Hello everyone, I have lived in Spain on the Costa Del Sol for over 6 months now, We moved from the north west of England with my husband 2 children and our dog. My husband has been working from the start no problem, both my children are in Spanish school’s, and i am a lady of leisure for the time being anyway. We are all living our dream and enjoying every miniute. We live in Benalmadena which is a beautiful resort on the cost adel sol, we live in a small town in benalmadena called Arroyo de la miel. looking forward to taking part on the forum

Hi there, i am hoping you could give me some advice. My husband has recently been offered a job in Gibraltar and so we are thinking of taking the plunge and move to Spain. There is alot to discuss as he will be employed and at the moment he is self employed so will be taking a drop in money. We are a family with 3 Kids ages 9, 2 and 1.
I am interested to know the cost of living there and how your children settled into school.
I personally think it will be a good career move for my husband, but it is the unsure factor holding us back at the moment.
Any advice at all would be much appreciated.
Things like utility bills, best places to live which make commuting to Gibralter easy for my husband. Schools and that sort of thing.
I am sorry if i have bombarded you but it is a big step for the family and it would be nice to get some advice from people who have done it themselves.
I hope to hear soon
take care

have sent you a PM

Hello Kuda, and welcome to the forum.

It’s wonderful to hear from someone who has made the transition,  I’m sure from reading some of the posts around here you will see that a few of us are still in the “educating ourselves” portion of this grand adventure.  I would love to hear about the kids transitions to spanish school, (ie how mauch spanish did they speak prior to starting?  How much is english used in school to help them? Did they make friends ok? ) any stories from your experiences would be most helpful, and I truly appreciate you time.

PS love the avatar penguin.

Hello c_mego I will send you pm tomorow,

Hi to Kuda,
I notice you are based near Benalmadena.
Just a couple of questions if you don’t mind.
Did you find it easy to get a job in that area as we would like to move to Spain and love Benalmadena.
Also do you know anything about schooling there as we have a 10 and 12 year old we would like to integrate into a Spanish school.
My husband is an HGV driver as does not speak Spanish and I work in Admin for the civil service (an am learning Spanish, slowly).
We have experience in running pubs but would like not to go into that again if possible.
Any advice you can give would be much appreciated.

hi kuda
did it take you long to settle in spain, i am sat here typing this as my furniture is being packed up ready for its journey to spain. We move into rented accomadation for two months untill we move over. The house we are buying is 30 min from belemadema. i am getting quite scared but then another part of me cannot wait.

Hiya

I noticed this discussion with interest.

We are a family of 8 with Gary and myself and 3 children (3 are staying in the UK), a dog and 2 cats planning to move to Spain next summer.

I have already posted a discussion about the schools which is our biggest concern as our children are aged 11,12 and 15 now.  We are trying to learn Spanish - but this is proving a bit difficult.

We too want to move to the Costa del Sol so I would be very grateful to hear about any good Spanish schools in the area (we cannot afford Int schools for all 3).  Also my husband is HGV qualified and I have sales and recruitment experience, so would anyone know where we could start to look for jobs.

The more we look into this move, the more determined we are to do it, so please do give us as much advice as poss!

Many thanks

Julie and Gary

kuda - 20 May 2007 11:01 PM

Hello everyone, I have lived in Spain on the Costa Del Sol for over 6 months now, We moved from the north west of England with my husband 2 children and our dog. My husband has been working from the start no problem, both my children are in Spanish school’s, and i am a lady of leisure for the time being anyway. We are all living our dream and enjoying every miniute. We live in Benalmadena which is a beautiful resort on the cost adel sol, we live in a small town in benalmadena called Arroyo de la miel. looking forward to taking part on the forum

    Hello, I need and advice and maybe you could help me.  My son is 8 and he just started to learn Spanish. I would like to use original spanish textbooks. Some kind of textbooks children use in spanish schools. Something for grade 1 or 2. My son already knows how to read but his vocabulary is not big. What could you suggest?

Hi to Kuda,
Great to hear from someone reasonably new to the move.
Can I ask how old the kids are and how they found it in school?
Also you said your husband was working from the start, does he speak Spanish and what is it he does for a living?
Any thing you can tell me would be of use as we would like to move in the near future with a 12 & 10 year old and we love Benalmadena.
Thanks

Hi Kuda
We live in a large mountain village about 40 miles from you in Arroyo, we have been here for 5 years and are firmly entrenched! We go to Benalmadina often and will retire somewhere near there - probably Montemar, when the time comes. If you want to chat we will meet up with you next time we are down that way - mail or PM me
Regards Trdui

😊 Hi

I am new to this forum but so glad I have found it.

My husband and I moved to a small village Cuevas de San Marcos (an hour inland from Malaga and about an hour drive from Antequera)in May just gone.  We have four daughters aged 15, 13, 11 and 10 and we also brought the girls puppy Mitzie Mi-Mi who has settled in well.  We moved from Blackpool where we had a very active social life and everyone was surprised when we said we were moving to a quiet village.

The move went very well and to be honest we have settled in really well.  My eldest is going to an international school so we will have to a lot of travelling for her to get back and forth but we knew we would have to do this as she is taking her GCSE’s next year.  The other three are starting at the local village schools and the registrations process was relatively easy.  We have just opened up a pizza restaurant which is doind ok however we have found some of the Spanish not so accepting.  We have waiting nearly two hours for a chicken baguette in one of the bars yet they complain if they are waiting 35/40 mins for a freshly made pizza (no frozen bases for us).  They will howeve wait in the other bars no problem!!!!!!!!

The girls have had a mixed reaction.  THe teenage spanish girls are not very welcoming and the girls have not got to know many girl friends yet.  THe boys are different and are really very friendly and welcoming in a genuine way.  It is a worry of mine if the girls don’t make any friends as they had a very big circle of friends in UK.  The two younger ones however have settled in with no problems what so ever and their spanish is really coming on from mixing and playing with the spanish kids.

One thing we are struggling with is getting a car.  We don’t know where to go for second hand cars but ideally we would like a new car on finance but not sure what we need to fulfill the requirments as we don’t have any earnings as such as we have just started trading.  Anyone who can give us any advice that would be great.

Thanks

Hi Sherryl

Thanks for your response - you guys must have been really brave to make the move AND start a new business.

I really do hope your girls settle in soon - it definitely is my biggest worry although all of ours are really positive about it now.  Did you know any Spanish before you went?  Also, I wonder if you could tell me a little bit more about the schools.  I have read articles where people say you have to be living in the catchment area when you apply for the schools but we cant move out until next July when Emma finishes her GCSEs so that might be too late for us to apply.  Also - although I have written to about 15 international schools asking for fees etc, as yet only 2 have replied (but I guess that’s because it is the holidays).  Would you be able to give me an idea of what you are paying as I think our eldest would definitely have to go to int school.
How was the move with your dog - did you drive over or use one of these pet transport companies?

We are also thinking of starting or buying a business as we want a complete life change.  Our preference will be in property management and garden maintenance and there is one for sale in the Malage region which is tempting.  Again- I have read tonnes of articles on this and it seems very scarey but how did you find it?

Would really like to keep in touch with you if that’s OK and I would like to wish you lots of luck for the future.

Kind regards

Julie and Gary

Hito Julie and Gary,
If you can pick up thread 1430 on the forum as Serryl tells you what she is paying for the school. 
Danbec

[Ed. Added the link for ya]