After visiting Calpe, we realised that we are drawn to a more authentic Spain. So, we decided to turn our focus inland.
Don’t get me wrong, we love Moraira – it is charming, coastal, and buzzing with life. After all, that’s exactly why it has attracted so many Dutch, English, Germans, and even some French expats. The house prices are well beyond our budget and we doubt if you could consider it authentic Spain.
Marina Alta – more authentic Spain??
The area inland of Moraira called Marina Alta has a lot to offer. It is very pretty with rolling hills that are perfect for hiking and cycling. Several villages caught our eye and Jalon, Parcent and Alcalalí were the first ones to check out.
Our plan was to visit Jalon first but it turned out that the weekly brocante market was in full swing. Parking was a nightmare and we kept driving to the next town – Alcalalí.
Along the way, we passed dozens of cyclists. If we lived here, we have to accept that they would be a constant presence. They seem to keep to their own set of traffic rules and overtaking them with the required 1.5m distance on these narrow roads is not an easy task.
Alcalalí – small but ticking many boxes
Alcalalí sits in the Pop Valley of the Marina Alta Region and it is about 20 km from the coast. We have learned that we rarely go to the beach when it is around 50 km away and 20 km is totally doable.
Alcalalí and its pastel coloured streets
It’s a small town of 1,500 people, with colourful houses and a lot of construction. It felt like a giant work-in-progress. Shops were sparse, most cafés were closed, and yet, it had a certain charm. We spotted a gorgeous garden cafe but sadly, it didn’t open until noon. You would think with all the cyclists around, more places would cater to them early! On our way to Parcent, we did pass two cycling cafes that were open and as expected packed with cyclists.
Could Parcent be authentic Spain?
On to historical Parcent – 25 km from Moraira, a small originally Moorish town of 1100 people with cute narrow streets. It’s famous for its Rates de Parcent, a must-do cycling pass with it viewpoint Mirador del Coll.
Locals greeted us with friendly buenos, and we found a charming community hall café with a sunny terrace. Again, not much was open until midday, but the town had a great feel.
Fun fact: A coffee in Parcent can cost as little as €1.20, while trendy cycling cafés charge up to €2.60.
Despite its small size, Parcent has all the essentials: shops, bakeries, doctors, and pharmacies. It’s even considered very Spanish—though a 2006 census showed that 35% of residents are Northern European. They must have integrated well!
Writer Gabriel Miró called Parcent “a paradise between the mountains.” We now get why!
Vibrant and colourful Parcent
Jalon
Back to Jalon, hoping for a parking spot and luckily, we found one at the inland edge of town. The market was fantastic, reminding us of some of our favourite markets in Esperaza, France or Eumundi in Australia. It was set along the river, surrounded by lively restaurants and cafés. Obviously it was packed, so we skipped exploring the old town and hope to save it for a quieter day.
Jalon is only a 20 minute drive to the coast, has a wine cooperative and many lively spots for a bite to eat.
We learned a few things
We like living in a wine region. Limoux is a wine paradise and we love it. The Marina Alta is a wine region.
We like the beach within reach – ideally not further than 20 km
We don’t want to be isolated and we want access to medical services and supermarkets.
This region is a cyclist paradise – great for exercise and people-watching as pro cyclists train here in winter!
The Marian Alta has no heavy industry nor pollution as you see when driving towards Valencia
Surrounded by beautiful hilly areas for walks and hiking
Visiting these towns have definitely given us an idea about a more authentic Spain, and we have only just begun.
Last but not least—don’t forget to comment! It helps others find my blog, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Also, if you have any tips, send them my way!
On another note, if you like my pictures, you can find more in my new Etsy shop.
Two weeks in, and we’ve been soaking up the Spanish sun while getting to know Moraira and its surroundings. With work claiming four days a week, I make every moment of my free time count—like our visit to Calpe.
