Updated: June 24, 2019
I had such high hopes for Cullera, a neighboring Valencia town. It looked just perfect for us from the pictures and videos that I had seen. This was destined to be our next home, I was positive. Just to be sure though, we decided to take the four hour train to Valencia from Seville to check it out. Our second year in Seville was brutal in the summer with temperatures reaching over 110 degrees. Muggy too. The desire to be closer to water came on strong. Our first summer here had been dry and we had often wondered why people complained so much. Who knew we had just been lucky! Now we know.
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How and Why Cullera disappointed us:
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Why Cullera instead of Valencia?
- The major reason was to have more space. It seemed you could get more for your money. The apartments on rental websites like idealista looked airier and we wanted some outside space for our dogs. After living in a house in Seville, we sort of pictured the same thing.
- We wanted to live by the water, a nice change from Seville.
- It seemed like it would be the right size, not quite a bustling city, but not dead either. A great compromise.
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Where is Cullera?
Cullera is a 35 minute train ride from the city of Valencia. It sounded idyllic. We could come into the city and still be by the seaside. Once we had decided on Cullera, we didn’t bother looking for places in Valencia itself which was mistake number one!
Valencia Nord station was just a few minutes walk from our AirBnB apartment. The ride itself was uneventful and the landscape extremely boring and yes..bleak. By the time the train stopped at the station, we were both already having doubts about living there.
There wasn’t a cab in sight at the station, just a bus. We hopped on, along with 3 other people. The ride took roughly 15 minutes to get into Cullera proper, and we saw no signs of life the whole way. We just chucked it up to siesta time.The hotel was a further 15 minute walk from the last bust stop, and it was frigging cold. A freak Siberian cold front had brought snow to many places in Spain, including Valencia. The bus driver pointed us towards the hotel and took off.
The hotel restaurant had closed for lunch by the time we arrived. The receptionist confirmed what we already knew. No place was open. We could order Tele Pizza (the only other place open in Cullera) and have them deliver but we were so hungry, she took pity on us and called up to the restaurant to see if they had any food left.
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We said yes to the Valenciana paella and went upstairs. Even though we were grateful they fed us, we ended up paying $47 for 2 plates of rice (you couldn’t find duck on my plate with a microscope, plenty of artichokes though 😉 .. and Federico had one tiny piece in his), one bottle of water, one dessert pudding and a salad!!!! We ate a lot of pizza the rest of the time.
Thrilled Cullera Disappointed. Here’s why:
We got to see how the town is eight months out of the year. A ghost town. I think we saw 10 people the whole time apart from the other suckers at the hotel like us (not many). It was eerie walking along the beach and just seeing one lit flat out of hundreds and hundreds. What would happen if you got stuck in the elevator? You’d be dead before they found you ;-).
Had we moved without checking it out like we did for Malaga, I would probably have killed myself after a few days. Dramatic l know..but..yikes! It is a gorgeous place though. Reminds me of Miami. It’s just not for us. Madrillenos go there for the summer and lock up for the winter.
Both supermarkets in the Cullera area also closed for the winters, as were all the restaurants. We managed to find one lady with a small bar who served us bread and butter after a 25 minute walk. The 4 patrons inside were hitting the hard liquor at 11AM!!! I would probably be doing the same if l lived there.. ;-).
The last evening of 3, we decided to just keep walking along the beach because the receptionist said there would be restaurants open on a Friday night. Nope!!! Amazingly we saw a Burger King 40 minutes later and had young kids from the pueblo (about a further 2 miles out) on dates. We almost gave up and went in when we asked a lady walking her dog who first laughed knowingly, then pointed down the street to the lone open restaurant.
It was worth the walk. The restaurant turned out to be very good. The tapas were delicious. The wine was cheap. There was no paella though. The owner said it wasn’t worth making since they had very few customers.
Our thoughts on living in Cullera:
One takeaway from the whole experience is that we dodged a bullet. We would have been miserable in the winter there and definitely would have been just as miserable in the summer. It was obvious to me that it would be invaded by holiday makers and summers would be extremely loud. I guess l pictured it would be more like Malta where it got crazy in the summer, but it was still populated in the winter with locals. Even though this wasted some money, it was not quite a travel fail :-).
If you’re looking to rent like we were, you will have a horrible time finding a place to rent for a full year. Most of the flats are rented for eight or nine months out of the year. The owners make a killing renting to tourists for the summer, and you would have to move to accommodate that, something we didn’t care to do.
The rental price difference, while a bit cheaper than Valencia city, didn’t make it worthwhile.
Even though we have a car, I would still hate having to drive in the winters into other parts for groceries. I know what you’re thinking, why not just live in the pueblo? It would defeat the whole purpose of moving. Close to the water, views etc. etc. We could pay the same and be just a few minutes walk from the center of Valencia.
