We wish to retire to Spain in 2-3 years and in the intervening years we intend to take all our holidays in Spain to familiarise ourselves with the various areas to ascertain what would suit us best.

We would like to go to an intensive Spanish Language School for one or two weeks and wonder if anyone can advise of such schools?

Naturally, we will still need to go to evening classes in the UK but an intensive course would certainly give our motivation a boost!

There´s http://www.morethanenglish.com/anglos/index.asp but it´s had some bad reviews on another forum. Has anyone on here been or know anyone that has?

I went to the instituto picasso in the centre of Málaga. Highly recommended

http://www.instituto-picasso.com/

The students are from all over the world and they cater for all levels of Spanish

Everyone aware that Open University do a Spanish course? Two different standards

Not being picky but there more than two levels. Friend of mine did the advanced, so I saw all the course material, and it's quite good. Problem is, it's very expensive. Without looking it up, it's spread over a few years, and the first year alone you have to attend a language school in Spain for a few weeks in the summer. IIRC, the course is paid for, but you have to find the flights and accommodation. I think the first year is around £800~, that's without the school, so you'll be well past a thousand pounds just for the first year. My friend is disabled, so had a grant for everything, so whilst it's good, cheap it ain't!

OU Spanish.
Portales: beginners' Spanish
A buen puerto: advanced Spanish
En rumbo: intermediate Spanish
Viento en popa: upper intermediate Spanish

I always suggest getting a skype partner, but you'll need to have a basic level first. Register with one of the sites, there are always loads of Spanish wanting to swap Spanish for English. I lost my details recently, and reregistered and I had 6 people in the first few days wanting to chat, so you can choose someone of a similar level, age etc. A bit daunting at first, but I have been talking to the same guy now for a couple of years, he's extremely helpful.

Would you ever be picky

I looked at the site only briefly whilst in the UK and only saw the forst two levels, but yes Im sure there are more as you described, and wasnt too bothered about attending the school because of course Im already here :-)

Yes I agree its expensive and is only for a certain person

I obviously mentioned the summer school as the OP is in UK for at least a few years, so they would need to travel to Spain for it. Again, IIRC, I think it was in Santiago de Compostela which isn't the easiest place to get flights to.
I have attended the following school twice, and would recommend it if you re in that area.
http://www.idnerja.es/default.aspx

That sounds like a genuinly good idea.

If you google "language exchange" there are now a lot of choices, but these two have been around for some time. Plus skype itself, of course.
http://www.sharedtalk.com/
http://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

Hi everyone!
TeresaUK here - I wish to thank everyone who replied to my question about learning the Spanish language. All responses are very helpful and we can now start exploring some options. We are quite excited about the daunting challenge ahead!

Thanks again.

This is a good one:

http://www.livemocha.com/

The beginner lessons are free. They should be more than enough to get you started. In addition, it also has the community feature for language exchange.

I would recomend private classes on a one to one or one to two basis with reading ,writing, grammar, listening and speaking for three hours a day and be prepared to do one hour of homework. A week of this would give you an excellent start and plenty of time to enjoy yourself and speak to native Span ish speakers. This is possible to arrange as a package in a real Spanish village with a Scottish teacher who is fluent in Spanish. Elspeth

I'm guessing this is a bit of self-promotion.

I would very much recommend that you learn Spanish as part of a group and with native Spanish speaking teachers. Therefore you have people to talk to and it will help with your listening when the teacher speaks to you. It is no good being able to understand a foreigner speaking Spanish, they will speak too slowly and not with a good accent.

I know people who have been going to one-to-one lessons with so-called British Spanish teachers for 10 years and who still are only at the level where they can order what to eat (sorry, but it is true).

The people I know who have succeded have gone to proper certified Spanish courses in Spain.

Most of the students I have taught Spanish to, have been to several Language schools and several so called English/Spanish teachers. You cannot generalize on the abilities of people you don't Know. I speak very quickly both in Spanish and English. Have only Spanish TV and radio and read Spanish novels as well as English ones. I also write short stories and poems in Spanish with some of my Spanish neighbours and we criticise each others efforts. I taught myself Spanish from Hola magazine and the novels of Pio Baroja but I was desperate to learn. Elspeth