Hi All,

Regular readers will be familiar with my plans to relocate, en famille, to the Northern Costa Blanca in summer 2008 (and I hope not TOO fed up with my constant questions.  I hope to be in a position to provide some reciprocal answers before too long!)

At the moment I am trying to get some ideas together for costs and logistics for the actual move itself and would love to hear about anyone’s success stories or otherwise - things you’re glad you did, things you wish you done differently, etc etc…  We are planning to move personal effects only (renting furnished in Spain for the first year and letting our place here furnished, but for a family of 4 + cat we are surely going to be looking at 10-20 cubic metres of personal effects).  The way I see it our options are:

1.  We fly down, get cat transported separately (air or land) and stuff shifted by movers (this could be easiest logistically as we will be arriving late aug and need to rent a holiday appt for a couple of weeks whilst seeking a suitable long term let)

2.  We drive down (in old banger of a people carrier to scrap after 6 months, not worth reregistering!), bring cat with us, and pay someone to shift our crates of stuff

3.  We hire a van and pile everyone and everything in it, move in one go!

I would really welcome anybodys thoughts on the above… we are up for a family adventure self-driving if it makes sense, either ferry to Santander or down through France, but if its going to cost more that way then frankly it’d be easier to hop on a plane… my head is going round and round trying to work out which approach to take, and start to get costs together.  I’d welcome commercial recommendations by PM if any readers offer suitable services to help us and can provide quotes etc.

The only thing I am completely sure about is that 2008 is the year we make the move… so I wish a happy Christmas and successful and peaceful 2008 to all on this forum, who have given me so many answers and ideas in recent months…!

thanks everyone!

Cazz xxx

HI there i am also moving out soon, got some interest in my house in the UK selling it then renting in Spain. Have family on the east coast, have checked out prices of removals found Britannia to be the best. I also have cats and plan to fly them price for two around ?345 with monarch Manchester two hours on plane against two days by car? Kind regards

cazzstar & brit - seems great minds think alike ...

I’m also in the process of trying to move out to to Spain (Cantabria). I’m still looking for a place to rent at the moment - they seem to be thin on the ground - but once that’s sorted I’ll be looking to organise a van or removal company to get my stuff over from the uk. Thanks for the tip re Britannia and please let us know how you get on. Its a big (scary) adventure for me at the moment…

Thanks so much for the responses - Brit you make an excellent point re the durations, its a no brainer when you put it like that.  I will certainly check out Britannia, at the moment I am finding it a bit mindboggling to calculate how many cubic metres of stuff we will need to ship…

Debi, good luck!  I don’t know anything about your intended area but have found Kyero.com quite helpful in browsing potential rental properties,

Happy new year all,

Cx