What's in Chirivel

Hi Helen and Vince, Welcome to the forum and I hope your retirement comes fast and goes well. I can’t answer your questions, but I’ll give you some advice which you didn’t ask for:-

1. Don’t even think about selling your home in the UK for at least another five years. Burn your boats and you could be leaving yourself exposed.

2. Rent property in or near Chirivel for several weeks especially in low season. Experience works better than advice. Even Bob-down-pub could offer good advice.

3. You can rent property fairly cheaply November to April. Consequently, you suffer little or no risk. Who wants risks entering retirement?

Hi

We lived in the next village to chirivel, El Contador, it’s a lovely village but very quiet.

It is very close to the motorway so has pretty decent links to other towns etc.

There is a decent weekly market, town hall, church, medical centre, shops and a swimming pool in the summer.

Chirivel has a few bars etc but not much in the way of restaurants, Velez Rubio is not far in the car and has everything you needIncluding nightlife.And there are a couple of good restaurants just off the motorway in the Granada direction.

Bear in mind that Chirivel is high up & can be very cool in winter and you can get snow!

If you want a quiet life with good scenery around you Chirivel is ideal, property prices are relatively low, a car is a necessity.

We moved mainly due to travelling times to and from work.

 Hi Vince and & Helen

Chirivel is a lovely little town, with a good community feel to it.

The town is mainly Spanish, but with a small British community, and other nationalities, the Spanish are very kind & welcoming, but a bit of the language will help.

As Austtrev says, it gets cold but good insulation & heating system negates that.

I don’t know about the sports things you ask for, because that’s something I’m not into myself, but Spain being a very sporty nation, I’m sure there’ll be something locally, or not far away.

Thank you for the information and advice, it sounds like a lovely place to live.

Do you know what the Mosquito situation is like in this area, we already have a small house in the Murcia area near Mazarron and we get a lot of Mozzies there.

Thanks 

Thank you very much for the advice and info, it's much appreciated 

Thanks for the info and advice, we are keeping a small house in the UK so will always have a back up plan.

Renting first whilst we look is a good idea, we will look into that to.

Thanks 

We didn’t find the mozzies too bad, but obviously there are flies around. Luckily there aren’t many pig farms in the area.

It is a lovely area really, Velez Rubio has everything you need, the castle at Velez blanco is worth a visit and the motorway gives you access to just about everywhere.

There used to be an English lady at the town hall in Chirivel, but we think she may have left.

We found  the locals very welcoming and friendly, both in Chirivel and in El Contador.

Spend a few days up there and get a  feel for the area, it’s a totally different lifestyle to down on the coast.

The hotel next to the motorway at El Contador is good as a base, the food is good and reasonably priced, but they don’t seem to understand the concept of b&b even if you’ve paid for it.

As we say it gets cold in winter but as someone else said, with good insulation etc you will be fine.

Good afternoon, a few kilometers from Contador (less than 10km) is Chirivel. It is the main town of Contador, with a town hall, pharmacy, doctor, supermarket and other basic services. It has an apartment complex in the mountain area, known as Los Blancos with a large British community. The apartments have all the amenities, swimming pool and common areas for all neighbors. I highly recommend that area.

There are apartments with incredible mountain views and one of them is for sale with a sunroom that is incredible. In addition to the entire renovated apartment with laminate flooring and luxury kitchen. I recommend you to take a look.

Matthew is giving extremely sage advice, especially as regards maintaining a base in the UK and renting before you buy. Good luck with your plans. If you do decide to purchase, take your time, explore every possible option as above all proceed with as much caution as you would buying a property in the UK.