What I Love About Living In Valencia Spain As An Expat / Digital Nomad
It’s no secret that Valencia has become quite a popular living destination for expats and digital nomads, being crowned as the #1 best city in the world to live in 2022 by Forbes… And as an expat in Valencia myself, I can confirm!
Our family moved to Valencia in August 2022 on a non-lucrative visa. So far, it’s been life-changing, not to mention, it’s been a great personal finance decision given it’s low cost of living.
But there’s so much greatness in this city that I can’t reduce our decision to move to Spain to cost of living, I rather talk about how I experience life in general in Valencia. A simple life, with all we need.
Wondering if life abroad can be for you? If you’re looking for a sign to move to Valencia, this might be it! 😉
What Is The Quality Of Life In Valencia?
Quality of life in Valencia is high! Life is simple and overall pleasant in Valencia. It is a very safe city. You can walk to places, you can buy local food from the municipal markets, you can enjoy performing arts, and good wine at affordable prices. If you are thinking of moving to Valencia come visit and experience it yourself.
Is Valencia Spain A Good Place To Live?
Totally! Valencia is a great place to raise children, a wonderful place to work and enjoy work-life balance, and an amazing place to retire. If you are considering Valencia to move abroad, it won’t disappoint.
Pros And Cons Of Living in Valencia, Spain
Living in Valencia has improved our quality of life significantly. It has all the perks of a big city, being the third-largest city in Spain, but with the charm and feel of a town. (TIP: not everything is pleasant and easy, there’s definitely pros and cons of living in Spain, but for our family the pros weigh out the cons.) Let’s discuss the pro’s!
- Walkability: You walk everywhere! You walk to take your kids to school, to go grocery shopping, to the pharmacy, to the cafe, bars and restaurants. I hit and surpass my daily steps goal (10,000 steps) everyday. Some days I hit 21,000 steps.
- Mobility: Public transport is well designed. It is very easy to get around without a car in the city, as well as other areas outside the city. EMT Valencia (Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Valencia) offers metro, trams and buses that covers all around Valencia. There’s multiple cycle lanes throughout the city. Valencia offers an international hub for multiple airlines. It’s easy to travel by air to and from Valencia. Also, it’s easy to travel by train to other nearby Spanish cities, as well as by bus.
- Plenty of culture: You see culture in Valencia everywhere! From the gastronomy, where the traditional paella is the star, to arts, where it has it’s very own dedicated city (City of Arts and Sciences). You’ll find many great restaurants and bars, and so much to do within walking distance. The city offers a wide variety of performing arts; my favorite being the theater. Great plays throughout the year and also affordable.
- Green spaces: There’s plenty of green spaces throughout the city, Turia Gardens being the top of the list. The Turia (former riverbed) is a 7.4 mile long (12 km long) that runs through the city, known as the lung of Valencia. It connects many neighborhoods and has multiple playgrounds, walk/bike paths and soccer fields throughout.
- Small business culture: You can find municipal food markets in almost every neighborhood. The biggest being Central Market, with more than 1,200 stalls with fresh produce, dairy products, fish, meat, jamón, bread and many more local products. Besides municipal food markets, you can find ‘Fruterias and Verdulerias’, coffee shops, everything-you-can-imagine repair shops, butcher shops, etc. in every corner. There’s not a culture or appetite for big chains driving small shops out of business.
- Very pet-friendly: Almost everyone has a dog! You can even go to shopping malls with your dog. They are welcome at coffee shops, and many more places. If they are not, they have cute little signs outside with hooks for the leashes and water dishes.
- The beach is close to the city. There’s also beautiful calas (beaches surrounded by beautiful rocks) within an 1:30hr away driving distance in the Alicante province. Positioned south of Barcelona, Valencia has beautiful mediterranean beaches.
