Hi folks,
I will be moving to Granada this summer with my family, and I don?t know where to start looking!  There are hundreds of apartments listed all over town, but without knowing which neighborhoods are good, I don?t know which apartments to see.  I?d greatly appreciate it if you could suggest your favorite neighborhood in Granada.  I have two kids, so I don?t want an area that?s too rowdy or only students, and I won?t have a car, so I don?t want to be out on the outskirts of town….

Please help!  I?m going in two weeks to look for apartments, so I have to set up appointments! Vote for your favorite Granada neighborhood, and tell me why you love it! (I?d add an actual poll, but I don?t know the names of the neighborhoods - maybe someone could start one for me?)

Thanks so much,
Heidi

Heidi; Hello
(I was tempted to open this reply with Heidi Hi but if you are a Brit I guess you have heard that a thousand times or more!)

I don’t think you will get a tremendous response to your thread because as far as I can ascertain, there are very few Brits actually living in Granada City.
There are a lot of Brits living in the area, say out to a radius of 50kms, giving a total area of about 500 sq.kms., but most tend to live in the country villages and visit the city for nights out and shopping.So you may not get much of a response as to which are the preferred areas for living within the City.

I only know of one couple living within the City and they do not contribute to this forum.

Living on the outskirts need not be a problem; within the City public transport is generally very good and cheap as well with a flat fare of 1 euro (I think) for any distance.
The villages are also well served with buses at times to meet with a 9am arrival in Granada and other services throughout the day albeit at long service intervals.

You mention that you are coming out here in a couple of weeks, so I would point out that there is a bus service from the airport into central Granada; its quick and serves most of the hotels in the centre; the fare is 3 euros which is a lot better than the taxi rate.

Car ownership is a mixed blessing ; much of the centre of Granada is off limits to private cars during parts of the day and the rest of the time is a nightmare and definitely not for the faint hearted. At the moment and for the next 18 months to 2 years there is a lot of work going across the City whilst a new tramway system is introduced; normally wide dual carriageways are reduced to single lane working and the traffic queues can be horrendous.

One of the main problems you are likely to encounter is that of schooling for the kids if they are of school age; information relating to schools is hard to get a hold of and as far as International Schools are concerned I think the nearest one to Granada is actually closer to Malaga.

My wife and I came out here in 2006 to a small village to the south west of the City; there are only two other Brit couples permanently resident in the village and almost none of the ‘natives’ speak any English. What make it doubly difficult is the fact that the local dialect tends to drop the last part of multisyllable words and is spoken at a very fast rate.

But if there is anyway I can help out pm me or email me and I’ll see what I can do to help.

Whilst I’m here… Hi foxbat 😉

... and hello Heidi.

I’m surprised aligran hasn’t seen your post as she lives in Monchil, just on the outskirts (10 mins) from the city and may be able to help you with some info.

As foxbat said, there’s lot’s of villages not to far from the city of Granada and the transport network is very good. If you’re not going to be driving though, I can see why you might want to live in or very close to the city. I am aware that there is a new international school about to be built next to an urbanisation near Dilar and Padul where I’m working at the moment. My client actually wants to work there I believe. I’ll see what info I can find out about it.

HeidiTC - 19 May 2009 06:39 PM

Hi folks,
Vote for your favorite Granada neighborhood, and tell me why you love it!

I vote for the Realejo, below the Alhambra on the South East side.  It’s bohemian and lively at the end nearest to the city centre, but when you get beyond the bars in Campo del Principe it morphs into quiet streets of beautiful carmenes (villas with walled gardens), so you should be able to find somewhere family-friendly.  Easy walking distance to everywhere in town and there are buses too.  Don’t think it’s the cheapest place in town, mind…. On the negative side of things, some areas of the North of the city, especially near the Carretera de Jaen, are considered dodgy - don’t want to overstate that as there are probably lots of nice corners here and there on the North side.  Mucha suerte.