Here are the Best Top Tips from Expats on how to move to Spain and live there. 

Skatz, Chris from Upsticks and a few of our regular YouTube watchers who have moved successfully to Spain in 2022 give you their top tips! 

Prefer to watch the video? Click above. Or carry on reading!

3 Top Tips from Ruth Collins-Cowburn

• 1.  Weather!  Weather can be extreme here.  Hot is very hot, rain is torrential. Cold nights can be very cold. Make sure your house has options to cover this. Do you have a/c? – what’s the cost to run it? Do you have a fire/log burner? Do you have shutters to keep out the sun. Living here means that you may experience months of very hot weather – you’ll want shade!

• 2.  Driving – do the Highway Code training

• 3.  Food.  Try the local food, immerse and embrace.  But perhaps learn the words for things you really don’t like eg callos!

3 Top Tips from Ruth Baldesera

1. If you’re selling your UK house, don’t move over until 2nd half of the year you sell it in or you could cop for CGT on your UK house.

• 2. Pay the money and use reputable established firms like Upsticks for visas and Pellicer & Heredia lawyers and tax accountants for modelo 720 and tax returns, don’t risk mistakes being made.

• 3. If you buy a house in a rural area, check your water meter frequently and liaise with the local water office if you think you have a leak, this can be costly but if you do your bit they may help you.

3 Top Tips from John & Patsy Nelson

• 1. Make sure you get up at a decent time especially if you have Admin or other setting up home things to do as places close at 2pm.

• 2. If you have a hire car waiting for you at the airport try and arrive in daylight as driving for the first time on the right hand side of the road in the dark can be a bit unnerving.

• 3. Get connected with a Spanish sim as soon as possible and have What’s App on your phone as it is widely used here…

3 Top Tips from Kerry Ní Piotáin

• 1. Don’t have expectations!! Spain is different, things are done differently so it’s best not to be too set in your ideas & be adaptable. 

• 2. Have a lot of patience! Stay focused on your reasons for being here. Everything takes time 

• 3. You can live cheaply here however you will pay for ‘luxuries’ that might have been normal at home or things that you are used to such as pg tips & delicious tasting coffee 

10 More Top Tips!

• 1. Enquire at the town hall for licences for things you might want to do. It’s totally different to other countries. For example, if you change your bathroom tiles in Alicante province, you need to buy a licence from the town hall, 3pc of the cost. You need licences for things you would never imagine you need them for back home.

• 2. Study Spanish highway rules, some signs are unfamiliar and traffic lights are different. You will be fined for mistakes.

• 3. Always take all your paperwork to any official appointment. Always carry ID. 

• 4. Use apps like alertcops, miDGT, securitas, most of them contain translation software.

• 5. If you live away from the coast and you need to go to a bank, make an appointment on your app or you could be there for hours.

• 6. Learn the language and have one day a week when you go explore a place or town half an hour away. Don’t just stay in your own village or town, have a day off every week!

• 7. La Prisa Mata! Hurry Kills – Granadian saying. 
  Things in Spain take longer – get used to it and go with the flow. 
  Spain won’t change – you have to! So it’s ok to wait at the post office for 45 mins. 
  It may take 3 trips to the bank to get something sorted.  Plan your day to allow for time!

• 8.  Learn to shop at Spanish supermarkets; there’s very little you can’t get that you can get in UK.  Buying in “British stores” will mean you pay triple the price.  Also shopping locally at the village/town store is often cheaper than the big stores – try it!

• 9.  Set yourself a budget.  You’re not on holiday – you live here.  Unless you win the lottery chances are you still need to watch your €.  It’s easy to get carried away and eat and drink out everyday and shop til you drop – but setting a budget will mean you still can meet the NLV requirements when the time comes!

• 10.  Make new friends – don’t rely on your old life in the UK.  You’re here now and integration makes life so much easier (you can still keep your UK friends!!)

Article edited by Skatz