A trip to Calpe
Calpe is famous for Peñon de Ifach, a towering 337-meter limestone rock that juts out dramatically into the sea. I love natural formations like this—El Montgó is another favorite, so is Pic de Bugarach in France and after years in Australia, I have to include Ayers Rock.
Fun fact: the view of Peñon de Ifach from Moraira is actually better than the one from Calpe itself!
Calpe’s main beach with Peñon de Ifach
Calpe is home to around 30,000 residents, half of whom are expats, mostly Brits and Germans. Someone told me “If you shop for a property, the agent will tell you how many English speaking professionals there are”.
First impressions
The town boasts wide beaches, a charming old town, and plenty of beachfront cafés. But it’s also high-rise central, giving off a Benidorm or Australian Gold Coast vibe. The area is a true cycling paradise, attracting both amateurs and pro teams—great for cycling fans, not so great when you’re stuck behind a peloton on a winding road.
Coffee in Calpe? About 2 euros. But the real win? A massive slice of birthday cheesecake for an absolute bargain, enjoyed right on the beach. Now that is the kind of research I’m happy to do!
We wandered through a surprisingly quiet town, with many eateries and bars still closed for the season. I’d love to come back later in the day or closer to peak season to see it in full swing.
What I Think of Calpe
You don’t get the feeling you are in Spain. You could be anywhere.
You hear mostly North European languages.
It feels restricted because of the high rise. It must be horrible to build a house on a nearby hill to see the next tower develop and block your sea view.
Spanish Flag Stairs Calpe
Defining what we want
While Calpe or any place that looks like this, has its perks, it doesn’t quite feel like Spain to me. The old town has charm, but the touristy areas could be anywhere in the world. I get why people love it—the beaches, the weather, the lifestyle—but I’m craving more authenticity. I want to hear Spanish, smell sizzling tapas, and feel like I’m in Spain, not just visiting a sunny outpost of Northern Europe.
When we bought our house in France, we had a checklist list with clear criteria. Now, it’s time to create one for Spain: size, culture, local life, and proximity to the coast
Calpe has helped refine our search—we want a place that feels Spanish. Maybe it’s time to head inland and see what hidden gems we can find and where Spain still feels like Spain.
Share your thoughts
Last but not least—don’t forget to comment! It helps others find my blog, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Also, if you have any tips, send them my way!
On another note, if you like my pictures, you can find more in my new Etsy shop.
January 2025 kicked off a new chapter for us! We temporarily packed up our life in Limoux, France, rented out our home, and hit the road in search of our dream lifestyle in Spain. Some might find this level of uncertainty nerve-wracking—but for us, it’s all part of the fun.
So, why Spain? To simply sum it up: great weather, a lower cost of living, and the perfect spot for our future retirement.
Finding Our Way
In 2024, we spent six weeks road-tripping through Spain also with a dream lifestyle in mind—starting in Valencia, the area North of Valencia and then Mallorca. Funny enough, instead of finding our what we wanted, that trip helped us figure out what we didn’t want in a future home. This turned out to be just as valuable as knowing what we do want.
We found our current rental through social media, despite some initial sketchy warnings about it being a scam. Turns out, the owners are just getting started—brand new in the rental game and just lovely genuine people!
Now, we’re in Moraira, a picturesque town on the Costa Blanca. Our villa sits in a typical Spanish hillside community—an ubanizaciòn. We tend to call it an ‘Urb’. Not exactly our dream setup, but super comfortable. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a sunny outdoor space, and a pool—yes, please but a bit later in Spring! Coming from chilly Limoux, sunny outdoor living feels like a luxury.
Lessons Learned and Tips for Others
So far, our adventure has taught us a few things:
Do Your Research – Take time to visit places before committing.
Embrace Uncertainty – Sometimes, you won’t have everything figured out, and that’s okay!
Investigate Rentals – Online listings can be hit or miss—vet them well before making a decision
Know What You Don’t Want – It’s just as important as knowing what you do want.
