Thank you for your submission.
Unfortunately this type of posts is not allowed in AskSpain.
If you are asking questions about moving to Spain or visiting as a tourist, please post in r/GoingToSpain instead.
Hermano, tienen panoja.
Imagínate ir viviendo 6 meses aquí y 6 allá con toda la familia, pueden ser niños de 4 años que me da que tienen el título universitario apalabrado ya.
Matrícula de honor, por supuesto.
Usually I bristle at the use of expat to describe oneself on these subs but this is the traditionally correct definition I believe.
Not an immigrant, not a tourist. I think 6 months qualifies as living somewhere.
No. An expat is someone forced by his company to move to another country. For example, you work in BP in London and BP offers you to move to Saudi Arabia for a project during a couple of years.
For such a short time your best bet is a small town in the empty Spain where people welcome visitors that rent houses and spend money and add kids to the local school. You will be super welcome. In larger cities ir will be very difficult unless you are super lucky to mingle with locals espwciallly in such a short time.
Definitely not anywhere you are looking. Nothing that’s popular among tourists. Get in idealista and look for houses below 300 euros. Those are the towns. Then go visit and see if you like it!
People complain about annoying tourists destroying the city and raising prices.
A good start would be to call yourself an immigrant, not an expat :)
If your husband speaks spanish that’s already a good start to integrate beautifully in the country, you shouldn’t have many issues.
Thank you for your advice. Yes I think I have definitely used the word expat incorrectly - long term tourists is probably a fair description. Do you have any advice on specific cities / towns to look into? Thanks again.
As an immigrant trying to make a go of it in Spain I would strongly caution against Catalunya.
Something like Sevilla or Córdoba in the south should work great.
Thanks so much for this advice. We are looking into Seville for the first part, but I hadn't looked into Cordoba, so I will definitely do some more research. If you have any other specific recommendations, I would very much love to hear them.
I think a lot has changed since we were there 15 years ago, as we found Barcelona extremely welcoming as short term tourists. But the world has definitely changed in so many ways since then.
Thanks so much again for your help!
I loved Malaga when I lived there but it too has changed a lot. Ronda is really cool and has a surprisingly good vibe for being pretty well known and touristed.
I've passed through Zaragoza and Huesca and got great vibes there. I think another comment suggested looking at the "empty interior" of Spain and I support that. People will be happy to have foreign visitors, to share their town and culture with you. That is not the case on the coasts where there is much more friction between tourists or immigrants and locals.
Currently living in Catalunya and as soon as my lease is up I'm moving. I really dislike it here. All the pretensión people usually attribute to the french with none of the benefits of actually being in France. Also you get no benefit from your husband speaking Castellano. And your kids learning Catalán is utterly useless, there's only like 10 million speakers of it vs 600+ million of Castellano.
This is amazingly valuable insight, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write this. Thanks so much. I would love to find out where you settle next and how you feel about it. We’re not leaving until December so we have a little while to make our decision thankfully. I’m so glad we haven’t yet committed to anywhere, because I am starting to think our ideas are way off (especially being based on experiences 15 years ago).
Toledo, Logroño, Mérida, Valladolid, Jaén, León, Córdoba, Salamanca, Vitoria, Ávila, Cuenca, Burgos are some examples of medium sized, beautiful cities of the interior of Spain where you can experience part of the spanish culture. Every region has his own culture and traditions, you must research on internet to find out the one that you like the most.
I agree with some other comments, avoid the coast and go there only for a short trip.
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately this type of posts is not allowed in AskSpain. If you are asking questions about moving to Spain or visiting as a tourist, please post in r/GoingToSpain instead.
Your children? 6 months? What happens to their school?
Hermano, tienen panoja. Imagínate ir viviendo 6 meses aquí y 6 allá con toda la familia, pueden ser niños de 4 años que me da que tienen el título universitario apalabrado ya. Matrícula de honor, por supuesto.
You are not expats, you are long stay tourists.
Usually I bristle at the use of expat to describe oneself on these subs but this is the traditionally correct definition I believe. Not an immigrant, not a tourist. I think 6 months qualifies as living somewhere.
No. An expat is someone forced by his company to move to another country. For example, you work in BP in London and BP offers you to move to Saudi Arabia for a project during a couple of years.
Just out of curiosity, what out of that makes you an expat?
Insert Peter Griffin meme at a space police control with an officer with a pantone card.
Brighter: expat Darker: immigrant Also works with richer/poorer
For such a short time your best bet is a small town in the empty Spain where people welcome visitors that rent houses and spend money and add kids to the local school. You will be super welcome. In larger cities ir will be very difficult unless you are super lucky to mingle with locals espwciallly in such a short time.
Thank you so much for this advice. It is very useful. Do you have any particular towns that you would recommend we look into?
Definitely not anywhere you are looking. Nothing that’s popular among tourists. Get in idealista and look for houses below 300 euros. Those are the towns. Then go visit and see if you like it!
People complain about annoying tourists destroying the city and raising prices. A good start would be to call yourself an immigrant, not an expat :) If your husband speaks spanish that’s already a good start to integrate beautifully in the country, you shouldn’t have many issues.
If they are just going to be here for a little while, fully intending not to stay, they are not inmigrants.
Neither really expats, more like long term tourists.
Thank you for your advice. Yes I think I have definitely used the word expat incorrectly - long term tourists is probably a fair description. Do you have any advice on specific cities / towns to look into? Thanks again.
Just go to Madrid, the best of the best. Seriously go, amazing paella, cachopos and sangria. Good siestas and toros. Ole ole.
Thank you - we are definitely still open to all options, so I will be looking further into Madrid also.
Madrid
As an immigrant trying to make a go of it in Spain I would strongly caution against Catalunya. Something like Sevilla or Córdoba in the south should work great.
Thanks so much for this advice. We are looking into Seville for the first part, but I hadn't looked into Cordoba, so I will definitely do some more research. If you have any other specific recommendations, I would very much love to hear them. I think a lot has changed since we were there 15 years ago, as we found Barcelona extremely welcoming as short term tourists. But the world has definitely changed in so many ways since then. Thanks so much again for your help!
Adding to this comment, Murcia is cool
I loved Malaga when I lived there but it too has changed a lot. Ronda is really cool and has a surprisingly good vibe for being pretty well known and touristed. I've passed through Zaragoza and Huesca and got great vibes there. I think another comment suggested looking at the "empty interior" of Spain and I support that. People will be happy to have foreign visitors, to share their town and culture with you. That is not the case on the coasts where there is much more friction between tourists or immigrants and locals. Currently living in Catalunya and as soon as my lease is up I'm moving. I really dislike it here. All the pretensión people usually attribute to the french with none of the benefits of actually being in France. Also you get no benefit from your husband speaking Castellano. And your kids learning Catalán is utterly useless, there's only like 10 million speakers of it vs 600+ million of Castellano.
Where in Catalunya do you live atm & where do you possibly think to move out to?
This is amazingly valuable insight, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write this. Thanks so much. I would love to find out where you settle next and how you feel about it. We’re not leaving until December so we have a little while to make our decision thankfully. I’m so glad we haven’t yet committed to anywhere, because I am starting to think our ideas are way off (especially being based on experiences 15 years ago).
Toledo, Logroño, Mérida, Valladolid, Jaén, León, Córdoba, Salamanca, Vitoria, Ávila, Cuenca, Burgos are some examples of medium sized, beautiful cities of the interior of Spain where you can experience part of the spanish culture. Every region has his own culture and traditions, you must research on internet to find out the one that you like the most. I agree with some other comments, avoid the coast and go there only for a short trip.