What now? Cullera or Valencia?
Updated to say we chose Valencia. We love living in the city and find that life here is pretty awesome. It was a bit hard to find our first apartment in the city thanks to the dogs in tow, but once we figured out the ins and outs of renting in Valencia with dogs, things have gotten a lot easier. We have recently completed the purchase of our very own flat in Valencia.
If you’re trying to decide between Valencia and Cullera, think carefully about what is important to you. If you’re someone who enjoys solitude, Cullera might be a good fit, but be prepared for that solitude to be for most of the year.
If you prefer to have year round cafes and people around you, then Valencia would be the better place, especially because you have neighbourhoods that are very close to the city, walkable or reachable by metro that will cast you the same to rent on a yearly basis, so you can have the best of both worlds.
Are you ready for the fabulous life in Spain as an expat? If the answer is yes, you can purchase our moving to Spain with emphasis on Valencia guide on Amazon.
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After seeing the first two photos, I was saying to myself: you have to be crazy not to like it there! The place does look beautiful, but you are right: living in a ghost town for most of the year doesn’t make any sense unless you are forced to 🙂 Not having supermarkets, restaurants, even people… now that’s not nice. But if you decide to move to Valencia now, you could visit it again during the season and see how it looks then. Still wouldn’t make a difference for the long term.
I know. We were convinced we would love it, and yes.. we would have been crazy to not live there. It was so weird seeing everything shut. Imagine, even on a Friday night find only a Burger King and that one restaurant. Our hotel had just one person at the desk, no valets..nothing. Not seeing people and the fact that we would have to drive 4km just to get to the market all time. It seems in the summer, the landlords can rent the places for $1500 a week or more, so they basically make the money then and shut it up in the winter. A lot of the places were rented for cheap the rest of the year, then you had to move out for 4 months or pay a higher rent in summer. Just a few were year round rentals. Even the rental agencies were locked up :-). I will keep working on him :-).
€47 for rice and salad? Yeesh! I’m leaning towards you guys making the move to Valencia myself but of course I have ulterior motives!. 😀 Cullera sounds similar to a lot of cities/villages along the coast here in the Algarve where landlords make more money with holiday rentals than long-term lets and whole towns become ghosts in the off-season. However, this is probably the perfect time for you to be “boots-on-the-ground” apartment/house hunting as you’ve found out that a picture perfect town might not necessarily for you. We’ve been rattling around in our apartment complex as the sole residents since October but luckily, Lagos pretty much stays up and running year round! Anita
Yeah! I was so mad! Not one sliver of duck ;-). They knew they had you. It was either the hotel or pizza! Same for the other hotel that was open (they actually had a day conference where there had to be like 50 cars..but a rare occurrence according to the receptionist. We’re leaning that way more now too. It’s true, it is very much like the Algarve region. It was picture perfect, but not perfect and l can imagine the chaos that reigns supreme in the summer. I’m so glad we got to check it out though. Thank god Lagos stays active in the downtown area. It was weird to look at a 15 story building with just one apartment occupied. I really would have been bored to death and the pueblo would be just like we have now. Useless to move that far for the same thing.
Whew! At least you found one good restaurant and realized it wasn’t going to be a good spot to live. Oh, my! Could you have imagined? I like to move around when life is good. (Like now we travel to one spot only because my patience with four kids needs to have routine and know what to expect, but when they’re older, I look forward to moving on.) Good luck!—-Terri
Yep! Thank goodness. I really could never have imagined it being so dead. I totally pictured Malta. That restaurant almost made the trip worth it. I’m with you. Move around while life is good. He is coming around. I don’t want to play it safe by staying here when the urge to go is strong. I bet you can’t wait to spread your wings but l totally understand the need for routine with the 4 kids. I think l would like to know what to expect too :-).
Can you imagine traipsing around that town with four kids, trying to find where to eat? And even the supermarket closing? Agh,makes me nauseated! 🙂
No.. I can not imagine! Yep…zip..nada! The kids would be crying, and so would you 🙂
I would totally scratch the itch and go. Staying in a ghost town would start to drive me crazy.
I’m with you. I want to scratch the itch. Working on it :-).
Well first of all it’s great that you took the time to check it out during the winter. Can you imagine signing a lease there and having to spend a full year – good for doing your homework/legwork. As Anita mentioned the Algarve is somewhat like that and all the money gets made during the summer but we found Lagos still had lots of life and services during the winter. We had a whole condo building to ourselves for two months and it was strange but we liked it as we had friends nearby and a few minutes walk brought us to a supermarket and lots of life in town. As for moving if you have the urge to try somewhere new its probably a good idea to listen. Good luck.
