burt

Hi there,

My family and I are looking to relocate to Valencia, we've been looking quite closely at the Xativa region and would love to connect with anyone else who already resides there or nearby.

Regards,

Dave

snikpoh

Welcome. I, and my family, live in Ontinyent - just south of Xativa.

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

burt

Hi Snikpoh, and thanks Rosemary for the welcome.

johnnyone

Not far from Xativa and have visited it many times. It's a nice town but just too far from the coast for me. Good transport links into Valencia on the train so if you are going back and forth from the Uk well worth considering.

davidinspain

Ive got a place 9 miles from Xativa just a point it's very hot in summer and colder than the coast by a fair few degrees in winter.

jamiest

We are only 10 minutes from Xativa as well, the area is much greener than the Alicante end of the Province, you will have the usual sort of meeting places to find friends etc. Many good little bars and only half an hour or so from the coast. That means fewer tourists in summer (that's a bonus)

johnnyone

It always surprises me how green the region stays even in the summer. If they have paddy fields there must be plenty of water! Its one of many reasons we bought in the region.
It seems to become barren and dry in the summer as soon as you go south into Alicante province.

Rosemary

When my OH and I decided to move to Spain I stipulated that it had to be a green area because I did not want to end up missing the various greens of the UK. Travelling from Alicante airport to view houses I noticed that we were almost at Oliva before the colours changed.

Love Xativa and the surrounding area. Went to Tous for a paella with my adopted Spanish family on Sunday and it was all lovely due mostly to the orange groves. The rice fields near to our town are different each month, the bright green of the stalks of rice is wonderful, just like nicely mowed lawns. Just prior to harvesting they turn gold and cerise which is glorious. A couple of weeks ago the fields were flooded to encourage the rice to grow and now they are looking wonderfully green.

Rosemary

burt

I agree, that's one the factors why its appealing to us also. My rough plan is fly out there in the next month with a list of properties to look at and spend a couple of days driving around the area getting a feel for the place.

Can I ask if you find many other expats in Xativa? And also whether anyone has any experience of the schools there?

PS. The landlord of one particular property that took our shine said that when he and his family were living there, they used to get their drinking water directly from the springs there, that was in Bixquert

snikpoh

We drink the tap water - and why not? Our supplier is a very small private company in which we are shareholders - it's not one of the national suppliers.

The water is great and VERY cheap!

Xativa, and it's surroundings, has quite a few expats. A good starting point is the indoor rastro at Novetle which runs Sat, Sun, Wed and Friday mornings (10-2) i seem to recall.

davidinspain

Be careful with schools a lot of the inland school teach nearly everything in Valenciano.Although Xativa has http://www.colegiobritanicoalziraxativa.es/en/

burt

Thanks, From what I've read so far, finding a suitable school, that is close, could be one of the toughest parts of relocation. It seems quite scary that we would be needing to first move there, without really knowing much about the local schools.

jamiest

If the children are young they will probably pick up Valenciano and Castellano quite quickly anyway, they'll be translating for you in no time. The schools do expect them to speak the language, they do not want to have to teach remedial Spanish. It would be different if you sent them to the British school in Xativa.

burt

Yes I was looking at the BSX and BSA, but must admit although I initially thought those schools would be the best option that there are other threads on this forum I found that said that the British Schools do not teach Spanish except for the Spanish in the UK british curriculum and discourage speaking Spanish around the school as their goal is to teach the kids(of which large proportion are spanish) Engilish.

Personally I would prefer the kids to be immersed in the language and culture, we would still speak English at home I'm sure so that wouldn't be forgotten any time soon.

As of now I'm leaning towards doing all I can to start them on Spanish at home here in the UK before we move and if/when we do go over there, try to get them in a state school but with additional spanish tuition at home.