Reus/Tarragona
 

Does anybody on here live around Reus or Tarragona ? Maybe Torredembarra ?

if so can you tell me what the expat community is like in those areas ?

I have holidayed in Salou and Cambrils and passed by in the winter and noticed it’s completely shut down more or less.

I have briefly passed by Tarragona and Reus in the winter and was both still very busy and thriving but is their a thriving expat community ?

Thanks for any info.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

When you say thriving expat community, do you mean activity groups where foreigners meet? Tarragona is always busy as a city, but Torredembarra is not really a place too many British know about.
You'll always find 2nd home owners and a lot of them would be Spanish from Barcelona and of course other nationalities such as German, Dutch, Belgian, Scandinavians etc..
The beach up until to Creixell is unbuilt and you won't find any first line beach properties and apart from a few camping sites, not even that many hotels/bars along the beach, which is great. Even in October it can be empty along the beach as it's so spread out and places like Cunit wouldn't be typical tourist places.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

Yes so I mean like is it very multi cultural all year round ? Spanish, British, Dutch, German etc etc etc living there permanently ?

Torrevieja for example in winter it’s still full of expats from all different countries living there and is not just a summer tourist place.

Salou on the other hand gets full in summer but winter is like a ghost town only Spanish locals around.

Same with Guardamar Del Segura very very quiet in winter and only down the road from torrevieja.

Tarragona and Torrevieja are around the same sized towns I would say.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

We visited Tarragona in January 2018 for a couple of weeks as we wanted to look at properties in the area so we hired a car, Tarragona was nicely “busy” (fab Roman ruins) there were other tourists (not many) exploring the town but mainly locals who were all friendly and spoke English (our Spanish is not as good as it should be) we drove all along the coast stopping at various resorts and we were surprised at how many hotels were actually closed (for us the weather was pleasant) for the winter, Cambrills was a nice mixture with locals enjoying the mild January weather these were a mixture of Spanish and other Europeans, we spoke to a some of the British who lived in the area to ask for advice in that part of the world and we were surprised to hear a few had moved up from the more well known Costa’s , it is still an area we are interested in ourselves.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

Would agree with brits1 and while you always get some tourists, Tarragona is very different to Torrevieja. It's a lot bigger and a "real city" where people work and live and might even commute to Barcelona.
The more touristy/expat parts are between Miami Platja, Cambrils and Salou and are well connected to Reus. A lot of the resorts are closed during winter and you'll only find Spanish and a few Europeans.
I haven't been down there for a while now (because of Covid) and we are around 2 hours further up. I suppose we are used to places shutting down during winter along the Costa Brava, so it wouldn't bother me as much. In recent years we usually went around October/November and as non residents find it pleasant.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

Believe it or not Torrevieja is densely populated for its size and is very industrial compared to other Costa Blanca towns apart from Alicante of course, plenty of work knocking around Torrevieja if you want it but the wages are not the best. The rest of the Costa Blanca is very much more touristy with Benidorm for example you could really only expect bar work, hotel work etc really even more so in the smaller towns surrounding it, hence the reason I ask about Tarragona, it has around 50k more people there than Torrevieja which is great so it’s quite busy. I have visited Tarragona but only stopped off for the day/night on my way to Barcelona and I really liked it there so I am considering moving up that way.

From what you guys have said it sounds like a decent place to live to me, I’m never afraid to go out of my comfort zone in Spain I have lived all over the Costa Blanca and travelled to loads and loads of places all over Spain, I absolutely love it deep inland Andalusia but with me being a single English bloke it would be really hard to settle in so maybe later on in life. I really wouldn’t like to live on the Costa del sol it’s just not for me and the real dream for me would be to live in the centre of Barcelona but it’s very expensive. I would consider Madrid but as we all know come summer everybody wants to escape from Madrid so this is what brings my attention to Tarragona. I fancy Valencia also as that is a great city but something draws me towards Tarragona.

