# Orba



## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Orba, folks- anyone got any info experience details tips or insight. Appreciate any help.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Come on folks- some of you must have some info
From my initial enquiries I thought there was a reasonable amount of expats there


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Obviously asleep still!


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Rabbitcat said:


> Orba, folks- anyone got any info experience details tips or insight. Appreciate any help.


I had never heard of Orba until seeing it featured on the Channel 4 programme "A Place in the Sun" a year or two back. The couple who were being shown properties fell in love with a house there and made an offer. I know the general area but don't have any specific information, good or bad, but it looked nice on the TV.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Thanks Skipper, at least you bothered replying

I will wreak terrible revenge on all those who didn't . Photos of me in my mankini on last weeks viewing trip are flying through cyberspace to members inboxes right now!


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## paintersmate (Dec 1, 2015)

oh my eyes. I will have to respond then, even if I dont know too much about Orba, haha
Hope the viewing trip went well for you


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## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

Rabbitcat said:


> Thanks Skipper, at least you bothered replying
> 
> I will wreak terrible revenge on all those who didn't . Photos of me in my mankini on last weeks viewing trip are flying through cyberspace to members inboxes right now!


I've just closed my account! :flame:


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## holt (Jul 15, 2011)

I've been in Orba for some months a few years ago. What exactly do you want to know?


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Holt thank you.

Just general info, were you there in winter how cold did it get, any recommendations for restaurants/bars, if you're not fluent in Spanish were you able to get by, had you any interaction with local authorities were they ok etc


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## holt (Jul 15, 2011)

Rabbitcat said:


> Holt thank you.
> 
> Just general info, were you there in winter how cold did it get, any recommendations for restaurants/bars, if you're not fluent in Spanish were you able to get by, had you any interaction with local authorities were they ok etc


We were living in the nearby Denia/Pedreguer and were taking our children to the best free/democratic "school" that we ever found, Ojo de Agua in Orba.
Yes it gets quite cold in the winter, especially in Orba because it's some km inland and closer to the mountains. Expect the water in the pool to freeze over night. Scrape ice off the windshield. However, after the sun gets out it warms up nicely. On top of that, most houses are not winterized, i.e. difficult to heat and keep warm in the winter.
This is one of the reason that made us move more south, to the Canary Islands.

I am not a bar/restaurant person but from my observation the expat community is not too big in Orba. There are more in Denia and a lot more in Javea, that's where you will probably go a lot.
Main shopping area is right between Orba and Denia, next to the highway.
Orba is quite provincial and I don't think many people there speak English. I was even challenged with the bit of Spanish I knew, since a lot of people speak the local dialect, Valenciano I think is called. This is another reason we left the area.
Another thing I found really bothering in the area is because of the huge orange groves where the people trim the trees and burn that all year. I remember the early morning air filled with smoke, aggravated by the fog, to the point of difficulty breathing.

I really don't want to portray a negative imagine of the area. There are many good things as well. It is a very picturesque place, with the mountain and the sea close, with nice people. It is still quite green, if you go just 50 km south it starts to be a lot more arid.

I hope that helps, best of luck on your endeavors.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Cheers Holt but after that write up we have decided we would be better off with an appartment in downtown Aleppo!

Seriously though thanks for your advice, much appreciated


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

*Innacurate portrayal of Orba made me angry!*

My wife and I are from Scotland and have lived in Orba (permanently) since 2010. I felt I HAD to comment on this, particularly following Holt's post which contains some descriptions that are so far removed from reality it beggars belief! 



holt said:


> Yes it gets quite cold in the winter, especially in Orba because it's some km inland and closer to the mountains. Expect the water in the pool to freeze overnight. Scrape ice off the windshield. However, after the sun gets out it warms up nicely. On top of that, most houses are not winterized, i.e. difficult to heat and keep warm in the winter.
> This is one of the reason that made us move more south, to the Canary Islands.


We've now had 6 winters in Orba. There has never been frost, and according to my weather station it never got below around 2C at worst. Pool freezing over?! You've got to be kidding me! It just does not happen. Sure some of the people who've lived here many more years than us speak of I think one winter when there was snow on the ground for a few hours. Agreed most of the older houses are not "winterized" as he says but that's surely true of all older Spanish houses. Ours is an older property but has double glazing, central heating, hot/cold air conditioning units in some rooms, and a log burner in the lounge. So while yes it does get a lot colder in the winter it's nothing you can’t overcome, and it's certainly nothing like as cold as in other places at a higher altitude (or even Xativa where we lived for a year and a half before coming to Orba and was considerably colder in the winter).



holt said:


> I am not a bar/restaurant person but from my observation the expat community is not too big in Orba. There are more in Denia and a lot more in Javea, that's where you will probably go a lot.
> Main shopping area is right between Orba and Denia, next to the highway.


