# Spanish towns where Brits outnumber locals



## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

May be useful for those who post questions on considering where to live.

https://www.thelocal.es/20190520/the-places-in-spain-with-most-british-residents


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Isobella said:


> May be useful for those who post questions on considering where to live.
> 
> https://www.thelocal.es/20190520/the-places-in-spain-with-most-british-residents


A very helpful list of where to avoid (IMHO)


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Uhhm, is it just me? It's quite likely to be a failing on my part but...
*Poble Nou de Benitachell (Alicante)*
A coastal town with a British international school, the town’s population is 60 percent foreign, half of whom are British.

That doesn't make more British than Spaniards, does it?
Nor this necessarily
*Daya Vieja (Alicante)*
Just a kilometre from San Fulgencio lies this quaint village where sixty percent of its 430 foreigners are Brits.
???


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> A very helpful list of where to avoid (IMHO)


Yep, but just as for you they are places to avoid, for others they will be just what they are looking for!!


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Uhhm, is it just me? It's quite likely to be a failing on my part but...
> *Poble Nou de Benitachell (Alicante)*
> A coastal town with a British international school, the town’s population is 60 percent foreign, half of whom are British.
> 
> ...


Stop putting arithmetical fact in the way of a sensationalist thread title Pesky!!


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## andyviola (Aug 11, 2018)

fish and chips and/or hot donuts anyone?


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

andyviola said:


> fish and chips and/or hot donuts anyone?


Nothing wrong with those occasionally. Anyway the Spanish have a perfectly good version of doughnut in Churros. Like fish n' chips they vary in quality.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

Isobella said:


> Nothing wrong with those occasionally. Anyway the Spanish have a perfectly good version of doughnut in Churros. Like fish n' chips they vary in quality.


Whilst it's a very long time since I've been to Spain, I don't consider that churros are at all like donuts. In fact, the chichis in l'Estaque (near Marseille) and various beignets from other French areas are perhaps more similar. Or perhaps donuts aren't really British at all


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Isobella said:


> Nothing wrong with those occasionally. Anyway the Spanish have a perfectly good version of doughnut in Churros. Like fish n' chips they vary in quality.


My Belgian friends arrive Thursday and one of the things we do is go to a very good typically British fish'n'chip shop a few km down the coast. They stay in their house for three weeks three times a year and each time we have fish'n'chips at least three times. I really look forward to it.

I wish people wouldn't cast aspersions on these Brit majority places. Sobre los gustos, as I like to say. Are we a better class of Brit, perhaps? I think not. Just people, British people, with different expectations of life in Spain.
Interesting to see small villages with a large cohort of Brits. But then a small number of Brits in a town of 3000 to 5000 can change the ambience.

On Saturday I went to help out at a Dia de Extranjeros event in Sabinillas/Manilva. ADANA ran the bar. The Ayto de Manilva gave us an award, a plaque for our services to the community. We were chuffed. We had one from Estepona last year. Our trophy cupboard is filling up. 
Sabinillas /Duquesa/Manilva has a very large British population. It has currently one British Councillor, may have one more after Sunday. I scarcely heard a word of any language other than English all day. I was proud to be the only guiri recipient of an award who gave thanks in Spanish, albeit perhaps of the 'Allo'Allo variety.
I wouldn't like to live there but you couldn't help but be struck by the huge sense of community and the generosity to good causes of all kinds... It's also a very friendly place. Quite a few of our British volunteers come from S/D/M. I'm happy to live in Estepona but I know where I'd choose to go fundraising I don't know how much 'integration' there is but it's a good place to live in for people of all ages who want an uncomplicated Brit orientated life in the sun and what's wrong with that...

And thankfully it's been a long time since anyone posted about the 'real Spain'.
.


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

mrypg9 said:


> ...
> 
> And thankfully it's been a long time since anyone posted about the 'real Spain'.


...or plastic Spaniards.


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## Tigerlillie (Apr 7, 2015)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Uhhm, is it just me? It's quite likely to be a failing on my part but...
> *Poble Nou de Benitachell (Alicante)*
> A coastal town with a British international school, the town’s population is 60 percent foreign, half of whom are British.
> 
> ...


