Base area to discover Andalucia

[Fedup In Scotland]

Hi Everyone,
Im a new member on this site and have been enjoying reading the varied posts on here a great source of info for folk like us that are planning a move.
Ive tryed to post a topic a few days ago but for some reason it didnt work and I spent ages in that topic message explaining our background and what we were after!!...However just in case this one doesnt work Im keeping it a tad short!!

Can anyone recomend a good base area in Andalucia for us to stay when we come over in March we would like to discover the area and have transport.....this will be the first of our visits and intend several more throughout the year,

Any advice much appreciated

Dave

[vipponds]

Hello Dave, not to sure where you want to live but if its inland we can recommend Antequera. Its central for lots of inland regions and roughly equidistant from Malaga, Seville and Granada. If its more coastal you are after then hopefully someone else can advise. Good luck in your search, we spent 18 months trying to find the "perfect" place and picked up the keys to it 2 weeks ago! Cheers Paul and Moira

[Bandy]

Good Morning Jimmy
Have a look around the Cortes de la Frontera area near Gaucin. About an hour from the coast and easily reached from Malaga , Gib and Jerez airports with Seville a little further away. Cortes is in National Park area in "real" Spain. Plenty of small mountain villages and towns like Ronda to explore and still within easy reach of the Costa del Sol and the Costa de la Luz.
Good luck and good luck also to your footy team this weekend
I hope you will be supporting England in the rugby

[frank]

I hope you will be supporting England in the rugby

Not a hope, I'm afraid! They are probably gutted we've gotten this far!
I'm English, and have lived in Wales for a long time, and my experience tells me there probably won't be a single Welsh voice raised in support of England.
Quite the opposite!
As for choosing somewhere to live, it very much depends on your likes and dislikes. Somewhere lively, quiet, inland or coast, rural or town. You can get ots of good advice here, but ultimately there's no substitute for personal experience. What someone loves, you may hate, and vice versa. Spend some time there, have a good look around, and as people always say, try renting first, it's not for everyone.

[Don]

Well getting back to Dave's original question - apart from where in Scotland you are fed up with - Andalucia is a very large and diverse region. Stretching all the way from the med right across to Portugal with a huge variety of environments so to start with, what would be your criteria for finding your ideal place. Sevilla is the capital of Andalucia and has the only navigable river in Spain - the Guadalvivir. Doñana national park lies just south west of Sevilla stretching to the coast. In the river delta of the Guadalvivir you find rice fields and cotton with large numbers of storks and flamingoes. The Huelva region includes many beachy resort places stretching across to the Portuguese border and is well serve by Faro airport although a new airport is planned for Huelva within a few years. Inland from Huelva you get the Aracena mountains and the oldest mines in the world at Rio Tinto. Many more sparcely inhabited upland areas north west to north east of Sevilla until you get to Cordoba, again a main centre for that area and on the same river as Sevilla. East of Cordoba you get a lot of agricultural lands with classic spanish white villages. Moving more eastwards you approach the more mountaneous areas of Andalucia with Granada not far from our local ski resort of sierra nevada where there is the highest road in Europe - not open for motors. To drive up to over 3000 metres and then walk is amazing with stunning views if the air is clear. The ridge of mountains stretches all the way down the south east coast of the med with the famous costa del sol being a strip of land either side of Malaga between the med and the hills. Many beautiful places and villages there although the further off the costa and the more into the mountains, the further it is to the larger facilities. The closer you are to the mediteranean motorway the easier the transport but that is where the huge ex-pat populations are. At the southern tip of the Costa comes Gib and then from Gib round towards Sevilla again you get the whole area of Vejer, Arcos, Jerez, Cadiz where the nearest coast is more coves and small beaches rather than the long straight flat beach of Doñana all the way to Portugal.

So where to start to look around? Good question. What interests you most? Sea, in which case med or atlantic? Mountains for ski or mountains for walking and horse riding? Proximity to airports (note that at Rota there is a large American air force base and at Moron de la Frontera there is also a large air base). From Sevilla, it is a 2 hour drive to Portugal, about the same to Gib or Cordoba, 2.5 hrs to Malaga, 3 hrs to Granada.

Happy hunting.
[/code]

[olive]

I agree with the suggestion of Antequera as a base. It isn't quite geographically central to Andalucia but does have easy access to good roads. The inland A92 motorway and to the coastal roads and further inland to Cordoba for example. Andalucia is HUGE and as soon as you get off the main roads progress gets slow.

