Thread: Planning on being in Spain early 2011

Hello All - My Wife and I are Americans, living in Zurich for the last 5 years. We are planning on relocating to the Barcelona area and enjoying a climate more similar to San Francisco, where we are from.

We really like the Sitges area, and especially the hills just above Castelldefels. It is a bit isolated, but seems great. Anybody living near the Buddhist Monastery? If so, would love to hear your experiences.

We are currently in Europe on Swiss residency permits, so trying to understand what we have to do to be in Spain. We own a business that is based in Zurich, but could move it just about anywhere. Open to anyone's experience with this, as well.

Looking forward to making the move and avoiding another winter here. And looking forward to being part of this forum!

Keatsfan

Well, we have finally arrived over the weekend and are settling in. We are living quite close to the Buddhist Temple on the edge of the Parc Garraf. Not much up here, so we need to drive down to Castelldefels to shop.

Anyone else in this area? We are looking for high end pet stores to buy dog food for our Labrador. We will need to find a veterinarian, set up mobile phones and satellite tv. Hoping to get some/all of the British channels that we had in Switzerland (TV1, TV2, FIVE, etc).

Hoping some of you have some good tips for newcomers!

keatsfan

Welcome to Spain I hope it is all you hoped for and more. I am way down south and don't know your area at all. Do a search of the forum for any information you need and ask if you need help finding it or more help. We will try and help

Hello and welcome Keatsfan, I don't know that neck of the woods too well either only having made a few flying visits.

I think this is near Greg's neck of the woods.......no doubt he'll be along with input shortly ;-)

Originally Posted by keatsfan

We are looking for high end pet stores to buy dog food for our Labrador. We will need to find a veterinarian, set up mobile phones and satellite tv. Hoping to get some/all of the British channels that we had in Switzerland (TV1, TV2, FIVE, etc).

Congrats on your move! Hope it all went smooth..

I suggest you check out Anec Blau shopping mall for mobile phones.

Here is a list of vets in Castelldefells...

As for the satellite TV find yourself a copy of Barcelona Metropolitan magazine, several TV/Sat installers advertising in there...

Good luck and keep us posted!

Originally Posted by greg

Congrats on your move! Hope it all went smooth..

I suggest you check out Anec Blau shopping mall for mobile phones.

Here is a list of vets in Castelldefells...

As for the satellite TV find yourself a copy of Barcelona Metropolitan magazine, several TV/Sat installers advertising in there...

Good luck and keep us posted!

Yes - I found Anec Blau over the weekend, and a 2nd mall in Gava. But need to speak with the locals here to understand which providers offer the best signal for mobile phones and best bundle of TV/landline services.

For internet, we have Wimax, which is a bit slow, but the only broadband available up here (apparently).

Will have a look at Barcelona Metropolitan for TV installation, but do you know anything about channel selection? Is there a "best provider" for those wanting British/American TV (in English)?

Lots to do!!

keatsfan

Hi everyone... me again!

Was looking at buying a used 4x4; something like a Toyota Rav4 and 10+ yrs old is no problem. Had a look on Autoscout.es and sent one inquiry. Of course, it was a fraudster asking me to send money, blah blah... Seen it many times.

Was googling "Vehículo ocasión" to see if there are any good Dealers with used car lots in the Barcelona area, but not really succeeding in finding anything. Am I missing something? I understand that used cars are pricy in Spain. Seems quite strange to me. Have bought successfully in Switzerland and Germany and gotten good deals.

Would appreciate any feedback!

I read that good second hand cars are a bit like hens teeth. I think they keep them till they fall apart. When we were trying to find a specific vechicle we saw very little in the second hand market that was not ancient and well battered and most likely not road worthy.

There are a lot of scams on car sales sites be very wary.

Originally Posted by keatsfan

Was googling "Vehículo ocasión" to see if there are any good Dealers with used car lots in the Barcelona area, but not really succeeding in finding anything. Am I missing something? I understand that used cars are pricy in Spain. Seems quite strange to me. Have bought successfully in Switzerland and Germany and gotten good deals.

I suggest you drive over to mundiauto (just next to the airport)... They have several floors of second hand cars.

When using autoscout.es you should try limiting your search to "professionals only". This should weed out most of the strange ones