# moving from Malta to Canary Islands



## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

Hi there,
This is my first entry so not exactly sue how to proceed, so here goes! 

My wife and I moved from the UK to Gozo,Malta, aproximately 2 years ago. At first things appeared OK, but after a while it became obvious that integration would be difficult even with local language skills. Admittedly, we made the mistake of living on the waterfront, which creates some frustration during the summer months, but more importantly excludes our day to day exposure to a constant community as such.

Without wishing to appear defamatoury, it has been very difficult to establish relationships. Even our 10 year old son, who is very popular at school, has struggled to integrate outside school due to the local attitude, of insular living.

We would wish to find a simple life without too many pre-conceived conditions, by attempting to have eveything we had in the UK, accompanied by wonderful weather.

We have lived abroad for two years now and have some experince of the sacrifices one has to make. However, the combination of an apparent lack of passion, social integration and dissapointing winters, have lead us to search out a new start in the Canary Islands and would ask if anyone could offer any kind assistance ? 

We have only visited Tenerife and Fuerteventura previously, and therefore have no experience of the other Islands. I would suspect that Gran Canaria & Lanzarote, along with Tenerife, may be the more appropriate to offer a few more options for my son as he matures.

Once again, thank you for any anticipated co-operation !

Online


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

mvj1 said:


> Hi there,
> This is my first entry so not exactly sue how to proceed, so here goes!
> 
> My wife and I moved from the UK to Gozo,Malta, aproximately 2 years ago. At first things appeared OK, but after a while it became obvious that integration would be difficult even with local language skills. Admittedly, we made the mistake of living on the waterfront, which creates some frustration during the summer months, but more importantly excludes our day to day exposure to a constant community as such.
> ...


I dont think any of the regulars on here come from the Canarys, all I( know of it is that its a beautiful place with slightly warmer winters than the rest of us!!!!! As for intergration, well I guess its much the same as any other holiday island????

Jo xxx


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

Well,It's certainly got the weather and with prices tumbling it would not be a bad time to see whether you foud it was what you wanted. 

I know Tenerife best but it is STILL an ISLAND and I know many get claustrophobic. The twin terrors of Los Cristianos/Las Americas are very touristy and definitely somewhere I would NOT want to live 12/365. Others might. The capital Santa Cruz is still very Spanish and is most definitely somewhere where I WOULD like to live. (La Liga next season!) I love the north - Puerto Cruz is a favourite city where I could live or die. I nearly made it there a couple of weeks ago but Jojo bottled it. (You will find she always loses at spoof!)


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## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

*relocation to the Canary Islands*



jojo said:


> I dont think any of the regulars on here come from the Canarys, all I( know of it is that its a beautiful place with slightly warmer winters than the rest of us!!!!! As for intergration, well I guess its much the same as any other holiday island????
> 
> Jo xxx


Hi Jo,
Thanks for the reply !
It would be really helpfull to find some in depth opinions from expats living within any of the islands.


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

Check recent threads and you will see some opinions.


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## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

SteveHall said:


> Well,It's certainly got the weather and with prices tumbling it would not be a bad time to see whether you foud it was what you wanted.
> 
> I know Tenerife best but it is STILL an ISLAND and I know many get claustrophobic. The twin terrors of Los Cristianos/Las Americas are very touristy and definitely somewhere I would NOT want to live 12/365. Others might. The capital Santa Cruz is still very Spanish and is most definitely somewhere where I WOULD like to live. (La Liga next season!) I love the north - Puerto Cruz is a favourite city where I could live or die. I nearly made it there a couple of weeks ago but Jojo bottled it. (You will find she always loses at spoof!)


Hi Steve,

Not sure about the Jojo conection, but appreciate your feedback. After living in Gozo ( approx 9 x 4 miles ) Tenerife may appear like a continent !

I agree the likes of America's & Christianos would not be fore my family and I, and having visited the North before, found it to be much more authentic in feel. 
Would you be able to supply any more in depth info on the region ?


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

mvj1 said:


> Hi Steve,
> 
> Not sure about the Jojo conection, but appreciate your feedback.


Its a private joke?????? Steve invited me to join him on a visit to the Canarys as I´m quite keen to see what its like there too. I´ve heard it had a good all year round climate and is a beautiful place to live????? But I "bottled out".... well I´m a respectable married woman  Seriously tho, I´m watching this thread with interest cos I´m keen to hear more

Jo xxxxx


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## SunnySpain (Jul 30, 2008)

mvj1 said:


> After living in Gozo ( approx 9 x 4 miles ) Tenerife may appear like a continent !
> 
> having visited the North before, found it to be much more authentic in feel.
> Would you be able to supply any more in depth info on the region ?



We have friends living in La Laguna near to Santa Cruz, they seem to like it and have recommended it as the best place to live on the Island.

Might be worth a visit at least. 


Cheers, Dave


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## SteveHall (Oct 17, 2008)

Strange - I was going to say that I would not recommend La Laguna. It's very rainy there. I have left Puerto de la Cruz in the sun, driven through the rain of La Laguna and then dropped down the looooooooooooong hill into Santa Cruz where it was brilliant sunshine again. For that reason alone I personally would not consider it. 

