Moving to Spain With Kids: What We Wish We'd Known

Emily & Ben·3 June 2026·12 min read

Spain is one of the most searched destinations for families thinking about moving abroad, and it's easy to see why. The weather, the food, the slower pace, and costs that look low next to northern Europe or North America. On paper it's close to perfect, and in practice it's very good. But it has quirks that catch people out, and the families who struggle tend to be the ones who moved to an idea of Spain instead of the real thing.

We live in Valencia. We spent years moving between Australia, the UK, Italy, Singapore, Türkiye and Morocco, plus four years on a sailboat, and this is where we've put down roots. It's also where we coach families in person, as well as online. If you want city-level detail, we've written a separate guide to Valencia with kids. This post covers the whole country: costs, visas, schools, healthcare, regions, and what the first month looks like in practice.

The cost of living is lower than you think, and higher in places you don't expect

By Spanish standards, Barcelona and Madrid are expensive. They're not London expensive, but they're nothing like the Spain of ten years ago either. If you're moving from, say, the UK to a big Spanish city and expecting your costs to drop dramatically, you may be disappointed.

A mid-sized city is a different story. Valencia, Málaga, Alicante and Murcia all cost noticeably less. Groceries are cheaper than in northern Europe, eating out is something people do most days, and because so much of life happens outdoors, you end up spending less on entertainment without really trying.

Here's how the four Spanish cities in our cost-of-living calculator compare. These are our own estimates for a family of four, in US dollars per month, put together from Numbeo, Expatistan, the International Schools Database and expat forums. Use them to compare, not as exact figures.

City	Rent (3-bed)	Groceries	Healthcare	Int'l school (1 child)	Total incl. school & childcare	Total excl. school & childcare
Barcelona	$1,800	$600	$180	$1,400	$5,530	$3,430
Madrid	$1,700	$580	$170	$1,300	$5,210	$3,260
Málaga	$1,300	$520	$160	$1,100	$4,350	$2,700
Valencia	$1,200	$500	$160	$1,000	$4,100	$2,550

On these figures, Barcelona costs roughly $1,400 a month more than Valencia, mostly in rent and school fees. Over a year, that adds up. Put your own numbers into the calculator, because rent and your choice of school will move the total more than anything else.

Visas: the routes most families look at

This is a high-level overview, not legal advice. Visa rules and thresholds change, and individual consulates interpret them differently. Always check the official website of the Spanish consulate that covers where you live, and think about speaking to a qualified immigration lawyer before you apply. Our family visa guide covers how to approach the decision more generally.

EU citizens don't need a visa. For everyone else, these are the routes families ask us about most.

The non-lucrative visa (NLV)

The NLV is for people who want to live in Spain without working. You have to show financial means of 400% of Spain's IPREM indicator for the main applicant, plus 100% of IPREM for each family member. With IPREM at €600 a month, that's €2,400 a month (€28,800 a year) for the first person and €600 a month (€7,200 a year) for each additional family member. So a family of four would need to show around €50,400 for the year.

Plenty of older articles get the next part wrong. The Spanish consulate in Los Angeles states plainly that this visa does not constitute a work permit and "does not allow teleworking". You can't work remotely on the NLV. If either of you plans to keep working, look at the digital nomad visa below.

You also need private or public health insurance authorised in Spain, covering everyone on the application, with no deductibles, co-payments or waiting periods. Travel insurance doesn't count. The consulate's standard decision period is three months from application, and once you arrive you have one month to apply for your foreigner identity card (TIE).

The digital nomad visa (international teleworking)

This route is for families where a parent works remotely for employers or clients outside Spain. The income threshold is 200% of Spain's minimum wage (SMI), which is €1,221 a month in 2026. The Spanish consulate in Washington puts that at €2,442 a month for the main applicant, plus €916 for the first family member and €306 for each one after. Some law firms spread the 14 annual SMI payments over 12 months and quote about €2,849 instead, and consulates don't all use the same base, so confirm the figure with the consulate you'll apply through. Self-employed applicants can earn up to 20% of their income from Spanish clients. If you apply at a consulate, the visa is valid for up to a year. If you apply from inside Spain while legally resident, the authorisation can run for up to three years.

The golden visa is gone

Spain ended investment-based residency on 3 April 2025 under Organic Law 1/2025. If an older guide mentions it, ignore that section.

With both the NLV and the consulate route for the digital nomad visa, you apply from your home country before you move. Book the consulate appointment early, because it can be the slowest part of the whole process.

Schools: public, concertado, international, or home

Compulsory education in Spain runs from 6 to 16: six years of primary, then four years of compulsory secondary (ESO). Most children start school well before 6, though, and many international families find the infant years the easiest way in.

Public schools are free and teach in Spanish. Some regions add a co-official language (Catalan in Catalonia, Basque in the Basque Country, Valencian in the Valencian Community), so check the language mix where you're planning to live. If your children speak neither language, settling in takes time. Younger children usually adapt faster than teenagers. With older children, think hard about how they'll manage academically while their language catches up.

Concertados are privately run schools that get public funding. On cost they sit between public and fully private schools, and a lot of families see them as a middle ground. Quality and language provision vary a lot, so visit and ask questions.