Yes PW you are quite right because if 60% are foreign that makes it 40% Spanish and if half of the 60% are Brits, that makes it 30% British which in turn is less than the 40% Spanish.


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## Tigerlillie (Apr 7, 2015)

EverHopeful said:


> Whilst it's a very long time since I've been to Spain, I don't consider that churros are at all like donuts. In fact, the chichis in l'Estaque (near Marseille) and various beignets from other French areas are perhaps more similar. Or perhaps donuts aren't really British at all


I love churros or chichis or whatever you call them...there is a big funfair in Rennes at christmas which stays for a whole month and I love going there...you can get a big bag of them and they give you a big pot of nutella (or it's equivalent) to go with them. Yum yum.


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## Tigerlillie (Apr 7, 2015)

andyviola said:


> fish and chips and/or *hot donuts* anyone?


Stop it  ....Dinky Donuts covered in cinnamon sugar.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

Tigerlillie said:


> I love churros or chichis or whatever you call them...there is a big funfair in Rennes at christmas which stays for a whole month and I love going there...you can get a big bag of them and they give you a big pot of nutella (or it's equivalent) to go with them. Yum yum.


I love churros, too, especially dipped in that very thick hot chocolate - ah memories.

Every time I go to l'Estanque, we have chichis, but TBH they are huuuuge and I cannot manage a whole one, same goes for those at La Fontaine de Vaucluse, but OMG they are so so yummy!


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I was obliged to eat _churros y chocolate_ during a recent trip to Granada with my English students - at 8 a.m.! I had to force down three because they treated me. The first and last time, for sure.

I don't have a sweet tooth (apart from cherries) and my favourite breakfast when I'm away from home is toasted molletes (soft floury baps) with grated tomato and olive oil. Putting butter on toast now seems weird.

I noticeed when watching Bake Off that churros has become a singular word in the UK - "That's a good churros" (Paul Hollywood). Like chorizo has become chorITZo, thanks to Delia Smith. Loads of examples in the opposite direction too, e.g. Féibu for Facebook. Love how language adapts when it crosses borders.


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Uhhm, is it just me? It's quite likely to be a failing on my part but...
> *Poble Nou de Benitachell (Alicante)*
> A coastal town with a British international school, the town’s population is 60 percent foreign, half of whom are British.
> 
> ...


You forgot these ............. (from the posted link)

Llíber (Alicante)

729 of its 1,051 residents, 70 percent of which are British and 18 percent German.

Partaloa (Almería)

Eight out of every ten residents of the Andalusian municipality are British, almost half of whom are over the age of 65.

Arboleas (Almería)

An incredible 83 percent of the 3,054 people registered in this small inland municipality 20km from the Almería coast are British.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

VFR said:


> Arboleas (Almería)
> 
> An incredible 83 percent of the 3,054 people registered in this small inland municipality 20km from the Almería coast are British.


I don't know where the publication linked to obtained these figures, but official statistics show that in 2018 the total population of Arboleas was 4,586. 67.99% of the population were foreigners, and of those 79.8% were British.

https://www.foro-ciudad.com/almeria/arboleas/habitantes.html#Evolucion


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## jimenato (Nov 21, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> I was obliged to eat _churros y chocolate_ during a recent trip to Granada with my English students - at 8 a.m.! I had to force down three because they treated me. The first and last time, for sure.
> 
> I don't have a sweet tooth (apart from cherries) and my favourite breakfast when I'm away from home is toasted molletes (soft floury baps) with grated tomato and olive oil. Putting butter on toast now seems weird.
> 
> I noticeed when watching Bake Off that churros has become a singular word in the UK - "That's a good churros" (Paul Hollywood). Like chorizo has become chorITZo, thanks to Delia Smith. Loads of examples in the opposite direction too, e.g. Féibu for Facebook. Love how language adapts when it crosses borders.


Tapas - also singular.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Benitachell is the next town to my town, Jávea. 

When we moved here, more than 50% of those empadronando were non-Spanish. The total population was about 28,000 & something like 7,000 were British. 

