# Where to live in Southern Spain



## Sean1973 (May 28, 2015)

Hi to every one, ive just registered with this forum. 
So hello from me and my family.

My self, partner, 2x boys (1year & 4 years) and 2x dogs are planning to move to Southern Spain in the coming months. 

We would like to know the main areas/towns that have English speaking communities.
I work month on/month off rota, so my partner will be on her own with the children and dogs for the month I’m at work. 
As my partner does not drive, where ever we end up needs to be close to shops and schools/nurserys ect. 

We would like to be close to the coast/beach and will be looking to rent property.

So over to you guys/girls on the forum, where would you recommend for us ?.

Thanks
Sean


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

write a list of what you need. I suspect a good school (international of state??) and a good airport are things you need to be close to for starters - Malaga is good, but check the links and flight prices for you own needs and work from there

Jo xxx


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

I don't drive and find the public transport links (both bus & train) from Feungirola to Malaga (& the towns in between) to be excellent. Cheap & reliable. I am also here on my own with my children (much older than yours) while my husband works overseas. & along the coast here you would be hard pushed to avoid an English speaking community!!


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## Sirtravelot (Jul 20, 2011)

Sean1973 said:


> Hi to every one, ive just registered with this forum.
> So hello from me and my family.
> 
> My self, partner, 2x boys (1year & 4 years) and 2x dogs are planning to move to Southern Spain in the coming months.
> ...


La Cala de Mijas.

Check it out. It sounds like it has everything you need. May be tough finding a place to rent though.


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

Sirtravelot said:


> La Cala de Mijas.
> 
> Check it out. It sounds like it has everything you need. May be tough finding a place to rent though.



As a non driver I feel La Cala is a bit remote. Not sure whether I am even correct in saying that! But for me Feugirola going towards Malaga as oppose to the other side of Feungi heading off to Marbella seems to have the best public transport links. The train line stops at Feungirola for example. Anyway thats my two pennies for what they are worth!


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## Sean1973 (May 28, 2015)

Thanks for the replies so far.

I actually thought i would get more replies, as some of the info ive been reading on the forum regarding living/moving is from a while ago so thought i might get more up to date info, but i guess folk are busy or on holidays. 

Any way thanks to those who took the time to reply to me, much appreciated.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Sean1973 said:


> Thanks for the replies so far.
> 
> I actually thought i would get more replies, as some of the info ive been reading on the forum regarding living/moving is from a while ago so thought i might get more up to date info, but i guess folk are busy or on holidays.
> 
> Any way thanks to those who took the time to reply to me, much appreciated.



Its not easy to recommend to someone really. Your criteria pretty much covers most of the costas and towns along the south. So you can more or less choose. As I said earlier, you need to write down your needs and wants. Google maps is pretty good for then sorting out areas to go and take a look at 

Jo xxx


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

jojo said:


> Its not easy to recommend to someone really. Your criteria pretty much covers most of the costas and towns along the south. So you can more or less choose. As I said earlier, you need to write down your needs and wants. Google maps is pretty good for then sorting out areas to go and take a look at
> 
> Jo xxx


If you go to Google Earth then select Street view, you can do a virtual tour of the places you are interested in. Other than that, given the few "Wants" that you have told us about, there is little I can offer in the way of help because I am nowhere near the coast or other expat communities.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Well Baldi having seen the pics of your town I have now checked the bible and there's no commandment against me coveting your gorgeous village.. I hereby wish to register outright envy, jealousy and annoyance


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Rabbitcat said:


> Well Baldi having seen the pics of your town I have now checked the bible and there's no commandment against me coveting your gorgeous village.. I hereby wish to register outright envy, jealousy and annoyance


That is what one gets when one does thorough research before making a move.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

I will bear that in mind

Meanwhile it would be a nice gesture to throw open your doors to forum members???


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## Leanne7011 (Jan 4, 2013)

We are also planning to move to the south but not for another 12 months. My son will be 4 nearly 5 and my daughter will be 1. We are looking around the benalmadena area where I've heard there is a mix of Spanish and English people and also good schools. 

does your partner speak Spanish? I would suggest that she learns some basics to mix with the locals etc and to feel more comfortable.. Just from experience, my partner felt a bit left out when we lived in Alicante for a year.. It could be different down south though with the mix of communities, I'm not sure..


