't be focused on how many expats are in an area. It would be more important for pensioners I'd assume, so I doubt typical Expat areas will have many kids but maybe I'm wrong.
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Old Oct 25th 2016, 10:44 pm
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Yes thank you for pointing out the obvious...

There seems to be a trend on these forums that are supposedly here to be helpful. Moving to spain is painted as doom and gloom, Don't mix with English people if you're from England and don't speak English. If I want to seek out every Japanese tourist in Nerja that's my perogative. You should have saved your time if you were not able to answer my question.
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Old Oct 26th 2016, 7:11 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by C0C05
Yes thank you for pointing out the obvious...

There seems to be a trend on these forums that are supposedly here to be helpful. Moving to spain is painted as doom and gloom, Don't mix with English people if you're from England and don't speak English. If I want to seek out every Japanese tourist in Nerja that's my perogative. You should have saved your time if you were not able to answer my question.
It wasn't negative and no offence but what advantage will your kids have moving to a typical Expat area? The whole point is that Spain is full of foreigners and people just mix.
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Old Oct 26th 2016, 9:55 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

My husband was a taxi driver in Calpe for 4yrs. His Spanish is brilliant. I have previously studied Spanish and I am studying Spanish again now with my children. Neither myself nor my children can converse in Spanish. We have Spanish friends and unless we talk by text or email I find it so difficult to converse with them, so imagine trying to make new friends with a Spanish family we have not been introduced to? The language barrier is too problematic and I fear we will be isolated until we are confident enough to speak Spanish. Knowing all the words and grammar is one thing but confidently speaking and getting the pronunciation spot on is quite another.

my ideal is to make friends with expat families of young children (British, Irish, Americans, Scandinavians etc) before we get to spain so we can make the children feel more comfortable about leaving their friends and family behind. If they have no friends to communicate with they will be incredibly unhappy living in Spain. Mixing with expats will be useful and helpful to us. They can introduce us to locals and give us reccommendations on how to settle in and local knowledge.

My husband has to travel away for work, so making solid friendships in spain is a must for us.

I hope you understand my reasons now.
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Old Oct 26th 2016, 10:35 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by C0C05
My husband was a taxi driver in Calpe for 4yrs. His Spanish is brilliant. I have previously studied Spanish and I am studying Spanish again now with my children. Neither myself nor my children can converse in Spanish. We have Spanish friends and unless we talk by text or email I find it so difficult to converse with them, so imagine trying to make new friends with a Spanish family we have not been introduced to? The language barrier is too problematic and I fear we will be isolated until we are confident enough to speak Spanish. Knowing all the words and grammar is one thing but confidently speaking and getting the pronunciation spot on is quite another.

my ideal is to make friends with expat families of young children (British, Irish, Americans, Scandinavians etc) before we get to spain so we can make the children feel more comfortable about leaving their friends and family behind. If they have no friends to communicate with they will be incredibly unhappy living in Spain. Mixing with expats will be useful and helpful to us. They can introduce us to locals and give us reccommendations on how to settle in and local knowledge.

My husband has to travel away for work, so making solid friendships in spain is a must for us.

I hope you understand my reasons now.
Ok but the area just isn't really a typical area young expat families would choose (unless they have plenty of cash). In most cases young families would move to places where international companies are based, as they need work. You would need to go to cities like Barcelona or Madrid for example and I'm sure Malaga will have more expat families too.




Not saying that there aren't any expat familes in Nerja and Spain is full of Brits but according to data the majority of Brits are pensioners.
I also don't see a problem why kids would need to be next to expat kids as they adapt so quickly. My personal experience as a child moving abroad without knowing the language was very good. You just kicked a football with local kids and that was it. Also helped because I had to learn the language.
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Old Oct 27th 2016, 9:57 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by Moses2013
Ok but the area just isn't really a typical area young expat families would choose (unless they have plenty of cash). In most cases young families would move to places where international companies are based, as they need work. You would need to go to cities like Barcelona or Madrid for example and I'm sure Malaga will have more expat families too.




Not saying that there aren't any expat familes in Nerja and Spain is full of Brits but according to data the majority of Brits are pensioners.
I also don't see a problem why kids would need to be next to expat kids as they adapt so quickly. My personal experience as a child moving abroad without knowing the language was very good. You just kicked a football with local kids and that was it. Also helped because I had to learn the language.
Thank you for your response, I thought as much. I have heard Benalmadena and Torremolinos aren't good areas and lots of crime there, has anyone any input on Fuengerola? Or San Pedro Alcantara?
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Old Oct 27th 2016, 1:50 pm
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by C0C05
Thank you for your response, I thought as much. I have heard Benalmadena and Torremolinos aren't good areas and lots of crime there, has anyone any input on Fuengerola? Or San Pedro Alcantara?
San Pedro de Alcantara has become very attractive over the last few years as been developed in a reasonable way, some good infrastructure projects done by local authorities. Quite sizeable expat community . Close to major shopping centre, El Corte Ingles at Puerto Banus and also has some international schools. Property prices moving accordingly.

