American Expats with children moving to the Costa Brava

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 8:59pm

2 replies266 views4 members subscribed

Posts: 1

Location: Begur

Joined: 21 Feb 2021

I wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on towns to live with kids. We've been to Spain many times and are committed to making it our home. We love the different regions from the Basque country (maybe too rainy for full time, but we love it), Andalusia, Madrid, Malaga, Alicante, Valencia and Barcelona, but we're thinking of some of the more year round coastal towns in Costa Brava (Begur, Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Palafrugell) as possibles locations for an American Expat family. We are certainly open to other suggestions. Our plan is to hit all the considerations over a thee month period and ultimately rent until we find right place to buy, unless we happen upon the perfect place right away.

My wife and I, our four year old son (who’s mildly on the autism spectrum), and our 12 year old son are looking to make Spain our permanent residence this year early 2022 at the latest. We appreciate any advice on where we will find the most suitable schools options? We love the locations and towns, with less post world war II block apartments and we hate track homes, basically we only like older character areas, without too much modern development cluttering up the place.

We’re planning to head over this summer and fall to find a place to buy. We'll be pursuing the Golden Visa options, but we may split our investment between a city (Barcelona, Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Malaga, Seville or San Sebastian) and a permanent coastal town that checks all our boxes for year round home. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you for thoughts and consideration in advance!

Arthur & Ciara Farley

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Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:04pm

TnD

Posts: 20

8 helpful points

Location: Tossa de Mar

Joined: 29 Apr 2019

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:04pm

Hi Arthur and Ciara,

What a wonderful idea and the best of luck with your search.

Have you considered Girona as a base (less frantic than Barcelona but with interesting history, social scene, location and atmosphere) and perhaps Tossa de Mar as a bolt hole. Tossa has amazing character, wonderful restaurants around a bay, no hi-rise apartments, an international mix of people but mostly Spanish and French visitors, and a Vila Vella (have a look on the internet for full experience of what that is).

We have had an apartment for around ten years overlooking the bay and visit every spring and autumn for around three months and we’ve always had fantastic times.

Winter on the other hand is fairly quiet, however, places are still open with around 5000 residents.

Good luck