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## Leanne7011 (Jan 4, 2013)

Oh and idealista.com is a good website to get an idea of rental accomodation out there and prices etc


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## HarryB (Jan 17, 2013)

Hi. We used to live in La Cala with two kids and my hubby worked away too. It is certainly far from remote. The buses that go through Fuengirola can be reached very easily by bus from La Cala as can Marbella in the other direction. La Cala is a lovely, friendly village with nurseries, schools and lots for kids. I may be biased, but dont think you could find much better in that area, especially with the age of your kids.


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

HarryB said:


> Hi. We used to live in La Cala with two kids and my hubby worked away too. It is certainly far from remote. The buses that go through Fuengirola can be reached very easily by bus from La Cala as can Marbella in the other direction. La Cala is a lovely, friendly village with nurseries, schools and lots for kids. I may be biased, but dont think you could find much better in that area, especially with the age of your kids.


Please let me know what buses go from La Cala to Fuengirola and how often. Although I suspect you would need to change at the bus station should you want to venture more towards Malaga. Also if you could kindly let me know what buses go from La Cala to Marbella (320/220 and...?) I would also be very grateful. 
I have obviously missed something when I looked into this area in the past.
We are considering a move from Benalmadena and opening up options is never a bad thing.
The train is not an option after Fuengirola so a decent bus service as a non driver is essential.


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## ddrysdale99 (Apr 3, 2014)

Does this help? List of bus stops between Marbella Bus Station and Fuengirola Bus station<meta name="description" content="Listing of Portillo bus stops between Marbella and Fuengirola on the A7 coastal road on the Costa del Sol">


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

angil said:


> Please let me know what buses go from La Cala to Fuengirola and how often. Although I suspect you would need to change at the bus station should you want to venture more towards Malaga. Also if you could kindly let me know what buses go from La Cala to Marbella (320/220 and...?) I would also be very grateful.
> I have obviously missed something when I looked into this area in the past.
> We are considering a move from Benalmadena and opening up options is never a bad thing.
> The train is not an option after Fuengirola so a decent bus service as a non driver is essential.


There was definitely a bus from La Cala to Club la Costa (just outside of Fuengirola) I worked there with girls from La Cala who caught the bus

Jo xxx


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## HarryB (Jan 17, 2013)

The bus goes from outside the town hall to Fuengirola, and Is very frequent. The bus goes to Marbella from under the by-pass, again in the centre if town and is also frequent. I am pretty sure there is a bus straight to Malaga, but its not as frequent. We often got the bus to Fuengi and then the train in towards Malaga and towns in between Trains are fab. La Cala is idealky situated, but thats just my opinion.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

ddrysdale99 said:


> Does this help? List of bus stops between Marbella Bus Station and Fuengirola Bus station<meta name="description" content="Listing of Portillo bus stops between Marbella and Fuengirola on the A7 coastal road on the Costa del Sol">


We caught a bus from Marbella to Málaga last Friday, which stopped in the centre of La Cala. It didn't stop in Fuengirola, although it did in Benalmádena. At the La Cala stop, the driver would not let people board the Alsa bus who wanted to go to Málaga, so there must be urbano bus services they can use instead. We have a similar situation here, where the Alsa inter-urbano buses leave Vélez bound for Málaga and stop in Torre del Mar, but we can´t use them to get to Torre but have to use the local urbano services instead.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

You can also go onto Google earth and set it to show bus-stops. I did that for somebody from the village who was going to be staying in England for a couple of weeks learning English and needed to use the bus for getting around.


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

Lynn R said:


> We caught a bus from Marbella to Málaga last Friday, which stopped in the centre of La Cala. It didn't stop in Fuengirola, although it did in Benalmádena. At the La Cala stop, the driver would not let people board the Alsa bus who wanted to go to Málaga, so there must be urbano bus services they can use instead. We have a similar situation here, where the Alsa inter-urbano buses leave Vélez bound for Málaga and stop in Torre del Mar, but we can´t use them to get to Torre but have to use the local urbano services instead.