15 years on, the population is about the same.

About 46% of those empadronado are non-Spanish & about 1/3 of those are British - so maybe 4,500.

About 7 or 8 years ago, I remember lots of British families leaving Jávea to be able to move their children to the primary school in Benitachell, because there were far fewer Brits there - it would make 'integration' easier for the children. 

At that time the population of Jávea was at its highest - about 33,000 & about 8,000 were British.

Funny how things change eh? There are more British children in the schools there now, than any other single nationality.


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## 95995 (May 16, 2010)

jimenato said:


> Tapas - also singular.


Not the same thing.

When I lived in Spain in the late 60s very early 70s, you could buy a single churro, which was usually a loop. OTOH, if you chose tapas in a bar, it was a choice of small portions; if you wanted just a portion of for example Spanish omelette, that was sold by the slice, as opposed to the small pieces that were part of the tapas selection. Also, you could choose from a huge variety of olives - they had huge jars - some of these were not part of the tapas menu, which comprised the most popular, but again in small serves.

Edit:

At least then, the concept of tapas was always tapas, not tapa. But churros could be churro - churros usually being several shorter pieces sold in a paper cornet.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

EverHopeful said:


> Not the same thing.
> 
> When I lived in Spain in the late 60s very early 70s, you could buy a single churro, which was usually a loop. OTOH, if you chose tapas in a bar, it was a choice of small portions; if you wanted just a portion of for example Spanish omelette, that was sold by the slice, as opposed to the small pieces that were part of the tapas selection. Also, you could choose from a huge variety of olives - they had huge jars - some of these were not part of the tapas menu, which comprised the most popular, but again in small serves.
> 
> ...


You can certainly have a singular tapa now. "Dame una tapa de albóndigas" for example - a small portion as opposed to a ración or media ración.

But yes, I've heard Brits say "Shall we go for a tapas?" which is totally wrong.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Not too keen on the chocolate but one of my favourite places is Churreria Ramon in Orange Square Marbella. They have been there for decades. Good coffee too. I don't have the chocolate, just sprinkle the sugar over. They do them in a circle like a coiled snake. Had as good in other places but there is good for ambiente. I have done the frozen ones, they are ok. if the oil is correct temp.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Just to add, on the South bank in London there are lots of stalls with food from all over the world. There is a couple from madrid who sell great churros.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

VFR said:


> You forgot these ............. (from the posted link)
> 
> Llíber (Alicante)
> 
> ...


Uhm, no, I didn't forget these. I was quoting figures from the article that _*didn't *_support the title of "Spanish towns where Brits outnumber locals"


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

This arrived in my email today...


> La llegada de más de 400 búlgaros ha convertido a *Torre del Burgo en Guadalajara en el municipio español con mayor porcentaje de población extranjera*
> 
> De parecer abocado en el año 2000, con solo 74 habitantes, a convertirse en un páramo más de la España vaciada, hoy con 500 vecinos,* el 80 por ciento de Europa del Este, vive su momento más próspero*


https://cadenaser.com/ser/2019/05/21/sociedad/1558452245_283877.html


So not the south of Spain, not Andalucía and not a Spanish town taken over by Brits as most of us would presume, but a small village in central Spain populated by Bulgarians


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Interesting article . Amazing that some live in prefabricated containers. Makes one wonder how bad the life they left was.


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## Ifn (Jan 29, 2017)

Alcalaina said:


> You can certainly have a singular tapa now. "Dame una tapa de albóndigas" for example - a small portion as opposed to a ración or media ración.
> 
> But yes, I've heard Brits say "Shall we go for a tapas?" which is totally wrong.


Grammatically wrong! Horrors! Anyway, you can still buy a tiny bite of tortilla or a single churro. The other day I stopped at a stand where they were making them fresh. I told the lady I just wanted some orange juice but she threw in a churro for free.


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## andyviola (Aug 11, 2018)

Isobella said:


> Nothing wrong with those occasionally. Anyway the Spanish have a perfectly good version of doughnut in Churros. Like fish n' chips they vary in quality.


haha didn't mean they were naff Isobella...they are at absolute delight I will miss


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