louispoppy

Hi
I'm thinking of moving to Southern Spain along with my husband and two children. But where is best for us? We want to be not too far from the sea but not too touristy, must have good internet connection and good shops nearby. Any ideas of where to start looking?
At the moment we live in the South of France but would love a change and more reliable sunshine :
regards

Jur

Come visit Ayamonte, 10 mins.from the beaches, shops, restaurants, schools, medical center, public swimming pool, sportscenter, commercial center, 2 marina´s. 45 minutes from Faro (Portugal) airport, 1,5 hour from Seville airport.

Buzzing during July & August and then it goes quiet again.

Domino

can you afford Marbella or Malaga ?
loads of places near the sea, one of the most populated portions of Spain

jonnyx

It sounds as Nueva Andalucia would suit you well, close to the sea, Puerto Banus and Marbella. But calm and without much tourists. If you want something "more Spanish" then you can consider the nearby San Pedro de Alcantara.

You can look for apartments or villas here.

louispoppy

Thanks very much for your suggestions I will get busy on the internet looking all these places up.

Ray51

For my money , IF I were going to Spain ( which is unlikely ! ) , I wouldn't consider Andalucia anymore ; very touristy , crowded , congested and expensive , I found it on my last recent visits ( and I do speak some Spanish ) ; incredibly dog-unfriendly , too and to find some affordable & good grub between Nerja , Malaga , Marbella , Puerto Banus and Gibraltar is the scientific-research job .
Rather , think the Costa Brava , the section from the French border to almost Barcelona ; it has the 4 seasons , it has much nicer vegetation , it is much less jumped-up and also more cosmopolitan ( Germans , Dutch , French , Belgians , Scandinavians etc. ) , does not get as hot and insufferable in summertime , the world's best restaurant is there ( El Bulli ) , as is the Empuriabrava marina and interesting places , like Figueres , Girona , Tossa del Mar , Cadaques....
Barcelona offers great shopping and entertainment , if you happen to be that way inclined .
Or , in the other direction , France is easily manageable by car or the national road or the motorway , the border is open and unmanned and you can do much ( and better ) shopping there , if needed ;
if I wanted to live in Spain , that's what I would choose .
Good Luck !

bil

Not all of Andalucia is the Costa Concrete.

Have a look at the South Atlantic coast, the Costa de la Luz. If you want expats around, Chiclana is good, if not then the rest of the area is very Spanish, and you would be best learning the language.

naladogs

Hi and welcome

I see you have had some excellent advice so far , Ayamonte is lovely and is is so easy to get to the excellent shops at the Algarve shopping centre in Faro, which by all accounts is soon to be extended, but unfortuantely the motorway leading to it will soon be a toll road, or Sevilla .

Mind you about as far away from france you can get , not sure if that is a good or bad thing for you.

We choose to move futher inland to Baza in the mountain region of Granada, so in between the excellent shopping areas of Murcia and Granada and just over an hour from the beaches near Vera. We love it !!! here and we have our local beach at lake Negratin. You certainly get the true taste of Spain here and it is liked you walked back in time 20 years, something we love maybe others wouldn't - although they are still very internet savy :-) The weather is surprizing good here in the antiplano, hot but not so humid as the coast, yes we get snow, 1.5 days of it last winter - most disapointing I was told it would be 3 or 4 :-)


So much to choose from but they say Knowledge is power so I hope it all helps - Good luck with your move !!!

pwwm

Not all Andalucia is crowded lol, depends where you go, the strip along Malaga to Gib is, very small part of Andalucia. funny someone who does not live here giving views, personally wouldnt go to Brussels, never open when I have passed through

Domino

and there are a couple of mountains above Granada that don't have anyone living there

isn't Brussels the Part Time Centre of the EUniverse ?
small wonder its always closed when you pass through, they are too busy packing boxes for the next move.

jackytoo

Nueva andalucia calm...there has been at least five different shootings there over the past few years

Ray51

You are very right here ;
it's Brussels and then Strassbourg for the overpaid EU pen-pushers , cyclicaly and at great , great expense to the taxpayers ;
not my choice , but noone consulted me , ever ;
much as people of EUrope never get consulted ever , or get asked for a vote in a proper referendum ! So much for the franco-german Reich's new "democracy" !
On the other hand , be it is it is , Brussels can ( still ) be great , if you know what you're doing and where to go .

jackytoo

There are some super restaurants and they say the salaries are good

Domino

in Spain or Brussels ?

no, sorry can't be Spain, they don't have good salaries but many super restaurants

Ray51

In Brussels , there just too many EU-pen pushers on great salaries and just about every restarant I know is either good or very good : Lebanese , Thai , Vietnamese , French , Italian , Japanese , pub-grub , you-name-it ;
much better in fact than anything I ever found in various Costas of Spain ,
but maybe I was ignorant , or ill-advised , on my 12 + visits to there ,
who knows ?