It would have been the 220? Is that not the magical mystery tour one that takes ages? but does run frequently unlike the 320 that runs about 5 times a day!
Will definitley get myself to La Cala one more time just to get another feel. For me it seemed ideal 18 months ago (except for the remoteness!) when Spain was still very new to me, but the last time I was there felt too 'foreign' ie. a very Northern European feel! Need to see it with fresh eyes.
Daughter is debating stay in Southern Spain for Uni now so looking to be closer to Marbella bus routes.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

angil said:


> It would have been the 220? Is that not the magical mystery tour one that takes ages? but does run frequently unlike the 320 that runs about 5 times a day!
> Will definitley get myself to La Cala one more time just to get another feel. For me it seemed ideal 18 months ago (except for the remoteness!) when Spain was still very new to me, but the last time I was there felt too 'foreign' ie. a very Northern European feel! Need to see it with fresh eyes.
> Daughter is debating stay in Southern Spain for Uni now so looking to be closer to Marbella bus routes.


I didn't even look at the number, sorry. It left Marbella at 10.30 am, that's all I know! It didn't stop very often, but still seemed to take ages. I know you can't judge a place on the strength of a bus journey through it, but for what it's worth La Cala made a more favourable impression on me than the other places along that stretch of coast, it seemed to have more of a small town centre feel about it, and less overtly tourist oriented. 

Have you considered looking at one of the suburbs of Málaga capital? I would have thought it would be ideal for you as a non-driver.


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## HarryB (Jan 17, 2013)

Lynn R said:


> I didn't even look at the number, sorry. It left Marbella at 10.30 am, that's all I know! It didn't stop very often, but still seemed to take ages. I know you can't judge a place on the strength of a bus journey through it, but for what it's worth La Cala made a more favourable impression on me than the other places along that stretch of coast, it seemed to have more of a small town centre feel about it, and less overtly tourist oriented.
> 
> Have you considered looking at one of the suburbs of Málaga capital? I would have thought it would be ideal for you as a non-driver.


We loved living in La Cala, it does indeed have the small town atmosphere, it can get touristy in the summer, but then it is Spain  It has everything you need. Reading about it makes me miss it even more


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

Lynn R said:


> I didn't even look at the number, sorry. It left Marbella at 10.30 am, that's all I know! It didn't stop very often, but still seemed to take ages. I know you can't judge a place on the strength of a bus journey through it, but for what it's worth La Cala made a more favourable impression on me than the other places along that stretch of coast, it seemed to have more of a small town centre feel about it, and less overtly tourist oriented.
> 
> Have you considered looking at one of the suburbs of Málaga capital? I would have thought it would be ideal for you as a non-driver.


Malaga would probably tick a lot of my 'new' boxes, unfortunatley wouldn't help re; location of my son's school (Benalmadena) or my daughter's prospective Uni (Marbella).

As a non driver you most certainly need to judge a place on the strength of its public transport service. One of the down falls of being a non driver I suppose?!

I did like La Cala but in hindsight I think it would prove to be far too Northern European, lack of buses a side.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

angil said:


> Malaga would probably tick a lot of my 'new' boxes, unfortunatley wouldn't help re; location of my son's school (Benalmadena) or my daughter's prospective Uni (Marbella).
> 
> As a non driver you most certainly need to judge a place on the strength of its public transport service. One of the down falls of being a non driver I suppose?!
> 
> I did like La Cala but in hindsight I think it would prove to be far too Northern European, lack of buses a side.


Torre Muelle, near Benalmadena !!! It's got everything 

Jo xxx

Sent from my D5803 using Expat Forum


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## HarryB (Jan 17, 2013)

angil said:


> Malaga would probably tick a lot of my 'new' boxes, unfortunatley wouldn't help re; location of my son's school (Benalmadena) or my daughter's prospective Uni (Marbella).
> 
> As a non driver you most certainly need to judge a place on the strength of its public transport service. One of the down falls of being a non driver I suppose?!
> 
> I did like La Cala but in hindsight I think it would prove to be far too Northern European, lack of buses a side.


Can I ask what you mean by too Northern European? Its a very Spanish town, yes there are ex pats, but still retains Spanish Culture. Certainly living there it felt like Spain.


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

HarryB said:


> Can I ask what you mean by too Northern European? Its a very Spanish town, yes there are ex pats, but still retains Spanish Culture. Certainly living there it felt like Spain.


Sorry, but that certainly wasn't my impression. At the time I thought that is what we were looking for (ie. lots of blonde haired children running around in the evening playing and lots of English voices). Then again as I know from years of experience living overseas visiting somewhere and living somewhere are 2 different things. Your opinion as someone living in La Cala would be more valid than mine.


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

jojo said:


> Torre Muelle, near Benalmadena !!! It's got everything
> 
> Jo xxx
> 
> Sent from my D5803 using Expat Forum


It certainly has my son's school! But very little else that would tick any of our boxes.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

angil said:


> It certainly has my son's school! But very little else that would tick any of our boxes.


