Keep whistling in the dark kiddo.

Me, I am never so stupid as to claim that Spain has the perfect climate. Spain has a HUGE variety of climates that cover most of the range, but I give it this. It never suffers from the nasty creeping greyness that I experienced in the UK. Madrid has extremes of climate? So what? I don't live anywhere near there.

You do seem so terribly, terribly desperate to convince us that you are enjoying a wonderful climate in the UK.

You and aggie go on and on about how great the UK climate is. Me, I sit here and I listen to the people on the UK TV bitching about the weather. I read my emails from family and friends bitchin' about the Uk weather. Only the other day, an old friend was going on about how miffed he is wearing winter clothes in July.

Unlike you and your little friend, I don't claim that where I live now is perfect. I just tell it like it is. (life is easier that way.) Here, I get more rain in the winter than I did in the UK (not counting freak years.eh?) I get far more sunshine here. I get a couple of months when the weather is very hot. So, not being stupid, I take it easy, drink a lot of cold drinks, sit in the shade, sit at my ease. Then in Autumn and spring I have a FABULOUS time. the weather is generally sunny and warm, not hot and it's a joy just to be alive. The winter no longer bothers me, because hey, it no longer stretches out for the best part of the year. Hell, I've seen summers in the uk where there was one perfect sunny day, and in the last 5 years before I fled south, I recorded 15 cloudfree, sunny days in the last 5 summers.

Me, I find where I am to be a far more agreeable climate. It isn't perfect, but then nowhere is except in the fevered reaches of your imagination.

Chill dude, and enjoy the grey.

As I said bil all things considered there's not much to choose and they are both only average at best, especially when compared with what I would consider a really good climate such as that in the W.Canaries.
Its like trying to compare two struggling lower league sides with Barca.
My pals in TF thought I was crazy moving to the mainland with its extremes of temperatures and rainfall.
However I was already aware that was the case and moved over for other reasons, one of the main ones being the greater freedom to hop in the car and travel all around Spain and the rest of Europe, which I've since really enjoyed to the full.
I stayed a while in the South and had a few spells in other regions of Spain before settling on my present location where I've been very content for quite a variety of reasons other than the climate.

But to move from TF to the Peninsula for the weather,..you got to be joking, no contest.
I never ever came across this constant whining about the weather over there, suppose cos everyone was too busy out enjoying it all year round.

I often dream about moving back, having just about done my thing on the mainland, but at present there are just too many other factors in my life which prevent it from being a viable option.

I can easily believe that the Canaries have a better climate, but like you climate wasn't the whole of the story for us.

It was tho, important. Basically I wanted a warmer, sunnier climate without the depressing solid cloud cover that I had to endure in the UK.

Everyone whines about weather, spain or the UK, and it is not really feasible to compare the two countries except on simplistic grounds, like amount of sunshine.

I chose/choose to use the 'perfect day' as my benchmark. Those days when the sun shines all day from a perfectly blue sky.

Here in Spain that is so commonplace as to be amazing to someone like me who spent so many years trapped under a cold grey scab of clouds.

Like I say, the last 5 years before I left had 15 perfect days in 5 summers, that is to say, june to august inclusive, tht's 460 summer days, there were only 15 perfect days where we were. That's a smidgeon over 3%. That's a figure of over 96% cloudy days for UK summers.

You slate Spain because Madrid has extremes of temp. True, the UK seldom gets high temps like that, but then there are areas in the UK where the rainfall figures have been quoted as 3 hours PER DAY.

Enjoy!

When I decided to give up the rat race I had been driving from London to Yorkshire 2 or 3 days per week. Seemed as every time I was on the M1 it was throwing it down. However, after several years in Spain it was like deja vu...I was driving on the A-7 in torrential rain

I am fine in the UK in summer but I hate the fact that in December the sun sets about 4.15 whereas in Spain it set at 6.15. (I used to whinge at 6.15 too) If I had more money and less cats and dogs I would travel to the southern hemisphere for the darkest months.

Wouldn't we all, wouldn't we all? I'd have me a comfy little residence in all my fave weather zones.

Simple solution - buy a dirty great yacht and drive it around chasing the best weather.

Abramovich might sell you one of his.

Or Fred

I take your point bil, as amazing was the way I saw it also when I first moved out to the Canaries and saw so many ppl laid about in Dec and Jan sunbathing during the darkest depths of a European Winter.