As we always say, you need to come over and see what works for you!


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## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

SteveHall said:


> Check recent threads and you will see some opinions.


Thanks Steve,

Will check out !

Mark


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## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

jojo said:


> Its a private joke?????? Steve invited me to join him on a visit to the Canarys as I´m quite keen to see what its like there too. I´ve heard it had a good all year round climate and is a beautiful place to live????? But I "bottled out".... well I´m a respectable married woman  Seriously tho, I´m watching this thread with interest cos I´m keen to hear more
> 
> Jo xxxxx



Thanks Jo,
I will continue my efforts, but should you discver anything relevant please let me know !

Regards Mark


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## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

SunnySpain said:


> We have friends living in La Laguna near to Santa Cruz, they seem to like it and have recommended it as the best place to live on the Island.
> 
> Might be worth a visit at least.
> 
> ...


Hi Dave,

Thank you for the mail. I did visit La Laguna in previous life, about 10 years ago.
From memory the weather was changable as you passed though the general area. I think from my recolection, it appeared a little industrious also, but maybe it's because I enjoyed the scenic drive up the autovia, along the coast ?

Do you have any other details of the area ?

Regards Mark.


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## mvj1 (Apr 26, 2009)

SteveHall said:


> Strange - I was going to say that I would not recommend La Laguna. It's very rainy there. I have left Puerto de la Cruz in the sun, driven through the rain of La Laguna and then dropped down the looooooooooooong hill into Santa Cruz where it was brilliant sunshine again. For that reason alone I personally would not consider it.
> 
> As we always say, you need to come over and see what works for you!


Hey Steve,

La laguna appeared a little more commercial when I visited on business many year ago. You seem to know the area quite well and wondered if you could highlight any differneces on the various towns you mentioned. Also, what about places such as La Orotava ?

Mark


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## chergirl (Feb 7, 2010)

Hi I live 5 minutes away from Los Cristianos in the South of Tenerife away from all the tourism Tenerife is a great place to live and has a good expat community. The winter climate is mostly fantastic but if you do miss the cold and wet you can always go up north for the Day! My boy is 9 and goes to an English School 5 minutes away from our house. You can definitely lead an English style lifestyle if you so wish here and have great weather all year round! We even get English t.v! It's a very easy place to move to but we have been affected by the credit crunch so finding jobs might not be so easy.Hope this helps.


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## StephanieS (Apr 26, 2013)

Hi MVJ,

I live in St. Julian's, Malta, and I've been considering moving to Gozo in the future. I'd be interested to hear more about the specifics of why you found it difficult (if you want, please inbox me). I'd especially like to know how it is for non-Gozitans to start a business there.

Many thanks!
Stephanie


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## Lonely (Aug 11, 2012)

Unemployment continues to rise in the Canary Islands with the latest statistics over the lat quarter showing that the total number of unemployed on the islands is 385,600 people, which is a 34.27% of the population, and an increase of 4.68%

These figures place the Canary Islands third in Spain with the highest level of unemployment. Andalucia is top of the unemployment list with 36.87% of its population, followed by Extremadura at 35.56% and then the Canary Islands at 34.27% (7% above the Spanish National average of 27.16%.

These figures are based on data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).


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## Goldeneye (Nov 12, 2011)

I've been to Tenerife many times over the years, _(in total probably have spent over 6 months on the Island)_ 
.
My in laws retired to the urbanization of El Lagar just outside La Orotava. When they first moved there it was a new build 90% ex-pats of those 80% we from the UK. Most were retired or of retirement age ( non with kids) the same can be said of most of the urbanizations in the area. 
.
The only kids we ever saw in the area were grand kids visiting granny & grandpa during the holidays.
I would choose Puerto de la Cruz any day over the resorts to the South, although having kids you may prefer the south, Los Cristianos is certainly waaay better than the drunken hell hole of Play de las Americas!!
.
La Orotava itself is a lovely loud vibrant VERY SPANISH town, I don't feel you would intergrate very easily. In the latter years of my in -laws stay in Tenerife they moved out of their Villa and into a apartment in La Orotava, they didn't establish any friendships in their totally Spanish occupied apartment block. Then again the one Spanish family that lived on the development they initially moved to, moved back to La Orotava as the wife felt isolated from her Spanish friends..
It sounds to me as you want a good social Expat community, if that is the case then perhaps Los Cristianos is for you.. 
We did consider Tenerife ourselves, we love the island, we know it very very well, in the end we felt that we just didn't want to be on an Island, we want to be able to hop in the car and have access to the rest of Europe..
If on the other hand someone waved a wand, said 'you can move to Spain but *ONLY* to Tenerife' then we would choose to settle near Puerto de la Cruz in the The Orotava Valley.... But we are in our 50's and have no kids and prefer quaint backstreets and culture over bars, clubs and disco's...


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Psssst. The O.P. first posted in 2009.


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