Yes, my childrens school was there too lol. It has the train station, its close to the main road and buses, the sea/beaches, the campo, a sprinkling of small shops, bars and restaurants. And within walking distance (if you're fit lol) to the main Benalmadena resort and Benalmadena Pueblo

It suited us very well, but then we're all different

Jo xxx


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## angil (Sep 24, 2012)

jojo said:


> Yes, my childrens school was there too lol. It has the train station, its close to the main road and buses, the sea/beaches, the campo, a sprinkling of small shops, bars and restaurants. And within walking distance (if you're fit lol) to the main Benalmadena resort and Benalmadena Pueblo
> 
> It suited us very well, but then we're all different
> 
> Jo xxx


I know it well Jo. Walked there & beyond many times from Benalmadena Costa, I am fit! It just reminds me of a UK housing estate; not necessarily a bad thing. But after years of busy, high rise living in Asia not for us anymore.
Like you said we are all different. & as many of you have advised in the past renting at first is the key, it gives you the flexibility to make mistakes! / change your mind. Because you can't really know whether a place is suited to you or not until you have actually lived there.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

angil said:


> I know it well Jo. Walked there & beyond many times from Benalmadena Costa, I am fit! It just reminds me of a UK housing estate; not necessarily a bad thing. But after years of busy, high rise living in Asia not for us anymore.
> Like you said we are all different. & as many of you have advised in the past renting at first is the key, it gives you the flexibility to make mistakes! / change your mind. Because you can't really know whether a place is suited to you or not until you have actually lived there.


Hhhmm, not sure Its like a UK housing estate, its just a private urb, like many others in Spain, not many British there tho, lots of all nationalities. Although, initially it wasn't my first choice. But it was the most sensible place for us at the time and actually we loved it, so convenient for everything and everyone

Jo xxx

Sent from my D5803 using Expat Forum


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

angil said:


> As a non driver you most certainly need to judge a place on the strength of its public transport service. One of the down falls of being a non driver I suppose?!
> 
> .


Yes, absolutely. The good transport links were high on the list of why we chose to live where we do (not only do I not drive, but my husband didn't want to either after we moved). Really, I suppose it would be even better if we lived in Torre del Mar as I go there at least 3 times a week (for my gym) and it's that bit closer to Málaga, Nerja etc. with an even better choice of services than our half hourly service to Málaga, but the trade-off is that I prefer this town and it's never a scrum to get on the buses here whereas at Torre it can be a pain, especially at the height of the tourist season. 

Good luck with your search, anyway, and to everybody else who is looking for that perfect spot (or as near to perfect as we can ever get).


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

So much depends on one's past experiences as much as personal preferences (ticking boxes, etc.). For us, the places Jo and others describe, sound absolutely ghastly and we wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. Coastal, especially areas that get a lot of tourists, we've done those and now prefer to stay well away, likewise cities and large towns. 

I have every expectation of seeing out my days in this village, it has everything we need even if we didn't have a car. There is a very limited bus service to the nearby towns where there are hospitals and the likes of Lidl and Mercadona (which are not essential given that we have 5 supermarkets in the village). The atmosphere here reminds me much of the village where I was born, people are warm, friendly, generous and kind. There is no need for Social Services (à la UK) because there is neighbourliness. If you need help to move something heavy or to do anything else, just ask and a team of strong healthy bods will appear. We have nice healthy, clean air. If we want to go somewhere, there is not a lot of traffic on the roads, even in "rush hour". For us this is our little bit of heaven right here on earth.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

baldilocks said:


> So much depends on one's past experiences as much as personal preferences (ticking boxes, etc.). For us, the places Jo and others describe, sound absolutely ghastly and we wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. Coastal, especially areas that get a lot of tourists, we've done those and now prefer to stay well away, likewise cities and large towns.



This is why I always say, unless you're sure, rent first. When we started looking, prior to moving, the very last place I would have chosen was Torre Muelle, or any other costa urb. But once we arrived and the novelty wore off, we realised that what we wanted was totally unpractical and actually very lonely - and of course, when you have children, their needs change as they get older

Jo xxx


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Also whilst researching areas online is very helpful it can be a totally different experience when you actually visit those places.

We have hopefully narrowed down to two specific areas with one town in each area so next up is to revisit those two towns staying for a longer period


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