Looking into living in Javea on the Costa Blanca North in Spain? The same few things invariably come up: what paperwork do I need? What’s the best neighborhood in Javea to live in? How do you buy and rent a property? To make these things as easy and stress-free as possible for English speakers moving to Javea, here are the most essential questions you need to have answered before you moving to Javea.
If you’re planning to move to Jávea, you’re in great company. About 27,000 people live in Jávea, of whom around half are Spanish and the other half are foreign nationals. Many Brits live in Jávea – about 29% of the population – and you’ll find many expat groups.
Why move to Javea?
Daring modern architecture; amazing regional diversity; sophisticated cities; postcard beaches; fantastic weather; a sleepy countryside festooned with citrus and olive groves; delicious seafood, potato tortilla, tapas, and paella; delectable sangria, this is just some of the reasons why you should move to Javea in Spain.
For many, moving to Javea in Spain for a lifetime of siestas and sand is a pipe dream. There’s something exciting about the opportunity to move to a foreign land. Sure, it can be a challenge learning a new language or assimilating into a different culture. But the possibilities for advancement and excitement are endless, especially in Spain.
Spain is one of the largest and most geographically varied countries in Europe. Whether you’re looking for sunny beaches, or green fields, Javea has it all. Despite the inherent problems that go hand in hand with tourism, Spanish people enjoy one of the best lifestyles and quality of life in Europe, or, indeed, in the world. Everything you need to know when you thinking about living in Javea.
Hospitality is an important tradition here, and one that has contributed greatly to the development and success of tourism infrastructure. Accommodation is plentiful and competitively priced, if you care to shop around. Read more about why move to Javea
Easy to travel to Javea
Additionally, traveling within the country is easy: international airports are dotted throughout. Just one hour from Javea you have two international airport, El Altet in Alicante, and Valencia Airport north of Javea, and connections are very frequent; transport are reasonable, and serve destinations all over Europe; trains are fast, though pricey, and also link countries throughout Europe. Getting from Javea to Madrid can take less than four hours. You can even take a ferry to the UK, and Morocco. Read more about how to get to Javea
Weather in Javea
There are more sunny days registered in Javea and surrounding cities than anywhere else in Spain. Nestled between hills and mountains in the province of Alicante, Javea is an area on the Spanish coast that is well protected from harsh weather conditions. As a result of the southern shores of many salt lakes, the humidity in Javea is quite low compared to the rest of Spain and Europe. This means that even on the hottest summer days, the heat is a dry and much more tolerable during the day. The summers are not too hot in Javea and the winters are not too cold. Read more about weather in Javea
Cost of living in Javea
Compared to many other European countries, Spain tends to have a lower cost of living. Purchases such as alcoholic beverages, many grocery items, petrol, and restaurant food are all cheaper in Spain than in somewhere like the UK. Read more about shopping in Javea
Living costs in Javea are fairly low. Leaving aside rent or mortgage payments–and depending on your lifestyle–a couple could easily live on 20,000 euro to 30,000 euro per year and still eat out regularly. Once you know where to go, a meal for two with wine can cost as little as 20,00 euro. For the best value, choose the lunchtime menu del dia (the menu of the day). Although the food is likely to be more filling than fancy, there’s normally a choice of dishes on the three-course lunchtime menu.
In most places, the menu del dia usually costs between 7.50 euro and 15 euro. A local beer and a tapa (a little snack that can be anything from a couple of rings of fried squid to a slice of ham topped with an olive) costs around 1.60 euro. Even dining in classier restaurants isn’t overly costly. For a couple, the bill is usually somewhere between 45 and 70 euro – wine included. Obviously, grocery bills are hard to estimate, but the typical spend per person is 70 weekly. You can go to the cinema for 5.40 euro and get a mid-range seat in the shade at Madrid’s bullfighting arena for 3.80 euro (3.50 for a seat high up in the sun).
Best areas to live in Javea?
The cozy old center of Javea is worth visiting a couple of hours a morning. You can wander around to admire the whitewashed buildings in Gothic style. Have a look at the gothic church of San Bartolome and visit the busy food market with its stalls full of fresh fish and fruit and vegetables from the region. Take a coffee break at Temptations or stop at the C / Major cafe under the stairs leading up to the very helpful tourist information in Plaza de la Iglesia (Church Square).
Today, most of the ports of the tourist destinations of Alicante province have become trendy marinas with designer shops, but not in Javea. It still works as a fishing port with boats moored in the immediate vicinity. With its beautiful promenade with outdoor terrace restaurants and cozy local bars, it’s a great experience to wander around and soak up the crowds. The view of the bay is spectacular. During the first week of September, this place is home to one of Spain’s more unusual fiestas, when the bulls are released on the paddock area where they are mocked by local youths jumping in the sea when the bull is hunting for them. The goal is to make the bull fall into the water.
Playa de Arenal is Javea’s beach area. There is a chilled area stretching more than 300 m from the well located at Hotel Parador in the north, and as far as the restaurant area ends in the south. This area has many cafes, bars and restaurants located on row and row on the wide seafront. The beach itself is fabulous with superb fine golden sand. There is a volleyball net along the back of the beach which is popular later in the day and there are several play areas for the kids. Read more about areas of Javea
What paperwork do i need to legally live in Javea?
The answer to this question depends on where you are from. If you are an EU national, the process is easier than if you are a third-country national (from a non-EU country).
For citizens of the European Union, you only need to obtain a NIE when you move to Javea. Here are some tips. Make sure to get NIE appointments for each individual family member, as couples and families can’t just use one appointment. Also, make sure you have all the correct documents and forms completed properly or you’ll be sent home to try again another day.
The best option is to use a good NIE expediter to get all your appointments together. In addition, the NIE expediter will make sure all the forms are filled out correctly, and will help you obtain and organize the documents needed to complete your residency process.
However, for third-country nationals—such as Americans—the process is more difficult, as non-EU citizens are required to first obtain a visa to live in Spain for longer than 90 days. One of the most popular visa application methods is the non-lucrative visa. This is the visa that my family and I used to move to Barcelona, however, over the years this process has become much more difficult to navigate. Another popular visa is the “golden visa,” which provides permanent residency in Spain if you spend €500,000 or more when buying real estate in Javea. The right golden visa expert can also help you find the perfect property to buy in Javea.
Getting your visa processed and approved can be both frustrating and daunting; one of the best ways to de-stress your move to Javea and ensure you pass all the stringent, regional requirements is to use a relocation team experienced in handling the legal requirements you’ll face.
Javea the perfect expat location
If making friends is important to you, Javea could be the best resort town in Spain for you to consider for relocation. With such a large expat community, and plenty of meetups and events arranged all year round, it is very easy to meet a wide range of folk from all walks of life, who are now in a similar situation to yourself. Read more about social life in Javea
If you are moving to Spain with young children, and would like they continue with their education based on the British National Curriculum, you have the choice of two International schools in Javea – the Laude Lady Elizabeth school, or the Xabia International College.
With all the top quality bars and restaurants in Jávea serving delicious food and fabulous cocktails, you need to make sure you keep an even balance for your health, and when we say ‘balance’, we’re not talking about having a glass of wine in each hand! Read more about fitness in Javea