Warm welcome

Welcome!

I'm sure you'll  get lots of helpful info on this site.

Hi Martin and welcome to the forum!

A good place to start for all things about living in Spain is Jim Taylor's guides:

Jim's guides - your complete guide to Spain

If you need any clarification or other help, just ask.

Kind regards,

Kim

Try Kyero, it is the Spanish equivalent of Rightmove.

Welcome, the Forum will provide an excellent source of information as you make your plans. In regard to your comment about Elche, it is definitely not a tourist / British Expat area but a busy Spanish City, with research you can find somewhere more suitable to your families needs.

Thanks, will tr

Thanks John, yes I think Elche is probably a bit bigger than we want, more like a relatively busy town, but we certainly don’t want a tourist area or to be overwhelmed by expats, so the research will continue, thanks. 

Martin O’Gorman

Hi Martin

Try down the road in Crevillent, small, but with every facility you could want including 4 schools, excellent medical support, lots of supermarkets, very good communications by road and train, friendly natives, good spread of property prices.

Just PM if you need advice.

Richard

I’ve lived in Elche for a long time now and I’ve always felt like the only Brit here, it’s a lovely place but definitely not an expat area like they show on tv (A Place In The Sun). Still, if you are coming here, let me know and my husband and I will be pleased to show you round. 

Good morning Martin,

As you may or may not know, Torrevieja is on a large promontory jutting our to sea.  Looking at it, on the right of it is the area that was transformed by huge developers over the past 20 odd years. It is all a man made area aimed at providing holiday dreams for people from all over the world. This is in no way spanish.

Go to the left of Torrevieja and you will find the original and many new parts but totally different. Very few expats settled there. The Spanish live in Torrevieja but mostly on the outskirts of the city on both sides. You will like this side of town as there is no huge N332 running through the coast and cutting it off as it dies in the other side of town. You can walk to the beach, enjoy the boardwalk which takes you to La Mata, an old Spanish village which still retains it’s own charm.

There are many Scandinavia people buying in this area in order to get away from their harsh winters. Lovely, eduacated people who generally speak English. We very rarely meet English people when out and about and sometimes I miss this but I will survive. Thankfully, all the restaurant/ bar staff speak excellent English. Our coastline has the best , natural beaches, miles of golden sand. The other side has a more rocky coastline but still very nice. Proximity to the airport is also closer.

Check out Guardamar too, beautiful but very quiet off season  La  Mata used to be dead in the winter but not anymore  it is gorgeous. Many German  and Dutch come in their luxury campers and park up in areas without any problem. These people give great financial support to the winter trade and we enjoy watching the camaraderie between them.

I could highly recommend this whole area. No flooding on the higher ground either, great bus service into Torrevieja but if you love walking, off you go!

Good luck.  Perhaps I should add that by 11 pm , most people are in bed and all restaurants closed. Don’t look on this side if you are thinking of partying all night, you will be disappointed!