However after a while my perception changed a little and I didn't always appreciate almost every day being the same wall to wall sunshine, especially when I was keen on a few more physical activities than sunbathing back then.
So now I usually find an interesting purpose or pursuit for every single day regardless of the weather and wherever I may be, the heat of the Spanish mid-summer being the exception which I am fortunate in being able to avoid.

I used to have friends from warmer climes visit me in the UK and always gave them a friendly warning about the weather. As often as not their reply was that they always looked forward to and enjoyed a change from their own boring same every day climate.

I love the Canaries climate - when we were both working we loved having a winter holiday there every year.

When we stopped bumming around on our yacht in the Med we looked seriously at many places to settle. There are very few places in the Med with decent climates in the winter. We looked at Cyprus as we had spent two winters there. Great climate in the winter but like Sevilla in summer and the island is miles from anywhere except Beirut!

Greece is cold and wet and so is most of Italy. South of France had attractions but expensive and cold in winter - don't talk about the Mistral and the Tramontana nearer the Spanish border- winds that equal anything in the UK!

The climate in coastal Spain is pretty good. As many have mentioned the really big difference from the UK is that on most days IT IS SUNNY!.

It rains a lot but the sun comes out the same day and it all warms up again - even in January.

Yes, it's hot in July and August but you get up early to do the chores and relax for the rest of the day - it's amazing what a freezing G&T will do for you!

Yes, from a climate point of view the western Canaries are probably the best climate in the world but at the end of the day I don't want to be constrained to a small island.

I tend to agree with Dick on this one. I'm here in the stifling summer heat because I have no other choice. It's horrible and oppressive, the area is full of Madrilenos clogging up the roads and everything else. When you go out you need to keep your hand on your wallet.

I hide from the dangerous sun, and wear expensive sunglasses to stop me going blind. I cover myself in coconut oil, factor 25, just to go out and buy a newspaper.

I'm praying for September to come along, for the thieving Madrilenos to go home and for the temperatures to drop below 40 degrees.

I came to roughly the same conclusion as a landlubber. I loved Tenerife but feel trapped on islands. The south of France came close if it wasn't for the native people. I was put off the Greek islands by the plumbing.

Portugal ticked most boxes, but I went to Albufeira which isn't really in Portugal.

Spain won hands down, for ten months of the year. One month to go before sanity returns.

For all I eventually moved on in order to see the rest of Europe, I rarely found the not so small island and its neighbours constraining.
I went rambling twice a week with a great crowd and we regularly came across hidden gems well away from the beaten track. I doubt very much if I ever saw them all yet.
Ferries out of the local harbour every day to the three other Westerly islands all with their own stunning beauty, character and micro climates like TF.
The other islands easily accessible via Santa Cruz.
One of the advantages of the micro climates was that on the rare occasion the weather didn't suit, it was a short trip to another part of an island to get the benefit of an onshore breeze or a little cloud cover or cooler temperatures or whatever was required.
Most visitors never get to see just how much the islands really have to offer and even after best part of ten fairly active years there, I still wouldn't claim to have seen it all myself.

I think you are right. On our many visits to TF we loved driving around the island.

When we were making our decisions as to where to live we decided against TF as it was an island. With hindsight that may have been the wrong decision but it's too late now to change our minds.

Well, in order to get bored with wall to wall sunshine, I shall first have to be able to forget decades of miserable grey weather. That's going to take a considerable time. You (possibly) have no idea how depressing that can get. I used to sit there waiting for ages for the sun to come out, and when it did, it was a little like someone giving you a glimpse thru the prison bars of what freedom was like before slamming them shut again.

I grew to hate clouds. They aren't so bad here, because we get so much sun, they aren't a problem.

Well there were other factors that affected my final decision.
For instance during my time there I could walk into my local UK airport almost any one of three days a week and step onto a half empty TF flight for virtually the same price as a taxi fare to the airport.
So easy and cheap back then and zero hassle to commute back and forth to the UK as and when I wished.
However as we all now know that all changed for a variety of reasons.

Another factor was that after coming out of the last recession, development started again like crazy, some of it fairly local to me and even in front of my main or favourite residence which up till then had spectacular views of the harbour and the other Westerly islands as well as inland TF and Teide.

There was still adequate scope to find another nice spot, as only the more touristy areas were affected, however I was due for a change and decided to move on and see other things whilst I was still capable.