I have just grown completely bored of the Costa Blanca now.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

Torrevieja is a real town. Its the urbanizaciónes where the foreigners live which might appear less Spanish. The centre of Torrevieja is mainly Spanish working community with hardly any of the attractions that places like Playa Fleminca, Punta Prima etc have for foreigners. Torrevieja is a large town but the foreigners seem to think it is an area that includes their enclaves- which it isnt.
I only say this because someone I met on the plane was trying to tell me that Torrevieja wasnt the same as living in real Spain!! Given that I live and work in the centre and never use English I found it weird someone thought that. There are no English pubs or restaurants in the centre ( now) and o one automatically uses English in the shops as they do in La Zenia - which seems to be the main language there!!

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

I can understand that and Tarragona probably wouldn't be bad for a single. You have a good mix of city life, resorts, quieter beaches and have a good train connection to Barcelona (1 hour journey).
The biggest issue with Barcelona is of course the housing situation and certainly not easy for a single person these days. I just got a bashing from Justcol in the NZ forum for apparently being negative about Auckland:lol:.
I often highlight it and a higher wage doesn't necessarily mean you are better off and this is unfortunately the case across the globe now with larger cities. Our situation is of course different to yours and we were looking for a good balance between full time living and holidays within our budget. Baix Camp was always on the list and now with the better ferry from Ireland, it would only be a 5-6 hour drive. We settled for Girona province as we got more for our money at the time and I also love the area + easy to drive there. One bonus is of course the option to find work around Barcelona, if we ever would move over permanently.
I think for you and if the budget allows, Tarragona is a very good choice.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

I would absolutely love to end up Barcelona one day it is my favourite place in Spain but when I spent the night in Tarragona I did actually get the Barcelona feeling it was great found some great Spanish bars but when I mention expats I suppose it just gives you comfort knowing other expats have settled there and they are about if you know what I mean.

True about wages, one thing I’ve realised in Spain is that I genuinely don’t need a lot of money and I’m happy, earning more is better for the future obviously but I can get by on next to nothing most of the time although I do try and earn well where I can.

Sevilla is another place I love but I just have a feeling it would be quite difficult to settle there.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

:goodpost:

I loved living in Torrevieja, a lot of people run it down but it really is thriving there and has a great atmosphere. Really Spanish in the centre but still have plenty of different nationalities knocking around. Very cheap to rent and live too it’s great. If decent work came along for me I would move back there with no hesitation to be honest as I have some good friends there.

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

Slightly off topic but I was watching a Spanish news program where they were talking about a book written by a Spanish architect. It was basically lambasting Spain as being really ugly - do to over building etc. Anyway surprisingly when he was talking about the Southern part he really had a go a Almeria but said Benidorm was one of the places where he thought that they had got the right balance for commercial needs but maintaining cultural aspects. This bears out how most Spanish regard Benidorm as very Spanish with many aspects of its cuisine present in the town. Ask your average middle class Brit and they think it's the epitome of tackiness

Re: Reus/Tarragona
 

To be fair I agree with him, Almería as regards to the actual city is really run down as is Torrevieja in parts and those run down buildings do look ugly it’s a shame but for me it brings character but what Torrevieja and Almería have that Benidorm don’t have is a real industrial working class feel stepping back from the ports and beaches.

Torrevieja in particular to me feels more like normality more then just a holiday place. I love the old town in Benidorm and the Poniente side of the resort, I’ve lived in Benidorm too my dad still lives there, the old town is very Spanish it’s great and the poniente side is beautiful, I can’t stand the levante side though, groups of drunk blokes walking around in mankini’s singing football songs, no thanks that’s why I could never settle there because to me when I’m in Benidorm I do actually feel like im in Blackpool on holiday or something, only bar work, restaurant work, hotel work and them sorts of things, constantly amongst people partying just doesn’t feel right when trying to live a normal life. I’m not against all that in anyway because Benidorm is great for a few days to go and have a good laugh and if I was retired I would love to live on the poniente side. Benidorm is one of the golden gooses to the Spanish so when it comes to building and maintaining the town it’s always going to be looked after and they will never slag it off.