Enjoy the Perks – Yes, practicalities matter, but so does soaking up the sunshine.
What’s Next?
Our journey is far from over. Over the next few months, we’ll keep exploring, meeting new people, and refining our vision. Moving abroad is a big leap, especially in your 50s and beyond, but it’s also an amazing opportunity to create the life you really want.
For now, we’re soaking up the Mediterranean vibes, dreaming big, and seeing where the adventure takes us next. Stay tuned!
2023 is slowly coming to an end and we are planning ahead for the year 2024. For me this year was the year to create a foundation for a new business or income stream. At the moment I am an online contractor for four days per week for a British company – fixed days and fixed times. As the work is remote I can work anywhere as long as the time zone is relatively compatible with British office hours. I have worked in several different countries and it is close to an ideal situation.
I said close, as I am not keen on the fixed hours and because I work from France, my day ends rather late. My goal is to create side hustles that over time can replace my current income. You know that passive income that keeps on coming while we sleep. Hey, but a girl can dream and have goals, can’t she?
I have been self employed for over 20 years and most of those years were spent in Australia. It is very easy to be self employed in Australia and several of my business ventures have had moderate success. I have been a remedial massage therapist, a counsellor, an interior designer and had a garden business which was by far the most successful gig.
At the moment I am also self employed – sole trader or auto-entrepreneur as they call it in France, where we have lived since 2017. Being self employed in France is a bit harder to set up but once you are in the French system, it runs quite smoothly. France has changed the rules around being a sole trader during the last 10 years but unfortunately they still hit sole traders hard with social contributions.
We may be considering leaving France…..
The big disadvantage of being in France is not being able to access our Australian pension. The countries do not seem to like each other enough to facilitate that exchange. For that reason – and a few more in fact, we are thinking of moving to Spain as Spain is one of the countries where you can receive an Australian pension. Actually you would be able to receive it in most countries in western Europe except the UK and France.
As a result we have started to research Spain and do a bit of planning ahead. Another reason we want to leave our home town Limoux, is the climate during the winter. It may be in the South of France but we find the winter too long and too cold. One of the main reasons we moved to Australia was the weather and good weather we have had. We spent 17 years in Brisbane and 9 months of the year the climate is close to perfect there. The three other months, summer, are the problem!
So researching Spain means thinking about the weather and in contrary to France, we have to be aware of areas that are too hot. Andalusia for instance, sounds fabulous in the winter, but the summers seem just too much of the good thing. Climate change is making many areas uncomfortably hot. On the other hand we would like the winter to be mild.
Limoux drops to similar temperatures as the winters in The Netherlands, where I am from. And, that, is the country I left because of the weather. I feel I have gone full circle and I am back in what I left. Twenty years ago this part of France may have been true to the claim of having over 300 sunny days per year. At the moment it is far from the truth as the amount of grey days is quite astonishing.
The beach at Roses, Spain
Could a move to Spain be the answer?
We have spent a fair amount of time in different parts of Spain. Mostly visiting my sister who used to own a house near Roses and doing housesits. We have done several housesits in Cataluña and in Denia, both very nice destinations. Unfortunately both are not our cup of tea to settle. Cataluña has the wind we like to avoid – the Tramontana and Denia is comfortable but has too much of everything in a negative way.
Following the climate, reading blogs and talking to people, we have found that Castellón might be an area of interest. Castellón sits in between Valencia and Cataluña. It is quite pretty, is not overly touristy and the climate seems to tick the boxes. So we have decided to check it out.
So here is our planning ahead itinerary
It started with a housesit in the centre of Valencia over the Christmas period. Usually we find housesits during specific housesit sites but this was organised via friends. Thus our Christmas was be in Spain, in Valencia with my husband, myself, one of our daughters and two cute cats. To be honest I was quite excited to say the least. I seem to hear more and more interesting things about this city. In fact it has become the latest ‘in’ destination for people to retire. And I am not sure if this is a good thing, by the way.