Really though to do Andalucia justice you would need to stay in different locations on subsequent visits. e.g. Jaen, Cadiz, Granada, Sevilla and so on.

Hope you enjoy your visits.

olive

[Babby]

Best base is definitely Antequera or villages surrounding

Malaga - 30 minutes
Sevilla - 1hr 30 minutes
Córdoba - 1 hour
Granada - 1 hour
Jerez - 1 hour
Gibraltar - 3 hours

Fuente de Piedra (flamingo lakes) 30 minutes
Fuente de Piedra - Donkey Sanctuary - 30 minutes
Wolf Park - 10 minutes
El Torcal - 15 minutes
Lakes of El Chorro/Guadalhorce - 30 minutes
Go-Karting - Campillos - 20 minutes


If you look at Antequera town hall´s website, you might find it fascinating what they have just discovered dating back to 4500 b.c. Antequera is a historical and monumental city, one of its features is the Dolmens (2500 b.c.).

www.antequera.es

Have fun

[katy]

Marbella

Nah...just kidding

Antequera or granada would be a good choice. Second visit take Don's suggestion.

[Fedup In Scotland]

Hi Guys,

Firstly thanks to you all for your kind replys,I realize that takes time and effort on your part and it is very much appreciated...AND sooo many so soon

As mentioned in my first post I did try and give background to who we are, likes and dislikes and what we wanted from Andalucia but think I managed very nicely to fluff up on the sending

At the moment we have a 30 acre small holding situated 14 miles from Edinburgh, we keep varied livestock including a few pigs and sheep....heeps of poultry,ducks and turkeys this is just a hectic hobby that keeps our freezer well stocked.
For the day job Im in social work and partner runs a city centre buisness. Despite the fact we live in a fab area that we enjoy, our day jobs and lack of good weather has realy got us down over the last 10 years and I fear the joy of living here doing things we enjoy is slipping away , Im shortly to be 45 and partner 50. So with the intentions of not sitting back for another 10 years this is our very first step in discovery!!!

We luv the sea but just for a visit and would like to live inland in real spain in the country with perhaps just a few acres of land to grow things and have a few chooks.While were sun luvers it would nice to be in a area that wasnt too harsh or baran. We both realize that this is going to take time to discover and for this reason we are in no rush and allowed a 2 year search.While also rural it would be nice to have others around [not too many] both brits and spanish were very sociable and have no problems mixing with anyone.
We dont need schools in the area and have a private income so work isnt a issue either,all be it we have a yearly budget that we couldnt go over It will be enough to keep us going on a morgage free property. Airport within a hour or so with flights to scotland would be nice too!!....If i come back too visit

Anyhow at the risk of sending you all to sleep and me being late for my 24 hour night shift ....I thank you all once again for your help and advice.....as Arnie said, I WILL BE BACK!!,but it wont be till tomorrow,

Paul and Moira,well done you the sound of those keys must be a brilliant feeling!!...Enjoy!!

Bandy and Frank dont get time to watch footy too much work here,GROAN perhaps when im in spain .....Im english living in Scotland for 20 odd years!!

Cheers
Dave

[Don]

Well Dave, its all right for you younguns !!
We also look to travel to Scotland a bit and apart from riding all the way on the moto as we did in August, if you want direct flights to Edinburgh then there are few. At the moment, only direct to Edinburgh from Malaga or Faro but Clickair now fly Edinburgh to Barcelona from where you can connect. Connecting through London is a bit of a pain but there are many optons. Malaga will have a new high speed train soon to Cordoba. Sevilla had the first high speed train to/from Madrid and if you can put up with a 2 to 3 hour drive to either Malaga or Faro then most of Andalucia is within range. If you really want a taster of Andalucia then I go with the suggestion that you need to plan a multi base trip. You could stay a few nights at maybe Granada and Sevilla then touring around from there. Arcos or Jerez is good base to explore the Eastern costa de la luz. Anywhere around Malaga to explore the costa del sol. Even for a quick taster you could easily spend a month exploring.

[Fedup In Scotland]

Don,
Thankyou for your travel info reply thats handy to Know and saves me posting....were only 20 mins from Edinburgh airport so fine to Know we can fly to Maliga.As for any driving that we have to do at the maliga destination we realy dont mind as at this end we often nip up and down the country just to visit freinds, have to say we still do moan at that time especially when traffic is bad!!

