Moving to Albox

Hi, myself and my wife recently bought a place in Arboleas which is close to Albox. Bit older than you, but same idea. Holidays now, make it permanent in a few years.

There are lots of ex pats out there and so no issues with finding like minded folk. Due to this lots of local have some English, but it's always appreciated when you have some Spanish. We are learning Spanish and get by without too many issues. Plenty of places to eat and drink, both Spanish and English owned. Personally I have used Spanish tradesmen/businesses for work I needed doing and have not been disappointed. English tradesman want more money and they just aren't worth it IMHO.

The estate agent we used were helpful getting things sorted, especially Louie, the son of the owner. He helped me no end initially with contacts for various things I needed/wanted to do.

Any questions, please feel free to DM me.

Albox is a thriving town, with a load of supermarkets, marcadona, Lidl, soon to be Aldi, marlina Dia, plus a few more I can t remember of the top of my head. also a few British shops, you can get everything you need, you can buy your broth mix, oatmeal for your skirllie and HP.

One of the things that amazed me when I first came here, was the fantastic quality of dentists. there are couple of vets, pet groomers. 
there is such a choice of restaurants and bars.

Good luck, it s a really nice place

Albox is a nice compact town. It has its own English Library. You can contact them via almanzoragof.org

Bitter much?

I worked with a lot of great Phillipinos who were in Europe to escape the poverty and corruption of the exPats flooding into their country.

This reply reminds me of a guy checking up on his ex wife to make sure she is continuing to have a miserable time. And getting upset to discover she is living the dream, has moved on, and has forgotten all about him. I can only suggest you concentrate on youre wonderful life in the Phillipines. And leave the helpful advice to people who actually enjoy living in Spain. So as the line in Frozen goes, "Let it go." Have a good life my friend. Live long and prosper.

And only a 13 hour flight from the UK to the Philippines!! Good call Biggles!! 

Don’t take any notice of him, Pitstop. He was in Palomares, where the Americans accidentally dropped a nuke in the 60s! The fallout has obviously affected his rationale!

We moved to Albox 18 months ago and love it! The only downsides are the Spanish bureaucracy and the English tradesmen. You can’t avoid the first, but you would be well advised to avoid the second!

There is a complete ban on building on ‘rural’ land, which is any land outside the town centre. This mean that all the ‘villa’ type houses are about 20 years old and were built illegally. Some have been legalised but many have not and the process of legalisation is very long and (perhaps deliberately) difficult and expensive. 

I would advise that you go for an old ‘cortijo’ type property, with small windows and thick walls. While these are not as ‘pretty’ as the villas, they are usually legal. Also they are cool in summer and warm in winter. 

It does get cold in winter- not in a Scottish way- but despite being here only 18 months, we seem to have acclimatised and now reach for the hats gloves & woolly jumpers when the temperature dips below 20 degrees!

Almeria is supposed to be the driest part of Spain, but global warming may be changing that! Last year we had rain almost every day in March and the first 2 weeks of April. The rain was from the Sahara and contained a lot of it! The clean-up operation was long and arduous.

This year, March & April were dry, but it has rained for the last 2/3 weeks and is forecast to do so until the second week of June.
We’ve been coming to Albox for the first 2 weeks of June since 2016 and have never had any rain!

All that being said, I wouldn’t move back to the UK and wouldn’t even contemplate moving to the Philippines! A bit more global warming will make most of The Philippines disappear beneath the rising sea-level!

I wish you good luck and would certainly recommend that you visit at different times of the year to get a proper feel for Spain. Also bear in mind that if Scotland vote to come out of the UK and are subsequently allowed back in to the EU, it would make your move much, much easier! ( I know there’s some big IFS there!)

All the best,

Stephen 

I couldn't give a s**t about what my ex Spanish wife is up to.Final straw was leaving Spain for the last time.Got stopped by the Guardia Civil Trafico about 100 km from the French border.They said the car was stolen which is isn't and empounded it with all my pocessions in it.Left me in the middle of nowhere with one small plastic bag and my two dogs.No idea where the car went they took it away on a low loader....a couple of days later I am in a hotel having breakfast when I am arrested by the National Police as they have a warrant for my arrest.Chucked in a prison cell and eventually get to the Zaragoza court.They say I have to come up with  some 5700 euros in 24 hours otherwise I will be rearrested and kept in prison till my trial for stealing the car.Went all through this shambles about a month before and after spending the night in a Vera police cell saw the judge who exonerated me of any wrong doing.So one month later it happens all again.... 

Spain might be ok for some who have the ghetto/herd attitude and are part of the so called "in crowd" but if you aren't you are in serious trouble. Have been punched and kicked,my Mustang keyed,my door kicked in etc....See the photo as a result of one of my ex neighbours who hit me in the face because I asked him to move his car which was totally blocking the road.He was in his house at the time..

I've never met you mate and I feel like doing that now, you sound like a whiny little bitch. Enjoy your life with the ladyboys.