Pretty accurate comments. One of the (many) attractions of moving to Orba for us was that the town (village really) is very Spanish. Most of the expats seems to live in the urbanisations surrounding it, but even then there's a nice mix of different nationalities, and the locals are all very welcoming and friendly to the expats. While it used to just have a few small shops, since around 3 years ago a MasyMas supermarket was opened in the town so we are able to get most essentials without venturing far. However, the big shopping mall at Ondara (approx 10 mins drive towards Denia) has a huge range of shops and a big Eroski supermarket).



holt said:


> Orba is quite provincial and I don't think many people there speak English. I was even challenged with the bit of Spanish I knew, since a lot of people speak the local dialect, Valenciano I think is called. This is another reason we left the area.


It's true that Valenciano is the first and main language spoken by most of the Spanish here, but for goodness sake that's true of pretty much most of the Valencia region isn't it?! I won't deny that's made it a bit harder to learn the lingo and integrate, but they will all speak Castellano when you speak to them and more and more of the locals are quite good at English. The town hall has even been promoting an intercambio language exchange scheme for past 3 years to encourage locals and expats to meet up regularly in cafes/bars to practice speaking and therefore improve each others' Spanish and English. This has been very successful and helped my wife and I not only to improve our Spanish, but become good friends with some of the locals.




holt said:


> Another thing I found really bothering in the area is because of the huge orange groves where the people trim the trees and burn that all year. I remember the early morning air filled with smoke, aggravated by the fog, to the point of difficulty breathing.


This is SOOOO untrue!! I don't know what was happening when Holt was here, but it if that was the case all I can say is that things have changed dramatically since. There are indeed huge orange groves which are one of the things that make this area particularly beautiful, and while they do indeed annually trim the tress and burn the debris this is well controlled, and I can't think of any time there has been enough smoke to notice - never mind bother us. And "aggravated by the fog"?? Well perhaps it's all to do with global warming  but again fog is something we very rarely see! The climate here is wonderful!



holt said:


> I really don't want to portray a negative imagine of the area. There are many good things as well. It is a very picturesque place, with the mountain and the sea close, with nice people. It is still quite green, if you go just 50 km south it starts to be a lot more arid.


Well at last something we can agree on (!!), but I'm afraid you HAVE portrayed an extremely negative and inaccurate image of Orba. We feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful, and extremely peaceful area of Spain, surrounded by orange groves, beautiful scenery, spectacular mountains, great hill walking paths, really friendly locals, a young mayor and town council who are making spectacular efforts to improve all aspects of our community.... oh I could go on and on!! Part of me does not want to extoll the great things about Orba too much, as we want to keep it a secret and not have to many more people moving in to the area (!!) but all I can say is come and stay here in one of the local hostals for a day or two, or rent a town house or villa for longer, and experience it for yourself.


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## holt (Jul 15, 2011)

I apologize that I made you feel offended by my comments, I have lived in the area for 9 months about 6 years ago and I stand by what I said.
I had friends living in Orba and saw the pool frozen, of course not all winter but in the coldest days. It did even snow not far from there, in a little residential called Aldea de las Cuevas I think. I was living in La Sella and I had to scrape the ice off my car windshield many mornings. It does make a difference when the sun hits your place...

And I am glad to hear that the smoke and orchard burning in the area has changed. That was a major annoyance for me on almost every morning, I remember driving La Sella to Orba every day of the week. Maybe you get less of the smoke by being on the edge of the orchards, in Orba.
And yes, the air in the winter is humid, fog-like, in the morning, due to the cold air over night. If you wake up at 10AM you might miss most of these inconveniences 

Sorry again but I have no interest to be dishonest about my experience in the Orba region. I'll say again that overall I have pleasant memories of that time and would like to visit when I have the chance. Especially around May when the cherries are ripe. That's quite something!



guitareth said:


> My wife and I are from Scotland and have lived in Orba (permanently) since 2010. I felt I HAD to comment on this, particularly following Holt's post which contains some descriptions that are so far removed from reality it beggars belief!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Guitareth

Is it possible for you to switch on your messaging so I can send you a message re Orba?


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

holt said:


> I apologize that I made you feel offended by my comments, I have lived in the area for 9 months about 6 years ago and I stand by what I said.
> I had friends living in Orba and saw the pool frozen, of course not all winter but in the coldest days. It did even snow not far from there, in a little residential called Aldea de las Cuevas I think. I was living in La Sella and I had to scrape the ice off my car windshield many mornings. It does make a difference when the sun hits your place...
> 
> And I am glad to hear that the smoke and orchard burning in the area has changed. That was a major annoyance for me on almost every morning, I remember driving La Sella to Orba every day of the week. Maybe you get less of the smoke by being on the edge of the orchards, in Orba.
> ...