I can’t imagine how miserable we would have been if we signed the lease without checking it out. Yeah.. Lagos at least stays active in the downtown area thank goodness. I imagined it would be more like that and not completely abandoned, but l guess it is more of a Spanish beach area as opposed to expats etc. We were told to try Gandia which is a further 30 minutes by train but that is a bit too far out. It does make a difference when there are friends close by, but that would definitely not be the case in Cullera. Yeah..he is like 90% on board now which is good 🙂 .
I say take a leap and go to a new place. Selfishly because I live vicariously through you. This place sounds sad.
I like the way you think. I definitely want to leap..and there is nothing wrong with vicariously living through us :-).
Aw, that stink to visit someplace and then you end up not liking it. Your food looks very interspersing though!
Yes, it certainly does. It’s good though that we found out before moving there. The food was awesome :-).
So lucky you visited and at the right time too! You might have visited during summer and thought hmm not bad:-)!
Oh well you dodged that one so all is good.
What a sweet dilemma to have- ‘what beautiful, picturesque city will we choose next!’
😀
Yeah I was thinking “oh what a lovely problem to have!” It makes me sound like a privileged prat..hahah! We certainly did dodge a bullet as we could have just moved and then really lose money because l can assure you we would have moved again pretty quickly :-).
I’m out! I like people and activity so I would have been bored.
Haha! So are we! 🙂
One of my sorority sisters is going to be living in Valencia for a month and I’m curious about her experience! Sometimes there are good lessons when you’re disappointed.
Yep! I was a bit cautious after thinking we were going to love Malaga sight unseen. We liked it, but did not love it. I think your friend is going to be pleasantly surprised. It’s not posy like Barca. Very nice place.
I’ve heard of towns closing for two weeks during the summer but never an entire season (lol). Always visit before moving. The hotel looked nice.
Neither had we really :-). The hotel was quite nice, the prices were decent..probably because they get you on the food :-).
At least you all are still staying positive. I know you are glad to have explored the area before making a move!
Definitely glad. It would have sucked :-). We’ll find something hopefully soon 🙂
Disappointing but as you say at least you know – I think someone has to visit a place before deciding to settle there. Croatia is quite similar, during low season the smaller towns aren’t just quiet…they’re absolutely dead. Which is kind of shocking considering how packed they get in the summer. Just highlights the importance of tourism to these places.
Frank (bbqboy)
You’re right. It really does highlight the importance of tourism of a lot of places. It’s amazing that people choose not to have renters year round. So glad we made the attempt to find out and l am even happier that we went at the right time instead of the summer. I don’t want to move twice in such a short time.
It looked so beautiful!! I’m glad you guys checked it out when you did. I would have been so bored in a place like that! LOL
Me too! Even the thought of writing another novel didn’t sound appealing with such dead quiet :-). Glad we didn’t go in the summer :-).
OMG I’d GO CRAZY. GO and do not stop. lol Thanks for the heads up.
Haha! I hear you. Thanks for the input. We are going!!! 🙂
I’m so glad that you all check it out before actually moving there. Happy that you all finally found a restaurant that you all enjoyed. I didn’t know that you were living in Spain, i always read your post, did I completely over look this fact?
Haha! It’s easy to miss the fact that we live in Seville Spain because we have been traveling so much, especially the past year compared to the previous years. The longest we were home was like 3 weeks so we wanted to change it up this year and do more Spain and Europe in general. So very glad we checked it ut. I would have been miserable, that food almost made up for it. Almost :-).
Hey, I’m from Cullera and I have to say it is not really like you felt it. It is true that the Rack district ( where you stayed) is a ghost neighbourhood during the winter but the failure was staying there, not Cullera itself. You could have stayed in one of the mountain houses, which are beautiful. Cullera has around 30.000 people, so its still a town but not the type of town you felt it to be. If you’re thinking in coming back, I would recommend you to stay in any other part of the town. I would be happy to help. Regards
Thank you so much Elena for weighing in. We didn’t know there was another part to Cullera apart from the pueblo which didn’t appeal to us. The reason being that it looks very similar to what we have now. We tried to look for realtor offices, but everything was shut. Had we known about the mountain houses, we would have looked into that. We have made the decision to move to Valencia city instead as we found it so lovely. Thank you for the kind offer, I will take you up on it. We have narrowed down neighborhoods, Ciutat Vella, Mestalla and L’eixample are in the running. I will definitely contact you :-).