Cons of living in Valencia:
- Language barrier: It’s fair to say that for us communication hasn’t been a problem given that my husband and I were born and raised in Puerto Rico. So learning Spanish was not something we had to conquer when moving to Valencia. But for many expats this is something that can add a bit of stress in the beginning when moving abroad. Especially when managing getting services, residency procedures, etc.
- Many apartments are very old, and do not have a direct natural gas line connection. In these cases, tenants have to use butane gas, which is not the safest, nor the most convenient way.
- You need a ‘cita previa‘ (appointment) for every governmental procedure.
- Bureaucracy, even when opening a bank account!
- Real Estate (at least for renting) is the wild west. It is not regulated. There is no such organization that looks out for the best interest in both parties (landlord and tenant). Anyone can become a real estate agent. There’s no requirements or a license needed to become one. Looking for a place to live is such a hassle. You may see the same apartment listed by multiple real estate agencies. To me it was very confusing and it seemed like a scam! Later in the process I learned that this is how it’s done here in Spain. Landlords don’t have exclusivity with the realtor. Real estate agents will compete with each other to get the commission. They all represent / work for the property owner.
- Tricky landlords: I’ve heard from locals and the expat community that many try to keep the security deposit (may be spent by the time they need to return it to tenant). They may offer you to live in the apartment for 2 extra months instead (or how many months worth of security deposit you paid).
Where Do Expats Live In Valencia, Spain?
Valencia has a great international community. Many expats live in neighborhoods like Russafa, Gran Via, El Carmen (city center), Ciutat Vella and Mestalla, among many other neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are centrally located, which makes it easier to move around.
I highly suggest joining ‘Expats in Valencia’ Facebook groups to connect with other like-minded people living the expat life. These type of community groups empower each other and becomes very helpful when moving abroad.
Is There An Expat Community In Valencia Spain??
Yes! There is a good sized international community and it’s is growing everyday. We joined many Facebook groups before moving here, and they were very helpful during our relocation process. There are quite a lot of expats in Valencia, and you can ask the groups many questions like:
“What is the best neighborhoods to live?”
“What type of visa do I need?”
“Can I get the golden visa and is it worth it?”
“Do I rent an unfurnished place, or is it easy to furnish your home?”
“How is the housing market?”
“My budget is only 1500 euros a month for a two-bedroom / three-bedroom apartment, can I live in the center of the city?”
The answer to this by the way is 100% yes at the time of writing this post!
Moving to a new country is challenging, so having a small community to lean on during this process, is incredible! I cannot tell you how many questions I had before moving here as well! Use these groups as a major tool to help with the transition!
Living In Valencia Spain As A Family Of 6 - 2023 Update
After living in this beautiful European city for almost a year, we wanted to give a little update on living here as a family of 6. We are so incredibly happy we chose to live abroad and give our family this ultimate opportunity.
Obviously, moving to a new country where majority of the people do not speak English has its challenges.
With that being said, we overcome new obstacles everyday and we always have to celebrate those “little wins.” To be honest, those “little wins” really don’t feel that small to us!
Our wallets have thanked us in many aspects of moving here. In other aspects, not so much! The cost of living in Valencia is relatively cheaper than where we moved from in the USA as well as the private health insurance!
We do SO MUCH TRAVELING here that it hurts when buying 6 of everything! It is a lot easier to get to other European countries, that we find ourselves not buying the material items (which we did in the USA), but splurging on the experiences. Obviously, depending where you travel, it has a big price tag!
To add onto some of the things mentioned above, we have a little of our own PROS!
Sunshine - Sun Shines All 12 Months Of The Year In This Part Of Spain
I just love how sunny it is all the time here in Valencia. We moved from a smaller rural city in the Midwest and we had many days of grey skies. In the wintertime, it is very depressing!
A lot of people I know have SADs (Seasonal Affective Disorder) when the winter comes. Yes, it is a real thing and I am glad that I do not have to endure that anymore.
When looking up where to live in Europe, one of my requirements was I NEED THE SUN! With Spain having more than 300 days of sunshine annually, it was a pretty obvious choice for me!