Fuengirola - just don't like the place but lots of Expats and reasonable infrastructure. Ditto Benalmadena.
Good train connectionfrom Fuengirola into Malaga which is a lovely city and changing all the time, heavy investment in cultura and now has new Cruise terminal. Don't know about schools there but bound to be at least one international college. City not yet on the Expat net to any great extent so good balance and possibilities of integration. Great international airport and high speed train to Madrid etc.
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Old Oct 27th 2016, 3:48 pm
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

As well as the school in San Pedro I have just remembered there is also Swans International School just in Marbella. Mixed english and spanish with a lot of english teachers.
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Old Oct 28th 2016, 4:06 pm
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

We have recently moved to Nerja with our daughter. There are a few other expat families here (also in nearby Frigiliana), but not as many as I imagine are in other areas of Spain (west of Malaga, for example). I get the impression from families we've met that most have lived elsewhere in Spain before moving to Nerja (so they already speak Spanish and have been through the initial settling in phase). This means the level of support that exists in other areas e.g. international schools, sport or interest groups, online networks; is hard to find here. Also no support in local schools for kids with limited Spanish (as we are currently experiencing!)

I'm finding many of the social things I'm doing (can't work until residencia finalised) are dominated by British pensioners (volunteering, Spanish class), who are lovely, but not really on the same page.

We didn't have choice of location, and if we did Nerja wouldn't be it. It's beautiful, but more expensive (retirees with money to spare) and less support for new arrivals. Saying that, it's only our first couple of months so perhaps things will improve. There are some FB groups for the area (search Axarquia, Frigiliana as well as Nerja), but I have observed there's not much response to families asking on there for advice.

PM me if you have any questions and I will try to help
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Old Nov 7th 2016, 12:33 pm
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Thank you both for your response. I do like the look of San Pedro, prices seem to be on par with Nerja, maybe a bit more expensive in some places.

I love the vibe in Malaga having grown up in central London, however my husband has a different opinion lol
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Old Nov 8th 2016, 2:24 pm
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Have to agree with Moses2013.

Why would you want your kids to mix with expat kids instead of Spanish kids?

Presumably they'll be going to school with Spanish kids? Maybe even in a Spanish school? Presumably speaking Spanish in class and reading from Spanish textbooks?

Young kids will pick up the language faster than you can imagine - they'll start off with a few words to other kids in school and before you know it they'll be gargling and lisping like a native.

Get the kids mixing with the local Spanish kids as a priority.
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Old Nov 10th 2016, 1:52 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by billgates
Why would you want your kids to mix with expat kids instead of Spanish kids?
Not instead of, as a precursor to.

Post number 6 dealt with that.

Kids may mix very easily but no kid wants to up and leave their friends and move even within the same country. The OP is trying to make it easier for them to adapt.

I had a week's holiday in Nerja. Very enjoyable. Much nicer than the high rise places along a bit.
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Old Nov 10th 2016, 7:24 am
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Default Re: Any young Expat families in Nerja?

Originally Posted by BristolUK
Not instead of, as a precursor to.

Post number 6 dealt with that.

Kids may mix very easily but no kid wants to up and leave their friends and move even within the same country. The OP is trying to make it easier for them to adapt.

I had a week's holiday in Nerja. Very enjoyable. Much nicer than the high rise places along a bit.

The problem with post 6 is that kids will always take the easy option.
Give them a few friends that speak their own language and that's who they will play with. That's who they will talk to. That's the wrong way to do it.

Moving kids to a new school is bad enough, but a different country and a different language is tough. But it's the parents' decision so the kids have to make the best of it. The parents have to make the best decisions for the kids and that has to be to put them in a Spanish school with Spanish kids to force them to learn the language as quickly as possible.

Encouraging kids to play with other expats is delaying the problem. In fact it causes additional problems. The foreign kids club together and become isolated from the Spanish kids. They speak English in the playground thereby preventing the Spanish kids from getting involved. The foreigners stick together instead of mingling and integrating.

I'll probably get flamed for this saying this, but Spain still has a racist element to it, a lot of Spanish don't like foreigners, particularly the older generations and some of them pass this prejudice on to their kids. Couple this with their natural attitude to new kids and bullying tendencies and you find some of the foreign kids that don't mingle have a pretty crap time at school.

Not saying this happens at all schools but I'm speaking from experience having put my kids through the Spanish system.
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