Valencia, an underrated base for digital nomads interested in Spanish living

Source of the picture : Wikipedia

As my nickname is @the-traveller and I live in Valencia, it might be worthwhile introducing this lovely city to digital nomads who may want to spend some time here.
I think it is an excellent base if you like the Mediterranean area and it's an underrated city compared to Madrid and Barcelona, which everyone has heard about.

Below text is from a forum contribution I made myself before.
I have traveled a lot before as a backpacker. I loved the experience, but personally I needed a "home base".
After a year of trekking around South America, mostly Argentina and Brazil, I found many interesting places but none where I'd gladly stick around for the medium term.

So I returned to Belgium. For those of you who don't know Belgium, it definitely has its upsides, nice cities and architecture. Check out Gent for living a while. Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp are definitely recommendable for a visit.
For a visitor it is easy to get by with English.

Personally though, living in Belgium was affecting me negatively:

• I lived in a village; your lifestyle there is mostly car-based.
  While backpacking, I did everything on foot, I noticed that switching to mainly car based transport really impacted my overall fitness

• Food wise, although tasty, the default choices are not so healthy. I found I really had to make an effort to watch my food intake, which apparently I did not do diligently enough, resulting in considerable weight gain.

• The people´s attitude is rather "old Europe".
  The people I was mixing with were all comfortable in their 9-5 jobs, overall have great quality of life in terms of income, comfort etc. but still a lot of negativity and complaining.
  Going back to where you came from I guess you kind of fall back in with the default crowd of friends, colleagues and family, whereas abroad you kind of choose who you hang out with.

• the price of living in Belgium is constantly going up, for instance going to a restaurant is something to think about, a very average dinner will easily cost 25 Eur, overall inflation is really noticeable, every year when I go back I suffer sticker shock.

• the "opening hours of public life" are really constricted, something which irritates me to no end! It impacts your whole life rhythm and everything around it.
  Opening hours for almost everything is about 09h00 to 17h00/ 18h00.
  If you go to any decent-sized city, life in the street just stopped. Some night time areas might have people but unless it is summer in an area with terraces there is no one around (also the climate does not help)
  What this does is that it creates this artificial stress, because everyone has the same "opening hours" there is a mad rush in the morning and evening (traffic around Brussels is horrendous for instance, coming from outside the city can easily be a 2 hours commute even only 20 miles away at the wrong time of day)

So once I was able to, I moved to Spain.

Why Spain? Why Valencia ? Isn’t it coming out of a serious crisis?

For me, life in Spain simply suits me a lot better, physically and mentally:

• there is a different rhythm because everything is open later, shops mostly close around 20h00 or 21h00 for the big ones, and there are loads of smaller "Chinese" stores open until 23h00.

It is very rare to need something and not be able to get it because shops are closed (caveat, there is a siesta closure for the smaller stores between 14h00 until 17h00)
I find the siesta to be a fantastic invention, it really gives you energy in the latter part of the day to be able to shut down. Now in Summer, you simply have to, the heat makes it almost impossible to do anything outside.

• the default food choices here are a lot healthier and cheaper.
  I don't have to make such an effort to eat healthy food. The Mediterranean diet is one of the tastiest and healthiest in the world!
  On top of which, compared to northern European countries it is very cheap to eat out.
  7.5 - 8 Eur will get you a full menu consisting of a first course, main course, dessert, coffee and drinks often included.
  Whereas the cheapest item on the menu in Belgium (some horrible toasty) is often more expensive than that.

• Valencia particularly has an outstanding cheap public transport network, modern subway, great bus and bicycle network.
  This allowed me to get rid of my car, which reduces cost of living a lot! I simply don´t miss having a car because in town it would be more of a hassle.
  Added bonus for fitness is that I walk everywhere and feel a lot better than in Belgium.
  (Also for fitness, I have an ultramodern huge gym around the corner where I pay 20 Eur a month for unlimited visits from 06h00 until 23h59.)