If you want a more detailed breakdown of the weather here in Valencia, you can check out this link
Is It Safe To Live In Valencia Spain?
Yes. I personally feel it is safe here for my entire family no matter the time of day here in Valencia! In many areas I have lived in the USA, I would never be walking alone at night or even during the day in some areas. I have not seen any “sketchy” areas here in Valencia.
Valencia is not a small city by any means and during my 45-minute walk at night in the Turia park (large park surrounding the city) with my dogs, I do not feel any threat what-so-ever.
Safety - Spain's Safety Index Is Worldly Ranked In The Top
Coming from the USA, I would have to say moving here has cut down my anxiety with my children at least in half! I am not constantly checking around corners when my kids are playing or yelling at them to stay close.
I feel they can actually be kids and run wild here. They go to the bathroom alone (well, in pairs), many kids walk to school on their own (I’m not there yet), and even go to the grocery stores alone! I can breathe and relax knowing my kids are safe.
As a woman walking around on my own, I also feel very safe. Now to be clear, I don’t go walking up and down dark alleyways at night to test this theory!
There have been many times after a night out with friends, I had over a 20 minute walk home. The streets are very well lit and there are always people walking around no matter how late it is!
It is hard to explain and put into words how different it feels living here after living in the USA for 30 years. Once you come and visit, I hope you get that feeling of peace as well!
Is It Expensive To Live In Valencia Spain??
No, in our opinion it is a very affordable place to live. Valencia may be the 3rd largest city in Spain, but it is not priced like it.
Now, with having 6 people in our family, everything will always be a little more expensive than the average sized family!
With that being said, there are so many changes you can do in your everyday life to cut back on expenses here. In the USA we found it hard to cut back and make those changes.
Here, we shop a little less, only buy things we need, no car payments, rentals are cheaper, food is cheaper, etc. The list goes on and on! It is definitely easier to budget here and live a more minimalistic lifestyle while maintaining happiness.
With that being said prices have gone up in the year since we moved here so we are sure locals are feeling that increase.
At the same time prices in the States have gone up significantly so we still do feel like we have the better end of the bargain here.
Food Scene - Valencia Area Has Everything You Need
I am going to give my opinion and it may be a little biased because we have NEVER lived in a city before. We came from a small town in the USA, and we hardly had any local food options.
Now you have your fast food chains, but I am talking about those little hole in the wall, authentic or “different” restaurants. You had to go searching through the neighboring cities to find something authentic!
My husband and I live our life based around food and trying different cuisines from around the world. This can be pretty tough when you have to DRIVE 30+ minutes to find something decent!
With all that being said, the food here is incredible. From our doorstep, there are 100s of restaurants within a 10 minute WALK. We pick the type of cuisine we want for the day, find one closest one to us, and make a reservation if needed. We have not been disappointed yet!
Something we really enjoy here is the Menu Del Dias that majority of restaurants offer! Most of the time it is a three-course meal that is healthy and is under €13 per person. You pretty much get a McDonald’s meal for that price now-a-days!
Friendly People - One Of My Favorite Things About The Community
It is hard to put into words on how amazing and caring the local people are here. Maybe it’s because we felt like the USA was in a major divide as we were leaving (from elections to COVID) before we made the jump to Spain!
I am not sure! But, all I can say is that we felt welcome from the moment we got here.
Our kids were happy with the people in their schools and sports. The parents all reached out to us asking if we need help, offering to help with doctors appointments, etc.
Really anything we needed a translator for, so many people offered their assistance! I wasn’t prepared for the level of love and genuineness from the locals here.
But What Is It Really Like To Move To & Live In Valencia?
We have listed our own personal pros and cons above. I am sure other people have their own based off of their experiences, but in general I know we overlap many details! The Valencian Communidad is a wonderful place to live for people of all stages of their lives! We truly believe we have all chose a wonderful place to raise our families and couldn’t be happier with this move!
