# English family moving to Barcelona area



## aec18 (Jan 18, 2014)

Hi all, 
As the title of this post states, we are 90% sure we will be moving to Barcelona at the back end of summer with my husbands job. To give you some background info, we have a 8 year old daughter who we will enrol in the British School in Castelldefels and by the time we move, we will also have a 3 month old baby.

So my question is, where do we move to? It needs to be relatively close to the school, but I have heard that as beautiful as Castelldefels is, there isn't a big expat community there, which I have to say, I find a bit surprising given the British school is there. With a new baby, its important to have a bit of likeminded community especially as my Spanish is fairly poor and my Catalan is non existent (although I do plan on working on both of these things ;-) I guess ideally we'd like to be on the coast, but it needs to be somewhere with good links as my husband will need to travel into the city on a daily basis. What about Sitges - that seems another obvious choice..? Where else - are we missing any great areas where we could have a social life with other expats? 

We are going for a weekend in the next month or so to do a reckie but need an idea of where to focus our efforts. Once we are decided on this, its likely that my husbands work will help with the relocation and finding a house.

Sorry for the long rambling post but any advice from those in the know is hugely appreciated! Thank you!!


----------



## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Where we live, about 1500 miles away from Barcelona, there are only two other English Ex Pats, rarely do we see them, however we have made lots and lots of new friends.

Good luck with your new life!!


----------



## elisa31bcn (Jan 23, 2013)

I just wanted to add that unlike other areas of Spain, there are no areas in Barcelona where there is a preponderance of expats. Barcelona is very diverse, but all neighborhoods are mixed, and British expats are spread out all over, as are Americans. 
Sitges might be a bit closer to what you're looking for, but again, it won't be like some areas in the south of Spain, where Brits are in the majority.
Your best bet here will be to join groups, like the Barcelona Woman's Network, which is a group that facilitates the arrival of newcomers, all English speakers, and has all kinds of activities, dinners, outings. It's a good place to find friends. I'm sure the British school will also be a help.


----------



## aec18 (Jan 18, 2014)

Thank you for replies so far. I hope I don't come across as someone who is looking to only socialise with Brits and eat egg and chips from British pubs every day, that couldn't be further from the truth (not that there is anything wrong with that, if that's what you want to do)!! Its just simply with having a new baby, I want a bit of a support network I guess and don't want to be stuck in on my own, day in, day out! Which makes your suggestions elisa, about the Woman's Network, really helpful - so thank you.


----------



## elisa31bcn (Jan 23, 2013)

I understand where you're coming from. I also felt the same, and although I did speak some Spanish, the change was difficult at first. I joined the women's group I mentioned, and also the American Society. The women's group has a separate group just for Mom's....


----------

