Traveling From Spain: Using Our Home Base to See the Rest of the World

When we were planning our move to Spain, our big dream, the top of the bucket list, was to travel to every country in the European Union. That was the whole fantasy: base ourselves in Europe and go everywhere.

Then we actually got here, started exploring Spain, and something funny happened. We stopped wanting to fly all over the continent. We just wanted to take the train to every corner of Spain.

Because here is the thing most people miss. Ninety percent of travelers come to Spain and go to the big cities or the most famous beach spots, and then they leave thinking they have seen it. But almost every single town here is more special than the last, and every region is genuinely its own world. We have fallen in love with Spain's nature, with its food, with one experience after another, over and over again. It is a fantastic, wildly biodiverse country full of funny, warm, welcoming people. Anyone can come here and have a wonderful time but if you speak Spanish and make the effort to actually talk to locals, you find they are hilarious and kind and almost always have a minute to stop and chat. (That is more of a small-town thing, honestly. The cities are their own animal.)

So Spain became the point, not the launchpad. And yet.

You cannot ignore what Spain gives you as a base. The train infrastructure is fantastic, the highways are beautifully maintained, and the continental flights are cheap. When the roads are that good and the flights are that cheap, rollers have to roll. We spent over four years as full-time digital nomads, changing houses and locations every one to two months, and we loved every bit of it. We only slowed down when it was time for our oldest to start kindergarten. Staying put is not really our jam, even if our style is to land somewhere new and then slow down (yes, we know, see our slow travel post).

So, this is the page where all of that lives. Not Spain, but everywhere Spain has taken us: the trips we have made beyond the border, as expat immigrants who happen to call this country home. This is where we will keep adding them.

France

Just over the eastern border, close enough to reach by train or a short drive:

• French Catalonia: A Road Trip Through the Other Catalonia. Cross into the Pyrénées-Orientales and Catalonia does not end, it just changes passports. Perpignan, Collioure, the Banyuls wine road, and a Friday-night tradition we stumbled into by accident.

• Pyrénées 2000 in Summer. Our very American review of a very French mountain holiday. The place sport families and serious hikers should know about, sitting right next to French Catalonia, just across the border.

Portugal

Our neighbor to the west, and the country that nearly convinced us to stay:

• Cabanas de Tavira: The Place We Didn't Want to Leave. Two months in the eastern Algarve, harvesting our own oysters off the boardwalk and doing the math on whether we could just stay.

• Lagos: My Favorite Place in the World. The one place I have ever cried leaving. A month in April on the western Algarve.

Coming soon

More is on the way as we take the trips and write them up, the way we do everything here. Check back.

How we travel

We are not tick-the-list travelers. We do not like crowds, we do not like big cities, and we do not like traffic. We are also not serious hikers, so this is not that kind of blog.

What we are is the kind of people who land somewhere new and get out to the beach or the countryside as fast as we can. We slow down, look around, and turn the kids loose in nature. What we love is trying food we have never had, sitting with a culture long enough to actually feel it, finding beautiful beaches, and standing in front of a spectacular view with nowhere we need to be.

We love quiet. We love abuelas out in the street. We love places where an americanized nervous system can finally unclench, where you are not bracing for your kids to get run over or snatched, where they can just play. Nature, food, culture, and beaches. That is the whole list.

So you will not find a top-ten of famous landmarks to rush between here. What you will find is us at a street cafe in front of a beautiful view, eating something somebody's grandmother made, while the kids play safely in the nature nearby. We would rather get to know one place slowly than tick off ten. If that is your jam, welcome, and even if that's not your style, I hope I can provide you some useful information that can help you decide where to travel or relocate. Since I broke my ankle 2 years ago, and my parents started not getting around so well, I really started noticing the availability of accessible places, or lack thereof, and like to always note that too.

If you are thinking about basing yourself in Spain the way we did, start with moving to Spain, but where? and the honest version of what living abroad is really like. Then pick a border and go.