How to get to Ontinyent

Ontinyent is about an hour's drive from both Valencia and Alicante airports, so I'd suggest you look at which one  is most convenient (and cheapest) for flights and then buy a car and keep it in long term parking at the airport.  Hiring a car is very cheap in the winter months, but always a hassle if you are coming and going frequently and expensive in holiday periods.

Outside of the big towns and cities and along the coastal strip public transport is very limited, even where we are just a few miles from Benidorm.

Are you sure you want to be so far inland ?

I agree with Gordon about buying a car and leaving it in long term parking at the airport.

However, buying a country property so far inland with basic amenities in the town just to use for holidays, is likely to be a decision you will bitterly regret. There's very little close by, Ontinyent is very cold in the winter and your family will be bored out of their minds. If there are small children/grandchildren, they will probably only come once and will prefer to spend their holidays near the coast where there is lots to do.

Then there is the other consideration regarding security. If you're leaving the house unoccupied for long periods of time, it's likely to be ransacked. In these challenging economic times, unfortunately, it's going to be a magnet for thieves. Also, if you decide you want to sell it, it's probably going to take years to get a buyer.

Please think very carefully. I would urge you to reconsider. I don't want to burst your bubble but I have a lot of experience of living in inland Spain and have seen the scenario I have described above happen over and over again.

Thanks for replying both of you! And thank you CharlieW for your really honest review and warning to us to reconsider, regarding crime etc with an unoccupied rural house - I notice no one is correcting you! We are taking your comments into account and having a long hard think about where we want to be, location-wise. Thank you so much. Rosie

I will agree,with only one correction. To live inland in a Spanish rural, functional community is far removed from a housing estate environment ( urbs, urbanizaciónes) nearer the coast. 

After, over 20 years, I live less than an hour from the coast, close to many inland mountains & airports. Obviously, it depends on what one wishes from Spanish life. Ontinyent is nice. 

My opinion only.

V

Thanks for your reply Villas. Do you live full time at your property, though? We can only live there a few months in a year, hence thinking seriously about what CharlieW has said re: security. But thank you for your input, too. Ontinyent does look nice! Thanks Rosie

Hi. Yes I live here. I have recently moved into town from my rural property. Yes, security has to be an important issue, particularly if one wishes to live or have a holiday home with space or lacking many neighbours.

Many rely on alarm systems/cctv wi-fi cameras etc. Having said that, nothing is 100 percent secure against a determined or opportunist intruder whether you are out for half an hour, or away for weeks.

Good luck with your decision.

V

Hi Rosie.

I want to make it clear that I have no vested interest in whether you buy inland or not. I'm just concerned that you understand just what you might be getting into.

I agree with Villas - Ontinyent is lovely, but it's a long way from an airport and rural properties tend to be quite remote from the town. There are unlikely to be many taxis or a regular bus service, so you will have to drive everywhere. What are you intending on doing with the house? Is it just going to be somewhere where you can kick back and relax, with peace and quiet? Do you intend to live there full time eventually?

I've lived in Spain for almost 20 years and I used to have a country house with lots of land. But I lived there full time, which is completely different from it being a holiday home. . I learnt a reasonable amount of Spanish, which is very important, otherwise you miss out on lots of things going on. I loved it, but I realized a couple of years ago that we're not getting any younger and it started to turn into a millstone around our necks. Who is going to maintain the property, the garden etc? Unless you get someone in to do it, you'll probably spend all the time you are here gardening, getting the tractor man in to plough the land, doing maintenance around the house - the list goes on. And it can be expensive.

If you still decide it's what you want, I'd advise you to look for somewhere that has reasonably close neighbours that live there full time and that can and will check on the property regularly and keep you updated if they have any concerns. They are likely to be Spanish, so there could be language issues. They'll also probably want to be paid something for doing this. It's a pity that you are coming over in a couple of weeks - everything looks wonderful in the summer, but the winters can be extremely cold and totally different to being here when it's 30 degrees. 

As I said previously, think very carefully about why you want a country house. We were lucky and we sold our country property quite quickly - (the property market is completely different in Spain - it can take a VERY long time to sell a country house which to be fair, is usually down to it being overpriced) and moved nearer the coast. We now have a lovely low maintenance town house with a garden, nice neighbours, a beautiful communal pool, that we don't have to clean or worry about, everything is on the doorstep and there are lots of things going on. It's the best thing we could have done.

Please think about what I have said and don't go into this with rose tinted glasses on. Charlie.

Wow!! I live in Ontinyent and never knew it was so bad. I think I will put my property on the market immediately and hopefully sell it before I die so I can move nearer to the safety of the coast. In the meantime I will employ a full time security service for when I visit the shops. Other than that I don't think I'll ever leave my property again. 

We purchased our country property in 2018 and used it as a holiday home until we moved permanently  in 2021. Not once have we had security issues. 

Ontinyent is a lovely, vibrant city with so much to offer residents and holidaymakers of all ages. Only 40mins from the beautiful beaches of Gandia and only an hour from Valencia and Alicante. By the way, Alicante had snow this Winter while we in the highlands of Ontinyent were basking in balmy weather.

Honest opinion and helpful addition to the discussion, but why make sarcastic remarks about someone else's honest opinion from personal experience just because they are different from your own?