This week the MiMove-blog spoke with Janette who moved to Costa Blanca with her family – because the time was right.

We used to live a normal, hectic big city life with long days at the office and my husband even worked weekends sometimes. We had recently moved to a house in the suburbs, we had a young son and I was pregnant again. In February of 2017, we visited good friends who live in Albir on Costa Blanca.

We fell in love at first sight, it is just so lovely, and everything is within easy reach. Our friends suggested that we joined them in Spain “Why don’t you come and live here?” they said. When we got back home we started toying with the idea and when our friends called and talked about it again we started to discuss it seriously.

The wrong time being the right time

There is never a good time to do big changes. But when is it really a good time? We looked at it differently “perhaps this is the right time?” we thought. I was on maternity leave with our youngest son, my hubby worked as a real estate agent in Sweden and he could do that in Spain as well. Our eldest son was about to change schools anyway so, in fact, it was perfect timing.

I would like to call myself a digital nomad, meaning I have the advantage to work from anywhere there is an internet connection. Apart from taking care of my family I also run two businesses, one event business and one online shop selling floaties for kids.

Moved to Albir

When we finally made the decision, everything happened very quickly; we rented out our house and moved to Albir on Costa Blanca. We were already in love with the area, so we didn’t look anywhere else in Spain, we knew that we wanted to live here. O course it is a big change to go from a big city up north to a smaller town by the sea in Spain but I am from a smaller seaside town in Sweden so for me it was almost like coming home, but with a better climate.

We did not have a lot on our wish list for the house, we were more interested in the location. I love the sea, so I wanted to be close to the sea and we needed to be close to an international school. Almost all houses are spacious and have access to a pool but that was more of a bonus than a requirement.

Genuine Spain

Albir, which is now almost connected with Altea is very beautiful. The landscape is just fantastic. There are great hiking and cycling trails, you have the sea and the beach close by and there is just a short car ride to larger cities like Alicante, Valencia, and Benidorm. Altea and Albir are towns with a large permanent population meaning all amenities and services are here. You can find pretty much everything depending on what you are looking for, there are luxurious Guide Michelin Star restaurants, fish straight from the sea, nightclubs, concerts, and musicals. Since there are lots of tourists coming each year, there are many water parks, fairgrounds, and zoos located outside of the urban areas. You never need to be bored here.

30 minutes by car from Altea and Albir, you get to the international airport in Alicante. Very easy to get to the rest of the world or for friends and family to come for a visit.

Pebble beach

There are some restrictions regarding building work in the area as the town hall is keen on preserving the landscape as it is. Altea is more than 1000 years old and when they rebuild the beach promenade they kept the original look of the beach, it is a pebble beach. A sandy beach might have attracted more tourists, but I think it is lovely that the kept the authentic look and feel.

I appreciate getting to know the real Spain, albeit in an internationally influenced environment. The WHO once pointed out this is to be especially advantageous from a health point of view. Many from Norway listened to that and relocated to this area but there are people from all over the world who have come and discovered this beautiful place.

Learning the language

When moving to a new country, I do believe you need to try to learn the language. Right now, I take four lessons a week. It is not easy, but I am making progress. My partner knew some Spanish from before and need to use Spanish for work, so he is ahead of me.

Liam attends an international school and learns English, Spanish and French. He doesn’t seem to mind at all and enjoys it. He is just happy that he can play football here all year round. Ben, our youngest is learning to speak at the moment and mixes all languages in the most adorable way.

As always, when you are the new kid on the block you make friends in different places. Firstly, we have our friends from before who already live here and then we have made friends through the kids, neighbours, friends’ friends and so on. I am quite the extrovert and like getting to know new people.

Outdoor lifestyle

Since the move, we have spent more time as a family and everything is a little easier. The climate makes it easy to get out and socialize. We spend more time outdoors, we play padel, go for walks, go out to eat etc. The produce is better, and it is more fun to cook here. When you are on holiday in Spain you might not think about what things cost but when you live here and have an everyday life, it is obvious how much cheaper everything is here.

We still have our house in Stockholm rented out, but we would love to stay here in Spain. We will re-evaluate in a while, jobs, schools and everything else. Perhaps we dare to take that last step also?

Another great aspect with this area is that it is close to the ferries that go to the Spanish islands, Ibiza and Mallorca. This summer I have a girly weekend booked into Ibiza. I am so looking forward to that.

We haven’t regretted the move for a second. For us, the timing was perfect; warmer weather, more time for the family and the children learn so much, both languages and experiences. It feels lovely to be able to give them that.