I'm in Eastern Andalucia.
We have housing, schools and good wine :). Very good wine actually at less than €4 a bottle.
Seriously - housing very good value, particularly if long-term renting off the immediate coast. Schools I have no real knowledge off except the younger the child the quicker they integrate, and some senior schools teach solely in English as it's considered so important (a good level of English is required for all uni courses I believe).
Climate is EXTREMELY hot in summer but absolutely gorgeous at this time of year and spring and autumns vary from being a little cold (in a very relative kind of way!) to gloriously sunny and warm.
Oh, and did I mention the wine???????
That's pretty cool. What cities/towns would you recommend? What's a resonable monthly budget for a single person?
Have edited my post as the bit about the seasons was goggledygook!
Almeria is where I am and we love it - mountains, sea and desert all within 20 minutes of me. But I'm not near a city and the towns are not large. How big a 'city' are you thinking of?
Places I would recommend:
Cartagena in Murcia. haven't spent much time there but seems quite cosmopolitan, nice port, lot of history.
Malaga. Suffered from a bad reputation as that's the airport the 'beer swilling Brits' and criminals use to get to the Costa del Sol but it's lovely, lots of history and pretty hillside towns around it. However, that whole area is busier than up north.
Cordoba and Seviila (my personal favourite) are fabulous to visit but brutal in summer - well over 110 is normal.
Lovely places like Cadiz on the south coast but can get very windy and gets a lot of rain in winter/spring. Less days of rain than Granada but more of it and it has been known to rain for a week at a time.
In many ways my pick would probably be Granada:
Very pretty, loads of history, beautiful setting at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (so skiing on the doorstep). A proper range of temperatures as well. Personally it's too cold for me in the winter, but it's manageable in summer.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
High °C 11 12 15 17 22 27 32 32 28 21 15 11
High °F 52 54 59 63 72 81 90 90 82 70 59 52
Low °C 1 2 4 6 9 13 16 16 14 9 5 2
Low °F 34 36 39 43 48 55 61 61 57 48 41 36
https://www.holiday-weather.com/granada/averages/As to budget - well, where we are we have friends who live, as a couple, on less than €1,000 a month including rent of around €300. They live well enough, eat out once or twice a month etc. They are pretty mustachian in their ways and are just settling down for six months of the year, spending the other six travelling, following a period of five years backpacking (hence the low monthly budget). That is too frugal for us. We spend over double that with no rent.......... but hey we can afford to so why not?
The country is fabulous with so much to explore. I'm glad we retired when we did (53 for me, 54 for OH) - early, but we have accumulated enough that we can afford to travel a bit without pennypinching (though still looking for good deals!). Off to Malaga this week for a few days and walking this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey for the second time. Life is good :)