The Inspection Trip! Day 1.

Friday evening we flew out to San Javier airport in Murcia and were met by Russell and Dan from Tarletan. They told us we had a drive of just over an hour and as it was dark we wouldn’t get a chance to see any of the area. So, we took advantage of the time and discussed what the plans were for the next 3 days. Dan had arranged a number of viewings for us on Saturday and Sunday, and then Monday was free for us to re-visit any areas we wanted a second look at or any areas we still wanted to see.

After an hour travelling on a very quiet motorway we arrived at our destination – Valle del Este golf resort. Now, I can understand them wanting to start the trip with a good impression – but this really is a nice place. We had a room overlooking the golf course which, both Neil & I being keen golfers, was good and bad – good as we could chill on the balcony watching the players coming up the fairway at the end of a hectic day viewing properties, bad because we were really jealous that we hadn’t got our clubs with us! But, we will be back with clubs on another trip.
We were spending Saturday looking at places in Almeria and Sunday in Murcia. So we started Saturday by meeting a local agent who took us first to view a re-sale mid-terrace house, a key ready detached villa, a re-sale detached villa and a detached house off plan and a villa on Valle del Este itself. One in a small town, a couple inland and one remote in the hills. None of them ticked enough boxes, but we were quickly identifying where we didn’t want to live. Don’t get me wrong, they were all nice places but not right for us. We both loved the villa on the golf course but it was right at the top of our budget and only 2 bedrooms when we ideally wanted 3 – plus we picked up so many golf balls from the garden that we would never have had to buy a golf ball again, but we would have worried about sitting out in the garden having a glass of wine incase of mis-hit tee-shots landing close by, a real concern. Neil loved the detached house at Azerbache and it was nice, but I didn’t have the same positive feel about it, I felt it was a bit small. The villa set way in the hills was really nice with spectacular views but you would need to use a car to get a paper or loaf of bread – too remote. So, by the end of Saturday I have to admit to feeling a little dis-appointed. Not to worry, we still had Sunday