looking for advice from expats about living in arboleas

we lived in Arboleas for 15 + years and it ok if you have car to get around.  Village offers all usual stuff bank, chemist, newspapers, tobacco, supermarket, dentist and medical centre.  If renting no problems only be careful if buying as still a lot of properties irregular so get advice.

30 minutes to the coast and Iceland shop for Uk goods or go into Albox where there are several UK shops. 

I don't live there permanently, have a holiday home. I love the area and will be moving out when we retire. You do need a car though.

Hi

Thanks for replying, are there many expats living there as we have a million questions. We will be renting for 3 months but would be nice to know there is a sort of support network for us to fall back on should we need any help..

From my own experience you can’t turn round without bumping into a Brit. Lots of British owned bars and businesses. Saying that I’ve used a lot of Spanish tradesmen for stuff I’ve needed doing and have been very happy with them. I love the area. We initially were looking at buying nearer the coast but the cost quadruples. I can count on one finger the bad experiences. If you have to deal with Galasa in Vera, if your Spanish isn’t great, take an interpreter. If you try to speak with them in their own language they will more than help you. When we have a fancy for a day at the coast, it’s 35 minutes

We used to live in Mojacar. It's beautiful but so, so busy in the summer and eventually we realised we didn't like living in a holiday resort. So we moved to Arboleas! We love it here for many reasons especially the scenery and peacefulness. Arboleas is a very spread out municipality comprising of a number of barrios. Some have facilities, some don't , it just depends what you want. We're in La Judea which is 10 minutes walk to the main village. It's 10 minutes drive to Albox where there are lots of shops and businesses. For such a small place there are a surprisingly large number of bars and restaurants in Arboleas.

 People are very friendly. I would encourage you to learn to speak Spanish if you don't already - it makes a big difference when dealing with tradesmen and the likes of electricity or water companies and you're more likely to get to know Spanish neighbours! The biggest downside of Arboleas for me is that it is so very British - you can often sit in a bar and hear only British voices!  However,  we made that compromise to be close to good facilities as hubby doesn't drive.  To live somewhere more authentically Spanish you would need to look at the smaller villages or go slightly farther from the coast.

My wife can not drive either so knowing its ok to live there as a non driver is a bonus, if she ever had to walk (not likely as I am her chauffeur lol) but nice to know things are close by.

Just choose the right area if you want to be in walking distance, although to be honest, for 7 months of the year you won't want to walk anywhere! I really do encourage you to try out Arboleas - it's such a lovely place to live. Albox is a nice town too and you can sometimes find properties close to the town centre. Also look at Almanzora village. It's much smaller but has a supermarket, pharmacy and a couple of bar/ restaurants and is a very pretty, lovely community. Best of luck! 

If you want to live in an area with a very high number of British immigrants then that's the place to be - each to their own. Buying is simple enough as it's definitely a buyers market with so many places for sale in competition with each other. Thinking ahead, if or when you want/need to sell, the competitive aspect which makes it a buyers market becomes less attractive. 

Hi Susi

Thanks for your reply,its not that were looking for little britain but more a case of having a few expats who should we need to,could go to for help as much as the thought of living in a spanish village appeals to us having the knowladge that there is someone who we could go to for support would be a great comfort to my wife and as for buying a house that would be after we had spent a year renting to make sure its for us