Aldea de las Cuevas is actually around 7kms from Orba and higher up in the hills so will be different in the winter to Orba. Also certain areas, perhaps including La Sella where you lived?? (and for those who don’t know, La Sella is again not in or beside Orba but around 10Kms further east) can suffer from being at the "wrong side" of a mountain in winter and therefore be in the shade a lot longer and therefore suffer from much colder mornings. So it's not fair to say "you can expect the pool to freeze over" or "to scrape frost off the windshield" when you were actually speaking about experiences in places which are NOT strictly-speaking in Orba or the immediate surrounds. 

In fairness, I guess you can only call it as you recall it, and perhaps global warming is changing the recent winters around here, but I just felt you painted an inaccurate and unnecessarily negative picture of Orba which in our experience is a spectacularly beautiful, welcoming and peaceful place to live.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Guitareth
If you drop me a message I can use that to contact you

Thanks


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

Hi Rabbitcat. I've been trying to see how to switch on messaging on this forum and can't find it. It also is not letting me message you. Can you help by guiding me as to how I can enable messaging? Have looked at my profile in the CP and cant see any apropriate option to enable.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Go to user CP at top then choose Settings Options and then choose Edit options- therein you will find allow messages


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

Rabbitcat said:


> Go to user CP at top then choose Settings Options and then choose Edit options- therein you will find allow messages


Have checked that and there's no messaging option available to me. I found other notes which state:

"You are still a junior member that has made less than 5 posts on the site. There are some restrictions placed on new member accounts such not being able to post links, not having a profile page, not being able to use the Private Messaging facility. After you have made 5 posts we will look at upgrading your account to an Active Member status when all the restrictions will be lifted. "

So I guess I'll just have to wait 

Post any further questions here meantime. I would give you my email address but do not want to post it on a public forum like this for fear of more spam!


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

guitareth said:


> Hi Rabbitcat. I've been trying to see how to switch on messaging on this forum and can't find it. It also is not letting me message you. Can you help by guiding me as to how I can enable messaging? Have looked at my profile in the CP and cant see any apropriate option to enable.


Now you have 5 posts, you will be able to send and receive messages - until now the system has been stopping you.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Well that's unfair as you have made six posts .( maybe if you now log out and back in your 6 posts will now allow you to message)


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I'm guessing both guitareth and Holt's information is correct as I can't see why someone would bother to write lies on this forum. It's useful for anyone in that area to know how things can change within a few kilometres, so thanks to both for posting and I hope the op is wise emough to take info from both posts into consideration


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Why I most certainly am. 

I have decided sod Spain I am off to pasta, spaghetti and the vivo loco. France here I come


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

Rabbitcat said:


> Why I most certainly am.
> 
> I have decided sod Spain I am off to pasta, spaghetti and the vivo loco. France here I come


You have a twisted sense of humour Rabbitcat! I like it! But for those who might not get it, I can confirm that Rabbitcat and I have been exchanging PM's about Orba so Holt's comments have not in fact put him off the place!


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Very true and may I put on the rescind m'lud- I am very thankful for Guitareths excellent help advice and indeed upcoming considerable cash gift towards my settling into Orba. Seriously folks yet again this forum has come up trumps for excellent. help, cheers


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## duncton01 (Aug 6, 2017)

Hi Guitareth
As one of the few residents Orba I can fid on this site, could you please help with a query. We are buying on El Capso, on the eastern edge. The villa has no internet, just a disconnected phone line. Could you advise the best internet in this area. I need to work on the internet from the villa. 
Is freesat the way to go for basic UK television?
Many thanks
Mark


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

duncton01 said:


> Hi Guitareth
> As one of the few residents Orba I can fid on this site, could you please help with a query. We are buying on El Capso, on the eastern edge. The villa has no internet, just a disconnected phone line. Could you advise the best internet in this area. I need to work on the internet from the villa.
> Is freesat the way to go for basic UK television?
> Many thanks
> Mark


Hi Mark

Good to hear of another new arrival. My wife and I live on El Capso and have done since 2010 so know the area very well! We also run an internet business from home, and whenever I am asked about internet I always have to recommend Movistar (formerly Telefonica). We've been with them since we bought our house and they generally are very reliable. On the (I think) two occasions only when we lost the internet (one was due to the landline phone cable having been snapped by strong winds, and the other a faulty router) they responded super-fast on same day. You will hear about many cheaper internet providers than Movistar but all I hear from peole using these providers are stories of bad customer service, slow speeds etc., and most people come back to Movistar eventually.

