Is Málaga The Right Place to Settle?

We’ve been very quiet on the blog lately.  It’s been down to a combination of things while we’ve been busy settling into our new home in Spain. I’ve also been working a lot lately and that has taken me on a couple of transatlantic trips back to the States. Then of course Christmas came and went and we had family in town. In between all of that we went to the UK to collect the motorhome and relocate it to Spain, its new home, but more about that in a future post.

We can hardly believe we have been in Málaga for four months already. I thought I would do a little update on how things are going and how we are feeling about the decision to make Spain our home base.

The area: We still have a lot more exploring to do around the local area but we have found lots of lovely places for day trips out of the city. Beautiful white hillside towns, like Cómpeta and Frigiliana, fun coastal spots like Marbella, Estepona and Nerja are all great places for a visit. One of the reasons we chose Málaga as a base is that there is so much within an hour or two’s drive from here. We haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

The city:  We are loving the city of Málaga, the center is vibrant, clean, has beautiful architecture, great bars and restaurants, good shopping and there is always something going on. The city’s proximity to the sea is a huge plus as the waterfront boulevards and lush green parks full of noisy parrots create an almost tropical atmosphere. The locals are friendly and while there are days when multiple cruise ships are in the harbor offloading many huddles of sightseers following someone with a flag, most of the time we haven’t found it to be too touristy.

Our neighborhood: We didn’t really choose the neighborhood of El Palo/ Pedregalejo. It just happened to be where we found an available apartment that we liked but we feel really lucky this is where we have landed. Pedregalejo is a wonderful seafront spot with a modern, young feeling. There are lots of seafront bars and restaurants which come alive on weekend afternoons when Spanish families gather over epic seafood lunches and friends spend hours soaking up the sunny atmosphere.  In El Palo, once you step back a block from the Mediterranean, you find a more traditional Spanish neighborhood where alongside the restaurants and bars there’s a market, bakery, hardware store and all the other things that you need to live everyday. We don’t think we could have landed in a better spot than here.

Our apartment: Finding a place to live can be challenging here. Despite there being many listings on sites like Idealista, or Fotocasa, most people never called back after the agent we were working with made an inquiry. But fortunately for us we found a place that we could rent directly from the owners who responded right away when we expressed interest. With no agency in between and our landlord living locally, it’s worked out pretty well. The duplex apartment is modern and a perfect size for us. It was furnished but we’ve added a few things to make it feel like home.  It’s half a block from the beach which makes up for its one downside – no outdoor space.  I would have loved a balcony or patio but we have numerous bars and cafes nearby so for now that’s our outside relaxation space. 

For us, getting residency in Spain was partly a practical matter – as we discussed in our previous post, with Brexit looming we had to make some decisions about our traveling future. But practicalities aside, Spain has been at the top of our list of places we wanted to live for several years now. The warmth of the people, the relaxed way of life, the culture, the natural beauty, the climate – it all fits where we want to be right now.  So four months in we are still feeling pretty good about our decision to settle here.  Now we just need to find some time to enjoy it.