[Anonymous]

Hi All

We are due to move over to Guardamar in June. Everything, touch wood, is in front of schedule. We know that this may change, but we still need to make arrangements for our furniture etc.

We have negotiated with a haulage company, so have plenty of room in the lorry to bring whatever we need over, as its a fixed price for the trip.

We are definitely bringing our newish sofa bed, our dining table and chairs, nest of tables, tv, george forman grill, and other sundry items.

We have ordered the beds and a dining room unit from a furniture shop in Spain, plus most of the light fittings.

We have bought some new bedding and towels which we will bring over, but do you think we should stop at that? We don’t want to bring things over just for the sake of it, but don’t want to regret not taking advantage of the space!

Another question is, would it be possible for us to bring some of our pot plants from our garden? Is it legal to do this? I know you can’t import plants and soil into some countries, I don’t know about Spain. we realise that the plants have to be able to endure the hotter weather, so we will check in a Spanish gardening book.

We can’t wait to get away from this horrible grey weather and into the sunshine again.

Best wishes

G & L
😕

[Anonymous]

What you take is a matter of personal taste and lifestyle in your new home. I am not sure the TV will work in Spain as I believe it has a different system from the UK. Electrical goods are relatively inexpensive from some of the large Hypermarkets and they will be correctly formatted with the correct plugs etc. Good luch with your move. Geoff.

[Anonymous]

You can bring plants as part of your personal effects.

[Anonymous]

The garden furniture we have seen in Spain seems to be more expensive than in the UK. We didn’t see too many automatic electric kettles and those we did were pricey. And tea bags.

[Anonymous]

I’d say T-bags too…you can buy them here but they have very weak tea! A box of things such as marmite, baked beans, curry sauce etc or any other “English” foodstuff you can’t get here that you really like!

Like someone else said earlier, its a matter of what you want to bring/ how much you want to spend here buying new things!

We have an IKEA nearby and we think the prices seem pretty much the same as in the UK for some things and far cheaper for others, so its hard to say how much you’d spend! We are bringing almost all of our stuff over wen our house is in a fit state for it (in storage at the mo!) but thats mainly as we though it would be good for our children to have familar things..

When we first came over with just a car load, a friend that had moved abroad suggested taking all your pictures, paintings etc so that your new house feels familar…

Heather

[Anonymous]

Warning! Spanish beds and bedding sizes are completely different to UK beds and bedding sizes. On the coast it is possible to buy “UK” bedding but as a rule if you want new duvet covers, pillowcases etc etc you won’t be able to find them in the right size for your UK duvet/pillowcase. Your UK fitted sheets for example won’t fit your Spanish mattress! Then you have IKEA which is different again…. 🙄

[Anonymous]

I am not sure the TV will work in Spain as I believe it has a different system from the UK.

TV will work fine , just change the plug.

The garden furniture we have seen in Spain seems to be more expensive than in the UK. We didn’t see too many automatic electric kettles and those we did were pricey

Exactly right, garden furniture, especially wooden stuff, is very expensive and so too are electric kettles.

Other “white”goods are on a par with UK prices, so if you have them already, and its no extra cost, bring them over.

[Anonymous]

When you say the bedding in Spain is completely different, do you mean the mattresses are bigger or smaller? Why won’t the fitted sheets fit?

Its good to know we will be able to bring some of our ‘special’ plants from the UK.And its a good idea to bring some pictures. I suppose that even adults need familiar things about them.

We’ve looked a little at the supermarkets and briccolage shops, and we know that they are well stocked, so I don’t think we’ll be deprived of many things.

Maybe we ought to fill the lorry up with marmite and teabags, that should keep us going for a while!

We’ve already decided to bring our garden furniture from the UK, and we have bought a patio set from Argos for the solarium.

Thanks for the info so far. If any of you have any advice for us at the four months to moving stage, we would be interested in hearing it.

Warm regards.

L & G
😀

[Anonymous]

Well basically there is something that the Emigrant Brits (sorry! you call yourselves expats) tend to forget over and over… is just a simple pocket dictionary to translate your language to Spanish and also a language course will be desirable…so rather than ask what I need to bring ask what you have to do before moving…you will avoid people queuing up on the counter after you because you dont speak the language and the counter assistant struggles with the English…I have seen this many times.
Being Brits the 5th larger emigrant group to Spain (1 ecuatorians,2 moroquians, 3romanianas,4 colombians,5 british) why dont you learn as the moroquians and romanians and you give us lest trouble in the dayly basis. cheers mate!

[Anonymous]

I was told by someone we spoke to in spain to bring quilts, they are needed especially in the winter, they are very expensive in spain this person said. Can’t have you being coldddddddd can we.

[Anonymous]

Hi All

A few more interesting replies! A good idea about the quilts, will put them on my list. I would hate to be cold, we are hoping to get away from that! We have been over to Spain in January, so realise that nights and early morning can be cold. May even bring our hot water bottles…

Regarding learning Spanish, we have enrolled ourselves at the local evening school, and are trying very hard to master the language. We already have a Spanish dictionary, plus numeous Spanish CDs and books. We can’t wait to get over to Spain to try and practice what we have learned so far.

We have been told that, as immigrants, we will be able to get Spanish Language lessons at the local town hall. This we are looking forward to as we understand that there will be a mix of nationalities. You never know, we may be able to speak several languages before we finish!

So far, we have found the Spanish people very patient and kind when we have tried to speak their language, and I hope that this continues when we are living there.

Gracias, adios y buenas noches!!

G & L
🙂

[Anonymous]

We found free lessons through our local adult education centre (centro de adultos). However, this doesn’t seem amazingly well advertised here – a poster on the Ayuntamiento wall. We don’t live in a main city and other english speakers are rare. I’m learning with a Romanian and Morracan now!

I moved here in September with very minimal Spanish (sorry, but I wasn’t expecting things to happen so quickly and thought I had a while longer to learn!) and have always found language learning hard.

BUT I have found it much much easier being here and after 5 months of lessons can do all the normal day to day things, shopping, hair cuts etc and have conversations about my children/husband/house/ what I’m going to do etc etc with others.

Another thing worth looking out for are “intercambios” where you met with a Spaniard learning English and do 30 mins in Spanish and 30 in English..but watch out or else you’ll end up with too many – I now seem to have 4 but as I said native speakers are rare here!

If you mean duvets – IKEA sell them really cheaply here…

Good luck!
Heather

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