10 Tips For Moving To Barcelona In Spain

Moving to another country is always stressful and sometimes complicated to organise so below are a list of ten things you might want to consider to make things easier and smoother for the move to Barcelona, Spain.
1. Renting an apartment in Spain often means that you might have to leave more security deposit than what you might normally need to rent an apartment in other countries so be prepared.
2. If you can ensure you have an address such as a friends address which you can use whilst you setting up finding an apartment so that you can proceed with sorting out your residency card. You will need to be able to give an address and that address will also need to be reliable so that you can receive mail.
3. If at all possible try and have a job to go to. This might seem obvious and also difficult to arrange but it is possible and will take a lot of pressure of you. If you are moving with a partner, one of you can check apartments whilst the other at least in brining in some income.
4. Do everything you possible can to try and learn some Spanish and or Catalan first. If time permits, try and take a class in Spanish or Catalan before moving. It will definitely make things easier for you when you arrive.
5. If you are brining a car with you, think carefully being doing so. Parking in Barcelona city can be difficult and underground spaces expensive. The public transportation in Barcelona is excellent so do you really need a car?
6. Try and go to Barcelona first before you decide finally to move there. Are you sure you will like Barcelona. Living somewhere is very different from taking a holiday somewhere. It at least is worth double checking.
7. Ask people on forums and message boards about living in Barcelona and find out the best areas and issues you may need to overcome. Doing an hours worth of research could reap rewards.
8. Make sure you genuinely have enough money on which to survive if you are serious about staying long-term in Barcelona. Barcelona is not anywhere near as cheap as it used to be in the past.
9. Go for it. If you really are sure you want to move to Barcelona then go for it and enjoy every moment of it. Follow your dreams.

The Best Beaches in Spain

We all want something different from a beach. Whether you prefer facilities, peace, privacy or entertainment here are a few Spanish beaches which come highly recommended.
.... to go with children
Look for beaches with fine sand, without stones or pebbles and with wooden walkways to the shore because these are easier to walk on. The best beaches for children are those which have shallow water and only very small waves. In addition, access should be easy and comfortable for buggies and it should have good facilities: foot washers, showers, easily visible danger signs, assistance points, play areas and shady places. If children are small, it is important to check out nearby toilet and changing facilities. To keep them amused, choose beaches with activity centres and supervised courses for windsurfing, swimming or fishing.
La Costilla y El Rompidillo on the Costa Ballena (Cádiz)
Situated between Rota and Chipiona, there are seven kilometres of fine sandy beaches, which are not dangerous and which have all sorts of facilities. The children can be kept amused for hours watching the corrals, small stone walls in the sea where fish, shrimps and crayfish are trapped at low tide.
....in the city
Do you prefer not to lose sight of civilization while you swim? Then city beaches are for you. The best thing is that you don't have to go far to find them - they are separated from the shops and offices by a promenade, from which you can access the sand by means of ramps and steps.
La Concha in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa).
Queen María Cristina elevated it to the status of "the" place to spend summer, at the end of the nineteenth century and, from that time, it has kept its charm. Framed by its two mountains, Igueldo and Urgull, the beautiful beach is bordered by superb decorative walkway. In the centre of the bay is Stanta Clara Island and lighthouse, which can be reached by ferry in the summer.
....for nudists
If when it gets hot, you find clothes are too much, you'll surely enjoy naturism, which consists, among other things, of living the beach experience in your birthday suit or "how your mother brought you into the world" as the Spanish put it. Well, you can wear a thong if you want. In Spain there are several hundred beaches with a nudist tradition which goes back to the 1960s, the majority with difficult access and unspoilt scenery. As well, there are those which must live with the "textiles" (as naturists call those who don't go nude) in separate zones, including certain remote caves in which there is a natural mixture of bathing costumes and exposed skin. You can also find areas of coast specifically for nudism; authentic naturist centres, equipped with all types of set up (hotels, supermarkets, swimming pools) for those who go around completely naked.
Cala Fonda, in Altafulla (Tarragona).
Also known as Waikiki Beach, it is situated in the middle of a leafy pine grove and sheltered by a vertical cliff which makes access difficult. Precisely because of the complications of getting here (it is necessary to walk more than a kilometre through woods), it has become a complete nudist paradise. There are more than 200 metres of fine sand with clear water and absolutely nothing else.
...for friends of the wild and the natural
The more difficult the paths are to negotiate, the more possibilities you have to have the beach to yourself. These coastal spots well deserve a hike of several hours, but to be remote from civilization as well implies a total absence of infrastructure, so don't forget to carry a good supply of water with you and whatever you need to give you some shade. The locals know the best places and how to get to them, so use your charm to get the information from them.