Every major city has international schools, and fees vary widely by school and age group. Going by the figures on the International Schools Database, Madrid (73 schools listed) runs from roughly €4,100 to €27,258 a year. Valencia (32 schools listed) runs from roughly €3,000 to €12,550 a year, with the British School of Valencia at €8,326 to €10,676 and Caxton College at €7,334 to €10,444. Several well-known schools don't publish fees at all, so expect to ask them directly.

Popular schools have waiting lists. If international school is your plan, start enquiring well before the move.

Homeschooling is a grey area in Spain. Spanish education law requires children to attend school between 6 and 16 and makes no provision for home education instead, and a December 2010 Constitutional Court judgment was widely read as ruling out conscientious objection to compulsory schooling. No law explicitly bans homeschooling either, so it sits in a legal vacuum. If you want to homeschool long-term in Spain, get local advice first. Our post on homeschooling abroad covers the practical side, but it doesn't change the legal position here.

Healthcare

Once you're in Spain's public healthcare system, it's excellent. Getting in takes planning.

You'll need private health insurance for a non-lucrative or digital nomad visa application anyway, so most families arrive with private cover. Residents who aren't working or paying into social security can later join the public system through the convenio especial, a pay-in scheme run by the Ministry of Health. It costs €60 a month per person under 65 (€157 a month at 65 and over). There are conditions, though. You need to have been legally and continuously resident for at least a year before you can apply, you have to be registered on the padrón, and each person needs their own agreement. Prescriptions aren't covered, so you pay for those in full.

In practice, plan on private cover for at least your first year. Our guide to healthcare when moving abroad with kids explains how to choose a policy that will work for a family.

Best regions and cities for families

There isn't one best place. These are the trade-offs we see most often.

Valencia is home for us, so we're biased. We still think it's hard to beat for families. It's a big city that doesn't feel rushed, with beaches inside the city limits, a huge park along the old riverbed, a good range of international schools, and costs well below Barcelona or Madrid. There's more in our Valencia with kids guide.

Madrid has the widest choice of international schools in the country and the best job market. It also has hot summers, cold winters, no beach and higher rent.

Barcelona is a world-class city with the beach and the mountains close by. It's also the most expensive city in our table, and schools there work in Catalan as well as Spanish.

Málaga and the Costa del Sol have mild winters, a large international community and good flight connections. They're popular, and that's pushing rents up.

Smaller cities and towns are cheaper and more Spanish, and they're often more welcoming to newcomers who make the effort. You give up choice of international schools and English-speaking services.

The bureaucracy

This is the one downside you can count on in Spain. The admin is slow and paper-heavy, and it takes patience and documents you won't always expect to need. You need an NIE (your foreigner identification number) for almost everything, including bank accounts, phone contracts, school registration and healthcare, and appointment systems can be booked up for weeks.

You'll get through all of it. It's just slower than you want when you've only just arrived with tired kids and a pile of boxes.

Your first month: a practical order of operations

Every family does this slightly differently, but this order avoids most of the dead ends. Our first 90 days checklist has the full version.

Secure an address. Even a short-term rental contract lets you register on the padrón, and that unlocks almost everything else.
Register on the padrón (empadronamiento) at your town hall. You'll need it for school enrolment, healthcare and, later, the convenio especial.
Apply for your TIE. If you arrived on a residence visa, you have one month from arrival. Book the fingerprint appointment as soon as you land.
Open a Spanish bank account. Some banks will open one with a passport and NIE, while others want the TIE. A multi-currency card covers you in the meantime.
Enrol the children in school. Public school places are allocated through the regional education authority. Mid-year places depend on availability, so ask early.
Set up a phone contract, utilities and private health insurance in your own name.
Find your people. Join the school parent groups, a local sports club and the international community groups. The admin gets easier once you know who to ask.

What makes it worth it

Daily life is the reason. The Spanish attitude to time, to food and to children (kids are welcome everywhere, at all hours), and the way neighbourhood life works around the local bar and the market, are what turn people into long-term residents. Nearly every family we know who has been in Spain for a few years is glad they came. The ones who left mostly left because of the bureaucracy or the job market, not because they'd stopped loving the life.

What we'd do

If we were planning a move to Spain from scratch, knowing what we know now, we'd start with the visa, not the house. Work out which route you actually qualify for, be honest about whether either of you will keep working, and build the timeline backwards from the consulate appointment.

We'd pick the city for its schools first and the lifestyle second. Getting used to a slightly less exciting neighbourhood is much easier than getting used to a school that doesn't suit your children.

We'd rent short-term for the first few months instead of signing a long lease on arrival. A neighbourhood feels very different once you're doing the school run and the food shop there, not just visiting.

And we'd budget for private health insurance for at least the first year, and treat the first month as admin month. Don't plan to work at full capacity. Plan to queue.

If Spain is on your list and you want to talk through visas, regions, schools and costs for your own family, book a session with us and we'll go through your situation. If you're already in or near Valencia, we also offer in-person coaching in Valencia: book a time and we can meet for a coffee and a proper planning session.

Sources

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Emily & Ben

Helping families plan their next big adventure abroad.