evans87

Hi everyone, me and my family are planning on purchasing a property in spain, we are going to use the property as a holiday home to start with with a view to retire there, could anybody reccomend good areas which is not to far from an airport but not to touristy with cheap property (2 bed appartment or villa) so we can jump on an easy jet and view some propertys any help would be great. we are also interested in portugal.

thankyou

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

evans87

Hi thankyou for your warm welcome the site seems very helpfull in my quest

pete_l

One thing to look out for is the capricious nature of airlines - especially budget airlines. The destinations they fly to today may not be the ones they choose to grace with their presence tomorrow. In blunt terms they have a habit of stopping flights to airports if another one (not necessarily nearby - or even in the same country) offers them a better deal, bigger subsidies or lower charges.

So you'd be better off having a few airports in the vicinity, so there's a fallback if one of the airlines decided that it could make a quid a year more, by flying from Warsaw to Zagreb rather than Malaga to Luton (to take a fictitious example). They only have a limited number of planes and staff to pedal them and are constantly looking to optimise their routes.

agoreira

Remember when some were moaning when Ryanair stopped flights to Granada after they had bought properties there as a rental machine! I see flights from London City are starting there soon, that should cheer them up.

evans87

abother great bonus is i live within a 10 minute walk from london city airport

missile

Talk about thinking positive, even an EA would struggle to name that as a "bonus"?

evans87

a bonus to me, obviously wouldnt be for you but everyone has their prefferences

missile

Sorry, that comment was offensive. It was not intended that way.

Kath Las Colinas

Have you considered the Ayamonte area? Very south west of Spain and the nearest airport is Faro which is only 35 minutes away so you would have the benefit of both Spain and Portugal
Kath

Retired in Euskadi

The beauty of Bilbao is that it's Easy Jet & not Ryan Air.
You then have the whole of the Cantabrian coast, which is not as developed for foreign tourism as are the various Costas, but compensates in more outdoor activity possibilities plus great surfing & excellent food & wine if you like that.
Property to the east of Bilbao going towards France, an hour's drive away, is fairly expensive compared to what you could probably get down south. Towards Asturias & Galicia property is less expensive.
So in the end, you need to decide what your priorities are.
Hope that helps.

johnnyone

Buy what you need/want for your retirement.

That may well be different to what you want to buy as a holiday home both in terms of type of property and location.
You are also not very clear as to where you want, eg beach or inland, in a town or in the country etc.

I would also choose somewhere that has a choice of at least 2 airports within a reasonable distance.

Good luck.

Ps I would love and use a London City to Valencia service but City airport flights are generally more expensive. Went on the cable car across the Thames on Friday, fantastic views of the airport, the planes fly what appears to be just over the top of the cars.

angiescarr

I agree. although I'm inland from this area the Spanish Algarve has a lot to recommend it. There are flights from Faro. Jerez and Seville. Also it's very worth taking a hotel room in some of the slightly out of season times and taking a really good look as both Portugal and all points east have some good cheap hotels due to the financial crisis. Recently I've stayed in Faro for 35 euros a night including breakfast for 2! and in Seville for 55 euros in a Melia hotel right near Maria Louisa park and the plaza de Espana this one without breakfast but tostadas and coffee can be had anywhere apart from the hotel really cheaply.

Domino

then you could fly direct into Granda on BA
a coach is always waiting for each flight arrival irrespective of operator, normally hourly, was €3 but may have gone up a little since I last used it.
Granada has coaches to/from Malaga, coaches are a princely €13 or €16 if you use the Supra

hth

RyanD

I gave my love to Catalonia, to me it's the best place on earth )