Different Types of Mortgages in Spain

In Spain there are many autonomous regions, each with their own regional governments, so it will be impossible to detail each and every situation ranging from Valencia to Bilbao, Barcelona to Seville, but this article will attempt to give a detailed overview of the general situation, rather than a gloss-over of the main points.
Perhaps the first point to mention is that in Spain there are two main financial entities that you can apply for a mortgage from. The banks in Spain work all on a similar basis, and are classes as Bancos - International brands such as BBVA and Banco Santander will be familiar with most readers. The second type of entity are the "cajas" or "cajas de ahorros" which are usually autonomous societies, formed as savings banks or building societies - often born in fruitful autonomous regions and occasionally expanding nationwide. Perfect examples would be Caja Madrid, Catalunya's La Caixa, and Caixa Catalunya. These entities are sometimes easier to gain a mortgage from, although conditions can often be easier manipulated to the favour of the caja, rather than those rules rigorously set down by the Banco de España.
Now within the Cajas or Bancos, there are various products on offer when it comes to taking a loan out on a property. For the sake of example, let's take a first time buyer on a starter home. Perhaps one of the main differences in any type of loan from a financial entity is the type of interest paid. It's extremely common in Spain for an interest rate to be applied to your loan sum on an annual basis, with a revision each calendar year, around the same date as you sign your mortgage. This means that although interest rates may fluctuate, as they tend to do, then if you happen to sign your mortgage in the "highest peak" of interest, then you will pay that amount of interest for the entire year - even if interest rates go down. This has the advantage of always knowing your monthly budget of spending, but the converse is true in that if you coincide with a peak which then drops dramatically, you're stuck with the same rate for the rest of the year. Mortgage "trackers" working on a month to moth basis, known across the world, are unknown in Spain.
Just to make things more complicated, there are then two different types of indexes your bank or building society can chose to employ regarding your policy. The Euribor is the European Interest rate, although it's worth noting that within the Eurobor, there is a separate (always higher) Euribor Mortgage rate.
The second Interest rate that may be applied is the more stable IRPH, which takes an average of the previous 4 months Euribor and then calculates the rate this way. Any loan from a bank or building society will charge the client (that's you) one of these two rates, plus anywhere between 1-3%, depending on the risk, size of the property, available guarantors, etc. (remember, my example here is for first time buyers).
Any loan from either entity usually has a 1% opening fee on the net price, and the same for any cancellation before the time of the loan expires - loans are typically given for 30 years, although in recent years, certain banks have given loans of up to 50 years, or those which will be inherited by next of kin/offspring. This means that swapping and changing mortgages over banks is almost impossible in Spain, given the costs involved.

Living in Spain For the Rest of Your Life

The survey showing 15 per cent of people in the north-east, 13 per cent in the Midlands, and 12 per cent in Yorkshire and the north-west putting Spain as their first choice of a country they would like to move to.
Fortunately, not everyone heading for Spain has the same destination or area in mind, as in some parts of Spain resources are already stretched to breaking point, especially in the southern Costas. In this chapter I give you ten top destinations to consider so that you don't all end up in the same place.
Andalusia is home to 200,000 overseas property owners. The area has seen average property prices increase by nearly 20 per cent in the past year. Andalusia is the southernmost area of Spain with a coastline stretching from southern Portugal, right across the tip of Spain opposite Gibraltar, and up past Almeria. There are four international airports in Andalusia, making getting to and from the UK relatively easy and inexpensive. Andalusia has three major cities - Córdoba, Seville, and Granada - over 500 kilometres of Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline, hundreds of beaches, and the Sierra Nevada national park and mountain range. Andalusia justifiably claims to be one of the warmest regions of Europe, having a temperate, Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild winters with occasional rainy days.


Plenty of sports are on offer in Andalusia, including fishing, mountain biking, sailing, shooting, and skiing. For those seeking more leisurely pursuits, you'll find parks, flea markets, antique shops, museums, and sites