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Retiring at the beach in Spain

Posted by on

My husband and I are retiring 2023 and are looking at beach communities on the eastern coast of Spain between Sitges and Alicante with the following criteria. I've been looking/researching online; really like Denia, Peniscola, & Altea, but it's hard to get a read just by looking at pictures. We are planning a scouting trip early next year but would love any suggestions of "don't miss" places as we travel down the coast.

  1. access to bus and train - we won't have a car
  2. walkable to markets, restaurants, tec.
  3. area, for the most part, open year round.
  4. lively area but not into the rowdy bar or nightclub scene
  5. beachfront properties overlooking the sea
  6. love to have a promenade
  7. more of a higher end area - limited on the cheesy t-shirt & pool toy stores.
  8. crowds and/or kids don't bother us as long as the area is also geared to adults.
  9. sandy beach, not rock

Thanks!!

Posted by
1155 posts

I can't help you with geography, but you should look into James Blick's "Moving to Spain" information. You can start with his YouTube channel, Spain Revealed, but he has a full course offered separately. If you're not familiar with him, he's one of the founders of Devour Tours, a former lawyer, from New Zealand and is married to a Spanish woman. We watched a bunch of his videos before our trip to Spain and really enjoyed them. We took a private flamenco tour with his wife, Yoly, that was a highlight of our trip. We were her last tour before Covid locked down Madrid. Dubious honor!

Good luck with your plans. I can't wait to get back to Spain!

Posted by
4656 posts

There are expat FaceBook groups and international retirement websites (I use International Living for long term stays in countries) that will provide details of recommended expat communities, including costs of living to consider. You have narrowed down the region you are interested in, but consider that as this is a travel forum, our experiences may not meet criteria for long term living in a country.
Happy retirement. Mine starts next week.

Posted by
2267 posts

Another vote for James Blick's info—he's great.

A factor to consider might be lesser-known costs. The surprising one being Spain's tax on global net worth, which varies significantly between autonomous regions. (Catalonia having some of the highest.)

Posted by
46 posts

Valencia is a fabulous place to live and meets most of your criteria. The beaches are sandy and super wide. Your main issue will be the lack of a car in the smaller beach communities. Many of them are practically abandoned during the winter months so they can be quite isolating. Denia is great and Javea has a lot of nice areas. However, both of these are hard to live in without a car. On the other hand Valencia has a great bus and subway system (very inexpensive .85 and .72 per ride respectively) and is a great walking city. Maybe check out Port Saplaya. It is a small beach community just north of Valencia. It has canals even. There is a metro bus (regional bus) that goes into Valencia every hour so it is possible to live there without a car and not be totally isolated. Sitges is really nice, but it is very expensive. Make sure you understand the wealth taxes and inheritance taxes before moving to any community in Spain.

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