purpleflower

Hi there everyone

Just joined this forum and hope to get some advice and make contacts in Spain. My partner and I currently live in Chile but are wanting to move closer to my family in the UK, my partner speaks Spanish as his first language, he is an American citizen and I am a British citizen, we have been doing lots of research and are planning on moving to Spain after booking our wedding in Gibraltar and then when we are married we are going to apply for residency for us both under the Freedom of Movement for EU citizens and their spouses. My partner has a modest pension from the US that we live on so we wont need to find work as we know it is practically impossible to find work in Spain right now. We will be looking to rent a small property in the north of Spain as we have been told that its a cheaper area and we dont have a big income, can anyone give us any advice on areas to be looking at, my partner has a visual impairment so although he speaks spanish fluently he cant read text etc, I have to read it for him and my spanish is awful so it can bring up many problems, lol. We would be looking for somewhere either near the mountains or the sea, near facilities such as drs, shops etc but not too busy, we would also be interested to hear from people who have gone through a similar process and have good stories about the best places to get our NIE numbers and residencies etc, as we have heard that it is easier to get in some areas than others. Hope this all makes sense, sorry it is so long but we are trying to gather as much information as possible before we make the move and would like people's first hand experiences as researching on the internet is helpful but not always complete, thankyou all

pwwm

Welcome and good luck, sorry I know nothing about the north, but can say you can get cheap rent around here as well.

Have fun in your venture

JLFS

Good luck with your search, but try to do a little research on flights to and from the "northern" airports in Spain.

If you are intending to have family visits on a regualar basis, it can be very pricey, and not all that convenient.

Ijust googled on this site http://www.jetcost.es/

And the result can be seen below: 295 euros return was the cheapest, but the problemis the time the journey takes leave La Coruna at 6.30 in the morning and arrive at Manchester at 17.00hours.......

Iberia IB511
La Coruña
La Coruna

06:30

Manchester
Ringway International

17:00

Turista

1 escala(s)
11hr 30min

Iberia IB8503
Manchester
Ringway International

17:35

La Coruña
La Coruna

08:35

Turista

1 escala(s)
14hr 0min

As you can see the journey takes 11.30 mins to Manchester and 14 hours back to Coruna. There are no direct flights.

Soit will be worth considering the flights and availability in depth as these flights are really incovenient.

Santiago is about the same.

I dont know about other airports in the north, but as you can see the results are pretty grim, these flight were from Monday to Monday.

steviedeluxe

Plenty of cheap Easyjet flights to Bilbao though? So both the Basque Country and Cantabria are ok for this. Depends where in "the north" the OP means

JLFS

Of course it does, and as they were asking for advice I thought I would give them a few pointers with specifics about the part of Spain that I know about personally.
I dont suppose anyone can give them all the info they need, but if they can put the bits together themselves, it all helps-

They will also have to check where in the UK they need to use, as easyjet have good flight but they might not be convenient for them at the UK end.

Domino

yes, flight times are a nuisance, so we have to fly home on Easyjet and back to Spain on Ryanair
its only because their flight times can be so awkward for onward travel at either end

battlezone123

Vueling Airlines fly from La Coruna to Heathrow and they are a low cost airline. Last time I flew with them it cost me 49 euros each way. Also their baggage allowance is 23 kilos for the hold and 10 kilos for carrying on bag. Even though they are a low cost airline you are given a seat number on check-in.

There is also Santiago de Compeseta (spelling?) airport but I do not know where they fly to in the UK.

Casa Santo Estevo

Where in the North of Spain?
If you are thinking about Galicia then please beware that all official letters are in Galician.
The city of A Coruña has probably the best hospitals services in Galicia, although sometimes you will find that some specialist services will be located in another hospital. Sometimes that may just be outside of Galicia.
Direct flights Galicia/U.K. are from A Coruña (Vueling ) and Santiago de Compostela (Ryanair). Often you can purchase a "reasonable" priced ticket with Iberia going to London via Madrid. In the UK maybe travel by bus to keep the costs down.
The province of Lugo is one of the cheapest locations in Spain to purchase a property. However what most expats purchase are ruins, almost four walls, and nothing else. That for some makes for a great bargain. The cost of Galician coastal properties are quite a bit dearer.
If you move to Asturias the cost of property jumps quite even higher.

purpleflower

Thankyou everyone for your replies, very helpful, I would like to be able to travel to the UK and Holland quite regularly, does anyone have ideas about places that have cheap rents and are more accessible to airports that will make it easier for me to make those trips please?

Retired in Euskadi

We retired to the Basque country, where my wife is from, 3 years ago.
We're about 30-40 minutes drive from Bilbao airport.
To England there are 2 companies, with 2-3 flights daily:
Easy Jet ( to Stansted) averaging from €20-€80 each way
Vueling (to Heathrow) " " " "

There's also Ryan Air from Biarritz (1hr 20 mins drive) or Santander (same time) if you like that company.

Property isn't so cheap in Euzkadi. Plenty to rent.

There are also direct flights to Amsterdam from Bilbao.

There are also ferry links with Brittany ferries from either Santander or Bilbao to either Plymouth or Portsmouth.

You don't need to speak Basque to get by. There's less spoken in Bilbao, more in San Sebastian & a mix in between!! Everything is in the 2 languages in official documents.

Excellent coach services, with a company called Alsa. Eg 1 leaves for Madrid almost every hour!

purpleflower

Thankyou for your reply, thats very helpful

We would be looking to rent a small place to live and would like to be within walking distance of shops, medical facilities etc and either near the coast or the mountains where the air would be good as my partner has asthma.

Retired in Euskadi

Navarra might be cheaper. Some beautiful forests, & mountains. Also closer to Pyrennees, & France. Where we are there are plenty of mountains, averaging 1200m.
Certain parts may be damp; not so good for asthma.
Aragon would be drier; very mountainous in parts.
Other than that, Cantabria, or further west still, toards Galicia. Ourense has a really tropical climate, but is a long way west & may be out of your way.

fionamw

If you go onto www.vuelingairline.com then vueling cities you'll find bilbao, asturias and a couple of others have flights to Amsterdam and Brussels and some have Amsterdam Brussels and London...... Unfortunately I can't remember which! Good luck

purpleflower

Thankyou Euzkadi and Fiona, very helpful posts. Are there any areas in the south of the country that are reasonably priced and have good amenities but are not too touristy?

Thanks all

cricketman

If you want to live cheaply and close to a busy airport than the South would be better. Except for rural Galicia the North tends to be more expensive than almost all the South

Rents have dropped a lot recently all over Spain