Is there a ferry to Almeria from the UK?

No ferry from Almeria to UK. Santander is the best way to go. Still a long drive across Spain though, so allow for an overnight stop. 

10 hrs drive from santander, mostly toll free motorway. we overnight at pet friendly hotel at junction 99 north of madrid.

Thank you Craig46 for your suggestion.

Regards

Veronica

Thank you for jtp890 for your suggestion re the hotel, although we do not have any pets.

Regards

Veronica

Hi, partner and I live in Urcal !! We love it here. We're on the bottom bit of villas split by the road thru, by the tall street lights and mail boxes.

We drove partners car down from Saffron Walden Essex via an overnite in Portsmouth, our Porrsmouth-Bilbao ferry was the slower of the two and only docked around 2 pm, to break up the journey down to Urcal we arranged an Air BnB in Madrid and wished we'd have booked 2 nites in order to check out Madrid in the day.

We got into Madrid after dark, slept great, woke up to inclement weather, the further south we came the wetter and murkier it got, took us roughly 5 or so hours to do the journey, motorways are great with not that much traffic anywhere, max speed limits 120 kmph which is roughly 75mph. There are lots of places you can get petrol/diesel and something to eat and drink on the trip down.

If you need to you can make an excursion to Ikea just off the motorway at Murcia, theres also a newish shopping mall, Leroy Merlin DIY warehouse, Mc Donalds, KFC, Burger King as well as more traditionally Spanish rest stops.

In Lorca theres another group of shops/stores including Carrefour supermarkets, Media Markt for most everything electrical, a huge Asia store, (if they dont stock it you probably dont need it but beware sometimes dodgy electricals), C and A, yes remember them ? Lol, there's a great open air market on Thursdays too.

As you come further down you'll notice how green and fertile it is. Another open air market is at Puerto Lumbreras on Fridays with a great value Bodega where you can get an excellent range of wines from huge barrels, you'd be hard pressed to find "bad" wine here even as cheap as it can get. Try 2 litres of very good wine for around €3.20 lol. Red as well as white.

The ramp for Urcal as you might well know splits between Urcal and Los Norias, nice bar there we call the B2, come right and follow your nose 7 minutes and your "home". Check out the bar, closed Mondays, darts nite Thursdays lol.

There's free Spanish lessons in Huercal Overa, best to register in September for new courses but there's other one to one classes at a place called The Hub up by Voss homes and Lidl.

Apologies if I've duplicated anything you already know of, the village is a nice mix of friendly ex-pats and Spanish and you should settle into the peace and tranquility in no time.

Anything you still need advice on just ask away.

My names Jim, partners name is Ann

Hi Jim

Thank you so much for that post.  We are so grateful for the information and are very much looking forward to settling down in Urcal.  When we were taken to see the villa via the Voss Estates we knew this village was the one for us, so peaceful, that seemed to be the overriding thing.  We also liked the idea that there was a mix of expats and Spanish and we do intend to learn the language.  We have been looking forward to this since we bought our villa in October 2017.  Yes, we intend to bring our UK registered car with us in the short term as we need to get about and to explore.  Our villa is within walking distance of the mailboxes so we are neighbours of yours. 

No apologies necessary re the information, we are interesting in everything to do with the area and the culture.  No doubt we will be in contact once we arrive. 

I have read your previous posts and note that you are mind of information and that is so important to us as newbies especially re Urcal.

Thanks again, speak to you very soon.

Regards

Veronica & Phill

Hi, hola, lovely sunny but cool morning yet again, temps are edging back upwards.

Hi, uploaded 3 pics I just took to give you a view of our current clear blue sky, weather forecast today is for 15 degrees and sunny, Wednesday 18 so not bad for February.

Partners car is right hand drive and we drove it down as I may have detailed.

She had it what they call "matriculated" a few months ago which is the Spanish roadworthiness Spanish MOT called ITV here. If you can get your leadlights checked for being swifchable from right hand drive to left hand drive, as the first thing that any garage you choose to do the Matriculation is the headlamps, apparently some newer vehicles have some kind of switch facility, partners Honda didnt and it was really expensive sourcing new Honda lhd headlights.

Other than that its the usual road tax insurance etc but you dont really need to get this done straight away. You get an IGV sticker for your wjndscreen as oposed to the round tax disc that was scrapped in the UK, ITV is good for 2 years for vehicles under 10 years old, annually for those older. Road tax is levied according to engine size/cc, and is cheaper as in the UK for electric and/or hybrids.

No real need to buy a left hand drive vehicle straight off unless you want to, Ann's Honda costs €30 a year and is a 1.4 litre petrol with battery assist. We've been driving it everywhere since we came last March tho doubtless at some stage she may swap it for a lhd one.

Dont really know what to add since dont know what info the helpful folks at Voss may have given you. As before, anything you want info on just ask, if I dont know or am not sure of doubtless someone will lol.

Apologies for any spelling mistakes, (thick finger syndrome) lol