Planning to move to Spain with family

Hello

I moved from Vancouver, Canada to Valencia two years ago. I am originally from Colombia but I lived 16 years in between Montreal and Vancouver . Since I can work from home moving to Europe seemed a good opportunity. The whole experience has been bittersweet.
I live with my 10 y/o daughter and 2 pets. I wanted to have a house with a big garden and a swimming pool but as it is usual in most of the big cities, finding such a house is only possible in the suburbs; Paterna, L'eliana, San Antonio de Benageber, Pobla de Valbona are the closest suburbs to Valencia, 15 to 25 minutes driving.
My second requirement was an english school for my daughter, she didn't speak spanish therefore It was necessary for me to register her in a "British" school.
I am going to mention the pros and cons of Valencia based on my own experience:

Pros:
1- It is a small city with a very charming historic downtown, no traffic jams, close to the beach.
2- The weather is probably one of the best aspects, sun all year long. July and August are very hot, I would say the average temperature is 34 to 38 degrees.
3- Rent is cheap, well compared to Canada and especially to Vancouver.  I am paying 950 Euros for a chalet with  built surface of 250 M2 , a terrain of 700 M2 and a swimming pool .
4- The health care service is very good, I have a private insurance for which I pay 110 Euros monthly for me and my daughter. We usually get our appointments within 3 days.
5- The food is cheap, it depends where you buy. I usually go to Consum, Mercadona or Carrefour.
6- The cost of living is much cheaper than Barcelona and Madrid.
7- It is well located. By fast train you can be in Barcelona in 3 hours and in Madrid in 1 1/2 hour. There are direct flights to Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Zurich, etc.

Cons:

1-Valencia is very provincial, it is not very open to foreigners. It's a closed community. You see some tourists during summer but nothing compare to the % of visitors in other parts of Spain.
2- The suburbs and surroundings are not quite nice. Actually these are the places where you can see the effect of the " crisis".  You will find a lot of abandoned buildings and properties.
3- Bureaucracy: be ready for it. Everything takes a long time. The government workers apply their own rules, it all depends on their moods. The same with customer service in general, it is really bad.
4- I am paying almost 700 Euros monthly for my daughter's school. Ok, the problem is as I mentioned before, there are not enough native english speakers families in Valencia, so I am paying this expensive "british" school where the level of english is very low. The teachers are native english speaker but the students are 99% spanish.

5- If you are an animal lover Spain is not the right place for you. I am from Colombia and I believe the treatment given to the animals is one of a third world country.

6- The schedules. Most of the banks are only open in the morning. Restaurants open for lunch from 1:30 to 3:30 pm and from 8 pm to 11 pm or midnight.  Most people have dinner at 10 pm. On Sundays everything is closed.

7- There are not parks! In valencia city you have El Paseo la Pechina but that's it. Parks for kids are not a priority in this province, they do not exist.

If I could go back in time I would probably go to a different city. Valencia is not the dream city type for an expat. I see a lot of poverty around, stray animals everywhere, it's not well taken care.

I repeat,  this my very personal experience, may be for some other expats Valancia is the best place on earth.

Good luck!

Hi,  We moved to Almunecar on the beach, just 45 east of Malaga and 45 min south of Granada.  It is a town of about 30k or so and lower costs than on Costa del Sol.  That said, there are fewer expat conveniences as well.  It has a real spanish feel.  We moved here with 2 kids in August 2012 and documented every move on our blog Wagoners Abroad.  Also check out AlmunecarInfo.com.

I would recommend Javea...2 international Schools, 1 hour plus to Alicante and Valencia, good mix of expats and Spanish, along the coast, good friendly town, good beach

The biggest thing is how you plan to survive because if you need to find work here or plan on working remotely then your chances of getting a visa are slim to none.

If the visa thing can be overcome then your kids are at an age where they should flourish in a local Spanish school and will pick up the language quickly. Health care you will need private cover but once you have it then the Spanish system is pretty good