• yes Spain and Valencia are coming out of a crisis, but most of Valencia is actually very nice.
  There is no crime to speak of (of course your standard pickpockets and occasional burglary can happen like anywhere else)
  One thing that is sometimes a bit tiring is that a lot of people have a negative/ fatalistic attitude about the recent crisis and corruption scandals. The advantage is that here I can be a lot more selective and there is quite a big start-up scene with people who do have a positive can do attitude.
  As a result of the crisis, real-estate is very affordable since last years prices are going up again.
  You can rent a decent apartment for less than 500 Eur, me and my wife are renting a very nice furnished apartment for 660 Eur, we basically walked in with our bags and have been living very comfortably for 3 years now.
  The area where I live has fantastic public transport connections, and basically I can find a shop for almost anything in a 2 block radius around my house.

• Valencia has a beach!
  This is one of the big pluses for me, the beach area is actually relatively uncrowded, most of the Mediterranean coast is over developed and spoiled by high rises. The beach area here is actually surprisingly laid back.
  There is a super modern marina area built for the America's cup, but there are no high rise buildings or high density tourism like Alicante or Benidorm which are just awful for my taste!
  It is perhaps not the greatest beach in the world but a very nice area to walk around and chill

• Valencia is super green, parks everywhere!

One masterstroke they did here is when the old river bed kept flooding, they deviated the river from the center to the outskirts of the city. But instead of putting real estate in that area, they converted almost the entire river bed in one huge park from one end of the city to the other side. You can walk or cycle 8-9 km in the park and still be in the city.
Also there are lots of wide green avenues and little parks, the city always strikes me as wide open and spacious. Traffic is also a bit more relaxed than in the bigger cities.
When you go to a city like Madrid or Barcelona or even Alicante, the green areas are quite far between and some parts feel claustrophobic due to the narrow streets and high rise buildings.

• It has insane architecture
  Besides the old town center, in the river park there is the Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias, a huge megalomaniac installation designed by the Architect Calatrava. It´s like nothing else I ever saw in the world, a great area to walk around and chill. Except for summer, it is usually not crowded at all. The marina and subway system too are really over sized for the city (and it bankrupted the city building it) but as a resident it simply is fantastic

• It is the Goldilocks size
  There are about 1 million people in Valencia, not as big or expensive as Madrid and Barcelona (which also have a more frenetic pace of life, Valencia is noticeable more laid back) it is not so small as Alicante or Granada for example.
  The result is that there is always something going on. Las Fallas in March is a totally insane festival, the local version of Carnival with huge fireworks every night.

The advantage is that although there is tourism, the city does not depend on it,
A city like Alicante for instance in Summer feels overcrowded and in the off season feels almost abandoned.
There are also great universities with lots of student life around it which changes the atmosphere from living in a business or tourism oriented city. For me it is fun to drop in once in a while at the university for seminars and presentations (doesn’t cost anything and sometimes great speakers in English).

The Goldilocks size also means that the city is pretty well connected with low cost carriers to most of Europe. If you need to go further, Madrid or Alicante are only 1h45 minutes away with a high speed train and from these places you can connect to almost anywhere.

Some of the not so good;

• I am applying for residency and bureaucracy is simply maddening. The people at the foreigner registration office are simply not competent and might give you mis- or incomplete information. You really have to be on your toes. It can be very challenging to find all the references, the on line part is still a mess.
  In the end I went with a lawyer to handle things, not cheap but saves me frustration.

• work situation, if you need to work here, salaries are not great (might be as low as 1000€ on average). If you don´t speak Spanish, it will be very difficult. One exception might be as English teacher, there are loads of English schools around and apparently a great local appetite for tutoring and such.
  But location Indie income-wise, of course this gives you a great opportunity for geo-arbitrage!

In summation, are there cheaper places to live? Of course!
But if you are looking for a combination of factors of great climate, live-able city, affordable cost of living without sacrificing comfort you should definitely consider Valencia!

If you happen to be in the neighborhood, let me know, happy to show you around town!
Estaré encantado de conectar aquí con otros hispano hablantes!