Re UK TV there's a lot of options available. We did have a Sky TV subscription and ran it of a shared feed from a neighbours sat dish (you need a large 2.4m dish for Sky here) but Sky has got so expensive that we've just ditched them. There's various companies in the area who offer alternative services but I haven't tried them so can't say. I'm sure that once you get here you'll get loads of recommendations. Your cheapest option is to buy an IPTV box with Kodi or similar installed, but you won't have the ease of use of an EPG with that plus there's possible legal issues with some of the streams.

For this and other general questions it would also be worth you joining the Orba Facebook group as at https://www.facebook.com/groups/137926995195/

Any other questions, don't hesitate to ask, or PM me.


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## duncton01 (Aug 6, 2017)

Hi Guitareth
Many thanks for your prompt reply. That is incredibly interesting. I dont run an internet business but rely totally on cloud connections to all of my work stuff, CRM system and data etc. We also run the firm using VOIP telephones, so I can work from anywhere in the world and look like I am sat in our office. 
If all goes well this next few weeks I will be working part of the year from El Capso and looking across the pool and the orange groves beyond.
What sort of speeds do you get from a normal Movistar connection and what is the price for an unlimited service? 
We are not terribly worried abut sky. It would appear that Bar Citrus has the footy on, so a ten minute stroll will sort that issue out for the odd match I would want to see on the big screen. I have a quote from PC and Sat Guy to cable in a dish and 2 freesat receivers for euros650. 
Cant wait. Just wish it was Spring and we had the summer ahead rather than winter. I hear December thru February can be a bit chilly and I am not sure of the level of insulation in the villa. It has a log burner and central heating, but can imagine gas bottle consumption may be prohibitive. Im surprised we have not seen more oil tanks, which is how we feed the heating in Sussex.
Regards
Mark


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

Yes we use VOIP as well for our business ( https://www.voipfone.co.uk), and we've also used the Sat & PC guy who I can also recommend. We're on Movistar's 10MB service and we typicaly get around 8MB download speed. Cost for landline and internet is currently 55.40 euros per month. You will definitely need the log burner and/or central heating in the winter, and yes the gas is expensive so you may need to economise by wearing more layers of clothes around the house in winter!


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## duncton01 (Aug 6, 2017)

Thats excellent. 8meg will do the trick for us. Movistar manage to make BT fibre look good value, never thought I would say that.
So we will have to leave some woolies in the wardrobe! The landrover is going to be full on our first trip down.
Maybe an electric blanket as well. 
Where is it best to buy logs for the fire?


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## guitareth (Aug 17, 2009)

duncton01 said:


> Thats excellent. 8meg will do the trick for us. Movistar manage to make BT fibre look good value, never thought I would say that.
> So we will have to leave some woolies in the wardrobe! The landrover is going to be full on our first trip down.
> Maybe an electric blanket as well.
> Where is it best to buy logs for the fire?


See www.elcapso.es. We created this website to provide loads of useful info about Orba and the surrounding area. If you go to the Utilities page you'll see details about firewood. Also worth you signing up for the mailing list via front page of our site.


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## duncton01 (Aug 6, 2017)

Thanks Guitareth. All useful stuff. Quite the local community you have created!


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Duncton, are you really from Duncton. Lovely area, I live close by.


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## duncton01 (Aug 6, 2017)

At the foot of the downs. Sat here now Isobella. Rather dull and slightly chilly.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

duncton01 said:


> Thats excellent. 8meg will do the trick for us. Movistar manage to make BT fibre look good value, never thought I would say that.
> So we will have to leave some woolies in the wardrobe! The landrover is going to be full on our first trip down.
> Maybe an electric blanket as well.
> Where is it best to buy logs for the fire?


If you've got space in your vehicle, I recommend an electric duvet. Ours is one of the most useful things we ever bought for our house, and not at all expensive to run. We bought ours online but they no longer deliver to Spain, so you'd need to bring it with you.

https://www.thehut.com/bed-linen/dreamland-sleepwell-heated-duvet/11023332.html


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## duncton01 (Aug 6, 2017)

Very kind Lynn, we are really hot water bottle people!


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

duncton01 said:


> Very kind Lynn, we are really hot water bottle people!


Ah yes, I used one of those before we bought our duvet. I can't choose to set a hot water bottle to one of six heating levels, though, or the timer for it to be warm for between one and 9 hours, and it only warms up about a square foot of the bed!


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