I agree with you about exploring the areas and I wish we had more than a week at a time to do this but just not possible due to the motly crew of livestock we keep.......However we intend to come out probably every 6-8 weeks throughout this year its more costly but the only way we can do this ....Your multi base idea makes sence and take that on board thanks for that!!........Im off to do a bit of searching on Anteguera for starters as several members have mentioned this place and untill now not had chance to research the area,
Thanks again for your reply,

Dave

[Gogs]

Hi Dave
We too were 'fedupinscotland' and looking for a different way of life in Andalucia. Our criteria was that flights had to be from Edinburgh, so at present, a direct flight to Malaga is the only one. We only wanted a maximum drive of an hour from the Airport, so the search area was more or less decided for us. We stayed in Antequera every time we were out looking around and found it to be a great town - friendly people, lots of restaurants and lots to do and see in the area. I really look forward to visiting it every time we're back and it was a great base for checking out all the towns and villages in the area. Happy hunting!

[mary b]

Hi dave ,I endorse Cortes De La Frontera .
Also I think that you should stay in a different place every time ,as prices vary a lot ronda is a lovely town and a great base for exploring verious options .Good Luck
Mary

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Hi fed up in Scotland.

You don't follow the football, then?

[Fedup In Scotland]

Well Gogs glad were not alone Fedupinscotland but by the sounds of it your a few leap years ahead of us in discovering the area,glad its working out for you we just cant wait to be in a similar positon come very early spring Antequera area seems to be a place we would like to have a look at as so many folk have mentioned the area. Weve also had a few contacts of places to stay as a base not too far from Maliga, but as Mary mentioned try a different location each time we visit and we intend to do that often throughout next year.
At the end of the day im sure once we have been a few times we will have a better feel for the areas and lifestyle Ive looked at too many destinations via Internet and now sooooo confused

Thanks guys for your replys,

Dave

[geegee]

Interestingly, there are quite a few scots around the Antequera area including some from Edinburgh who regularly commute...
Perhaps also consider the zone to the east of Antequera around Huertas del Rio, Archidona, Salinas, or Loja/Iznajar a little further to the north or Colmenar to the south. These rural areas would fit the 'rural retreat with a bit of land but not too far from civilization' bill very well with the opportunity to buy a decent-sized smallholding considerably cheaper than similar property nearer the coast. The Antequera/Archidona zone is less than an hour from Malaga or Granada airports, as central as you can get, good cultural and social opportunities, more than adequate shopping for everyday, excellent healthcare facilities including a brand new hospital near Antequera (important consideration even if you are fit-as-a-fiddle now). Most smaller inland towns are still very Spanish but usually have a varied ex-pat community, the majority of which I have found very welcoming. Some have smallholdings, others are working tradesmen, professional or retired but still active members of their new communities.

Wherever you decide to look, enlisting the help of the ex-pats who live in the local area and know the pit-falls (like avoiding rip-off english estate agents) would be a good idea. Good luck!

[Babby]

Gee Gee, I am curious, where is the brand new hospital? The only one I know of is in Antequera. The URGENCIAS unit is desperate as they cannot cope with the amount of people they have to treat. I am sure they would be happy to hear of a new hospital.

[mary b]

also how to avoid rip off Spanish agents ,just find a good one either English or Spanish ,avoid correadors ,they will really see you coming

[daftlamb]

hi

I'm from scotland and my daughter and i have just put the house on the market. so we are planning to move as soon as it sells. I like the areas between cabopino, calahonda and la cala. they are only 20 minutes or so away from the airport if you use the toll road and 45 min away from gibraltar and all the surrounding areas there. 1 1/2 - 2 hours takes you to granada and sierra nevada. and of course if you want to do the tourist bit you are 20/25 minutes away from puerto banus, marbella, fuengirola, benalmadena, mijas etc. you are also very close to the many beaches as well.

lorraine

[geegee]

Hi Babby, seems brand new to me, being used to austere victorian facilities back in the UK! I meant THE hospital near the poligono - maybe they just keep it looking pristine. The general facilities seemed very good and the urgencias extremely efficient when we had cause to visit, and the resonancia centre was as good as any fancy private clinic - although I have to say the paperwork administation/follow-up appointments side was as baffling and chaotic as any in Spain. Like all hospitals I expect there are good and bad tales...
Sorry we digress from the main point - Antequera fans unite!