Living in real Spain

However, if your personal reason for moving to Spain is to live in real Spain, you will need to move inland. There is virtually nowhere on the coast between Nerja and Tarifa which has not been touched by modern tourism.

If you do decide to move inland you could experience the best of both worlds. When you want a ‘fix’ of the expatriate lifestyle – an English restaurant or English newspapers – you can jump in the car and drive down to the coast. At other times you will be living in a totally Spanish community and the further you go inland the more unspoilt this community will be. There are still remote villages where, unless you speak, or are prepared to learn Spanish, you may indeed feel very isolated and at a great disadvantage. Some of these villages have hardly changed for centuries.

There will be many local families whose ancestors have lived in the same village for centuries and whose properties have been handed down from generation to generation. The lifestyle in these villages is very different from that on the coast. The goatherds still lead their flocks out to the best local grazing grounds. The transport of goods between one village and the next might still be by donkey or mule. If you happen to buy the local property which has a good well and therefore a good supply of water you might find that one of the locals brings his animals down to your property every day for water since he has been doing that every day throughout his life and may even have a ‘right’ to do this. Take away this privilege and you will be very unpopular with the local population.