# Moving to Mallorca



## jewell1 (Nov 20, 2018)

Hi

I am a mum of a 16month old and expecting a baby in May too... 

We are thinking of renting in Mallorca from early next year and would like to attend playgroups with my toddler.

Is there much going on like that on the island? We are looking at Soller. 

Thanks.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Please be aware the islands can, and often do, suffer from appalling weather in the winter including snow, wind, torrential rain and damaging floods!


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## bobley (Nov 7, 2018)

I wouldn't say the weather in Mallorca is that bad in winter? Sure it snows in the mountains but it's still warmer / nicer than the UK!! It was getting into the high teens in January and by March i was wearing shorts again!

Meanwhile, we've stayed in Soller for a week and Pollenca for about 6 weeks over the last 18 months. I've got to say that I've always been surprised about how many English speaking kids we see running around in Pollenca. One house I looked at had an English family living there and in the summer I bought a sideboard off a family up the road who had young kids too. There is an international school in Sa Pobla just down the road so I guess English families get attracted to the area for the school and the beautiful scenery up here. 

There are other international schools around the island, mostly down near Palma/Marratxi. So I'd imagine you'd find English families gravitating towards those areas.


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## kaipa (Aug 3, 2013)

But the weather was terrible last year. The island was battered by winds and flooding. People died. No?


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## bobley (Nov 7, 2018)

Absolutely, there were storms and floods in October, not the winter. I agreed it hasn't been a great year. The deaths in S'illot were completely outside anyone's expectations. I arrived back in Pollenca 2 days after the flooding there started too. The flooding caused damage to flatland areas around the town but the town itself was untouched. A lot of the damage has been attributed to poor maintenance of the torrents around the areas involved. I certainly wouldn't let that put me off looking for somewhere to live here.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

bobley said:


> I wouldn't say the weather in Mallorca is that bad in winter? Sure it snows in the mountains but it's still warmer / nicer than the UK!! It was getting into the high teens in January and by March i was wearing shorts again!
> 
> Meanwhile, we've stayed in Soller for a week and Pollenca for about 6 weeks over the last 18 months. I've got to say that I've always been surprised about how many English speaking kids we see running around in Pollenca. One house I looked at had an English family living there and in the summer I bought a sideboard off a family up the road who had young kids too. There is an international school in Sa Pobla just down the road so I guess English families get attracted to the area for the school and the beautiful scenery up here.
> 
> There are other international schools around the island, mostly down near Palma/Marratxi. So I'd imagine you'd find English families gravitating towards those areas.


 Perhaps I was wrong in the season, but the Balearics do have appalling weather on occasions, so perhaps my post should have been
Please be aware the islands can, and often do, suffer from appalling weather (delete in the winter) including snow, wind, torrential rain and damaging floods! 
Note: I am not saying that this area suffers from bad weather all the time. I just wanted to point out that there is very bad weather at times. Why? Because some foreigners don't realise that as they just focus on the summer weather.


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## bobley (Nov 7, 2018)

It is a surprising place. I've only got to know it over the last 3 years and there's so much more to learn about it. You really have to put all your pre conceptions out of your mind and start afresh. I only had a few european holidays as a kid (france, portugal, menorca, ibiza basically) so "abroard" just means big white hotels, beach and swimming pool.

The Tramuntana are just an amazing place and given that Puig Major is 100m taller than Ben Nevis you can see why the weather up there can be so bad. I guess the direction of the wind coming in varies where it's "rain shadow" falls but often Soller and Pollenca can be drier than the other side of the mountains. 

I did consider buying a place in the Alps too but folks tell me that outside of the summer and winter extremes it can be just wet and miserable there. In terms of easy access to the UK and decent weather I cant say I'm complaing so far but happy to concede that there are nicer places to live.


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