My husband, and my 2 young children have been living in mazarron, murcia for the past 7 years, but we desperatley want to move to the Malaga area, we go to malaga every year for holidays, and have fallen in love with the area. We dont really know where to move too, its still early days, But we were thinking the Benalmadena area, we like to live the spanish life, but also enjoy the support of the british expats. Can anyone give me any advice on which area to choose. We will need a long term rental, that is reliable, have been ripped off by the real estate before so would love to find a private rental, if someone has a house? they need renting (near the coast) who needs reliable, trustworthy tenants, we are that family!! Can anyone give me any advice, a good area for the children, good schools?, rental sites? Would be appreciated so much.

Hi ailsa,

Have lived extensively along the coast from and including Malaga/Gibraltar, and you are obviously spoilt for choice.

Benalmadena is great, but not for anyone wishing to “integrate”. Certainly OK for the British support!!!!

Don’t know if your children will do international/english or spanish schooling, and this in my mind ought to be you starting point. There are obviously many of any of these at very differing qualities and price ranges.

If you are definitely wanting the English community then the Malaga to Marbella end is probably best suited to you. Personally I liked (and still do) Estepona the best which encourages integration, but with plenty of “foreign” input. Within Estepona you can be as Spanish as you like (even with the other expats who also want this) but the English breakfast is not too far away. Of course with Gib. 25 mins away the advantages of actually “being” in England is on your doorstep (Great for cheap and easy financial dealings if you are still tethered to UK).

Hope this helps a bit, and good luck for the future.

Michael

Thanks Michael for you response, I dont know much about the Estopona area, although has visited Marbella which is beautiful, do you think a move to Benalmadena, Fuengirola would be a bad move? We dont want to be surrounded by the english, fried breakfasts and bingo nights, would be my worst nightmare!!...i just need to find somewhere that is in between the two. My daughters have been and will be going to spanish schools, so they will have a mix of spanish and english friends.  Its such a big thing, moving, too hard to find out about these places on the web, maybe a holiday to the area might be the best thing, drive around and stop in all the places, i will do some research on Estopona now, So thankyou.