After the Christmas period, we will start our research and the first target area will be the area in between Castellón and Valencia. When we search for a destination in France, we created a list with criteria that were important to us. We simply dismissed everything that did not have some of those criteria. It is not easy to create a list like that as you have to anticipate and imagine through planning ahead. You can’t let yourself be blinded by pretty villages that seem perfect. If they don’t have the criteria, they are not perfect nor suitable.
Valencian beach on a sunny winter day with a perfect blue sky
Our list of criteria
Our list of criteria for Spain is different than the list we had for France. After all, we are almost 10 years older and now proximity to hospitals is high up the list. We experienced how important this is when we did an off-the-grid housesit in rural Cataluña. Our car broke down and the French road service could not find our coordinates and we had to meet the Catalan mechanic in a nearby town. Imagine having to do that when you need an ambulance.
I mentioned the weather being one of the criteria, health facilities is surely amongst them and proximity to the sea and hiking areas. Although we will be expats ourselves, we don’t like too many of them and we want the town to be alive all year ’round. Many pretty towns are only alive in the summer and in the winter they turn into ghosts towns. The target is a normal Spanish town where Spanish people live and work with facilities that are open all year.
Limoux is one of those towns and we can conclude that we stayed faithful to our criteria list. It ticked many of the boxes and it still does apart from a few things that I mentioned before. Climate was actually never on the list and we knew about the pension but were not ready to start planning ahead for our pension at the time.
To sum this up, we are preparing and planning ahead our next move abroad. Our oldest daughter reckons that we will never settle as we like to move and explore new places. Fortunately our current lifestyle supports that kind of attitude and lifestyle.
Are you good at planning ahead or does this totally not resonate with you?
During February I have been busy tracking a lot of my activities on a physical and mental level. My previous post was about habits and keeping track so I can find out what could do with a change.
I like to follow up with how that worked for me during February. The idea is to explore a few things in my life. One of them is how to become the type of person who is capable of setting up an online business by the end of 2023. I intend to reflect on that process once per month in a blog post. This is my first reflection.
The first thing I did!
One of the things that I implemented during February was tracking. I had my birthday in January and funnily two of my presents were tracking devices. To be precise, a Fit Bit and a really fancy planner called the Happiness Planner. Both of them are perfect to track a variety of things and that is exactly what I have done.
From a health perspective I tracked my sleep pattern, my heart beat, my water intake, my daily steps and exercise. It is quite cool to see what you can measure with such a thing. Furthermore I noticed something interesting.
While I was tracking my behaviour and my habits, I became more aware and motivated to do the behaviours I had chosen. For example, I decided to do every day 5000 steps as a minimum. Before I set the actual number as a minimum on my Fitbit, I did not achieve 5000 every day. Since I set the 5000, I make sure I walk that extra mile as I want to tick it off the list.
Tracking – does it work?
I love updating spread sheets and marking what has been done. Tracking steps, daily exercise and water intake seems to make me do what I need to do. It definitely helped me with measuring my progress and I did not want ‘to break the chain’. I wanted to show up and add to the chain. On top of it I really enjoyed doing it and was amazed how I managed to fit it all in.
Filling in the Happiness Planner is a similar activity. It asks me to think about intentions, habits and awareness to name a few. It also focusses on self love, gratitude and what to look forward to. I have noticed that I am natural good at tracking factual things such ‘to do’s and what to schedule.
When it asked me to reflect on ‘what I love about myself’ and ‘good things about today’, I have to dig a bit deeper. However, as such questions are asked on a daily base, I can’t do anything else than fill them in or at least have a go at it.
I am reading the well known book Atomic Habits and in there it says, that for a habit to stick, you have to feel successful even if it is in a very small way. I do have a feeling of achievement about last month – a sense of small wins. In reality not much has happened but I know now that I can walk every day 5000 steps. I make an effort to drink between 1-1.5 liters of water and my heart rate is behaving like it should.
