Moving to & Living in Ibiza

As a UK expat who was in just that situation some years ago I would like to share with you some information about the wonderful island of Ibiza as a potential place to move to and live.

Of course it is not perfect, nowhere is, and it does have a few "challenges" one way and another but if you are meant to be here you will know straight away and you will grow to love the "Ibizan ways" along with the lifestyle, I promise.

A small island located about 60 miles off the coast of mainland Spain. It is part of a group of 4 islands called the Balearic Islands by English, or "Islas Baleares" by the Spanish, and which encompass Ibiza, Mallorca, Minorca & the tiny island of Formentera.

The nearest Spanish port to Ibiza is Denia, at about 60 miles (4 hours on the ferry) followed by Barcelona at about 8 hours.

It is just under two hours flying time from the UK and is now served by direct flights from Stansted all year round, as well as multiple UK airports in the summer season for the tourists.

If you haven't been here before, or worse, have only experienced Ibiza through the dreadful TV programs about San Antonio drinking holidays, you won't be at all prepared for the captivating natural beauty of the island, everybody, and I mean everybody is always blown away by it their first time.

Climate..

The weather in Ibiza is one of it's best features with an average 300+ days sunshine a year and up to twelve hours of sunshine per day during the summer.This picture was taken in mid January, it was 19 degrees.

Winter brings cooler weather but it rarely drops below 10 degrees c even on the worst days, and when the sun comes out in December and January it's still entirely possible to get burnt if youre not used to it, winters days of 20 degrees plus are not rare.

There are oranges and lemons on trees all though December and January and sheep lambing in what would be the depths of the English winter.

Lots of british are discovering the joys of working remotely via the internet whilst living here, and some even commute back and forth, there's even a new nickname for them, the "LonZa" set as discussed here in the Times Online.

Surprisingly for Spain Ibiza is actually fairly well connected internet-wise, and once you get Telefonica to actually connect your internet it is a fast reliable service, plus there are free Wifi hotspots in virtually every town and village on the island now.

If you are not lucky enough to be able to work online there are still opportunities on the island, it will be easier if you speak a little Spanish but it the language barrier is not insurmountable like it would be in some countries or parts of Spain.

There is a large expat community here and many English speaking Europeans of all nationalities, and it is entirely possible to live here many years speaking no Spanish at all, indeed many have and do.

However the one piece of advice I would give to anybody thinking about moving to live in Ibiza and needing to earn an income here is that you are probably going to have to be flexible in your employment demands.

Most people who live here have several occupations, or you could think of it as several "strings to their bows", and indeed of the people who come and dont make it happen enough to enable them to stay here an unwillingness to be flexible in employment expectation is usually the reason in my experience.

In future hubs I will go into detail about actually moving here, living costs, legalities, child care, financial and banking, taxes, self employment, in fact everything to do with coming to, and more importantly staying in Ibiza.

In my eyes it is a wonderful place, steeped in rich history, with a unique laid-back lifestyle, beautiful scenery, with seemingly a breath-taking view waiting to surprise you around every corner, great weather, friendly locals, lots of English-speaking around if you need them, and all the modern technologies you need too, I can't recommend making the move highly enough.

I hope you've enjoyed the pictures, all but the first big one at the top were taken by me, please feel free to use if you like them.