Additionally, I have been doing a short meditation every morning after waking up, did the yoga sessions I scheduled and filled in my planner. I did this all before I started to work so getting up in time was crucial. Simply the act of tracking sparked my enthusiasm to continue doing the things I had set out to do.
All this has given me a sense of fulfilment. Above all it forces me to stay honest with myself as tracking acts as evidence of the progress I am making. To be honest, it is almost a bit addictive. And it means I have stuff to write in my planner.
On my list was the write a monthly blogpost about all of this and there you go! Here it is!
Feel free to let me know if you are the type of person that tracks! Even if it is just to see how you actually spend your time. There may be a dark side to the habit of tracking and that is that it becomes more important than the purpose of doing it. I surely keep that in mind!
Ever thought about what would be your perfect lifestyle? I certainly have. In fact it started in my late teens when I wanted a summer job abroad. One of my high school friend’s worked a summer season in Switzerland and that seemed the ultimate dream to me. So I found a summer job in Zurich and returned for five summers while I studied in The Netherlands.
Working in Zurich created a hunger in me for exotic and foreign. Switzerland seemed to have better summer weather, the scenery was more appealing and it was foreign. A long story short, I had planted the seeds that caused me to change my lifestyle several times.
What is my perfect lifestyle
Without realising it before, I discovered that nature was important to me and so were sunny days. Growing up in The Netherlands, grey skies, drizzle and wind is part of life. I was no fan.
Jumping ahead several decades, I have moved abroad a handful of times. I have lived in Switzerland, UK, Australia and had some shorter stints in Greece and Norway. Nowadays I live in southwest France. The reasons for moving vary but work, opportunity, relationship and lifestyle choice have been some of them.
Lake of Zurich – one of my favourite places. Picture taken by IG friend @123_just_lucy_you_see
I grew up in the Netherlands and went for summer jobs to Switzerland. I joined a man in London and with him I created a new life in Australia. 25 years later we moved to France for lifestyle purposes. And believe me, I don’t think we are not done yet!
Still searching
I feel we are still on the search for the perfect lifestyle – one that would suit us. I say ‘us’ as not everyone will have the same idea about ‘perfect’. Admittedly we are still searching but are finding more answers with every adventure we have.
Some of our recent adventures have been housesits in different countries. We have added working online, managing a holiday rental and a guardian role for a large French property . While doing such things we discovered what we like and don’t like. Above all we learned new things about ourselves.
We love France and have been here since 2017. Being Dutch, I can live in France while my British husband qualifies for residency because of being married to me. Understandably Brexit caused a little stir for the Brits that live abroad in Europe.
Although we love France we are still looking at other options. Unfortunately, if we stay in France we cannot receive a retirement pension from Australia. Yet, we can if we move to Spain or Portugal. For some reason France and Australia have decided to cut strings when it comes to pensions.
There are a few disgruntled Aussies in France who may not have been aware of that. We knew but as it was so many years ahead we still bought a house in France and settled there. After living here for 5 years we realised that the sun is not always shining in this part of France. The winters can be quite nasty and do really not differ that much from those in Northern Europe.
Climate change seems to be for real. Many places in the South of Spain have become unbearable during the summer months. Even in France where we are, the temperatures rise to high thirties for days on end.
What we have discovered….
While doing housesits and jobs in different locations we slowly find what our perfect lifestyle should and should not have. We have discovered the aspects that are important to us. Consequently we are now researching locations in Spain and Portugal on increasingly more factors. Examples are weather, unpleasant winds, sun aspects, proximity to medical services, public transport, work and costs.
There is obviously no perfect fit for everyone and people differ in needs, likes and dislikes. However after seeing ourselves and others make mistakes, we learned a few lessons. So start with considering the following.