Hi. I am also from Cullera now, I just purchased myself a nice little house by the mountain. The last think you can say about Cullera, the town itself, is that the ghost town. Its full of people, really. Even in December is hard to find place to park your car. Your trip went wrong. I agree there are parts by the beach when restaurants are closed for a winter, and it’s true that a few higher spec restaurants will be nice to have by the beach, but the old town is a leaving and vibrant town and there are two walking distance supermarkets which are open most of the time, excluding holidays. On the other hand you cannot compare Valencia and Cullera, they are completely different places with different advantages and disadvanteges. They both have different things to offer. I love Cullera when I weak up in the morning, when it’s quiet and birds are singing in my house by the mountain, and I have 10 minutes walk to the center of the town, where I can buy fresh fruits and meat in Mercado. Views from the castle view terrace are also stunning. it seems like you have stayed on the wrong side of the mountain. Driving further away from Valencia towards Benidorm there are Denia, Xabia and Calpe three beautiful pearls of Spain cost definitely worth seeing. Valentia cannot be compared if you can find a nice place to leave there it may be true that Valencia will give you better value for money and more cultural experience. Good luck to you in your search, you need to feel that place is right for you. You need to wake up in the morning and be sure that this the place. Kind regards, Tomasz.
Hi Tomasz. I’m so glad that you find the right place for you. Your house sounds nice. Our trip definitely went wrong, and it wasn’t the only time our trips have gone awry. As l always say, I like to tell all about our trips, not just the nice and Instagram worthy. I think l was even happer than my husband because l am not a big fan of the beach like he is. I was willing to accept it because it would have meant outside space for the dogs in one of those townhouses by the beach :-).
As far as being in the old centre, I was comparing it to Valencia. If l had to live there, l preferred to be in Valencia itself, the city l have fallen in love with. I have heard nice things about Denia and plan on visiting at some point to see. I would be curious to see where Elena ends up as well. One thing we can agree on is that the Valencia region is amazing and it’s hard to go wrong. We also recently bought a flat by the City of Arts and Sciences here and we love it, and indeed we love it more and more daily. It’s all l want for everyone. To find their place.
Thanks a lot for the comment.
Thank you much for this blog as I am at the present time in Cullera trying to decide on buying an apartment. I have my doubts as I have seen beach towns like Virginia beach in the winter. Amazing with the two extremes. There are other towns nearby Valencia like port of sagunto, a town of 58000 people that don’t suffer from ending summers.
I am very attracted by Cullera and surrounding but if it is a 4 months out of the year enjoyment then it is a waste and selling the property later on would probably be a challenge.
Thanks so much for reading Kad, and so glad you find the post helpful. I was so surprised at the ghost town that we encountered. Nothing was open, especially shocked that the grocery stores were closed too. At night we walked along the beach and there would be like 2 lights on in the whole building in the ones along the beach. Funy, we had thought about Sagunto too but in the end, we really wanted to be in the city and even though it was trying, we managed to find a flat we could rent with the dogs so we didn’t bother to research it more and it turned out to be a good thing.
I am positive you would have a hard time renting later on. I was on a group where this woman was further down in a section of Gandia somewhere and was stuck with her house on the market for three years and counting. I’m glad you’re doing your research. Good luck with the decision.
🙂 small towns. i am from small town from slovakia and small town are same around the world. no job opportunities and ghost town in winter. if there is no other option to make money, there is no life to be lived. benidorm was nice in the summer but i will not pick it for living. as population is also small and is it touristic town. rather barcelona, valencia, alicante, malaga… at least you have options there. ihmo
Haha! Peter. I hear you regarding small towns. It’s really hard to make money from normal jobs etc. It’s great if your income is entirely from the internet and so can afford to live anywhere. I would hate to be stuck in a totally touristic place. I’m glad we chose Valencia as we find that it is just the right size for us and has a year round population. You’re absolutely right in that we have options and are so grateful that we have that. So many people do not. Seems like you have options too :-). Thanks so much for the comment.
Hello,
Being a full-time resident of Llauri, Spain (a quiet little pueblo) and a 10 minute drive to Cullera, I’m in shock as Cullera is a lovely small(ish) town with lots to offer by the sea. If you are from a large city, a tranquil lifestyle will not be your cup of tea, especially in winter staying in a resort town. No need to trash a place when YOU’RE not suited for the lifestyle. All locations has it’s charms and you must fit into the area because the location will not change for you. I’m glad you found a place more suitable to your liking.
Julie
Hi Julie,
I didn’t feel in any way that l was slagging off Cullera. I simply stated why we are glad that Cullera disappointed us. All blog posts on this site are written about my experiences and l don’t sugarcoat a place just for palatability. I realize that nowhere is perfect for all and we need to find what works best for us. Having lived in a little pueblo just outside of Seville for two years prior to our research trip to Cullera, a place that l absolutely adored (the heat ultimately did me in), I was looking for something different. I have friends that feel the opposite of what l feel about Valencia city and have since moved on to other places, and that’s okay. This blog started out in Malta, then Malaga, then Seville, and now Valencia. If a place doesn’t suit me, I’m not afraid to move on. I’m glad you love your area too (looked it up, and my old pueblo was a bit bigger). Sorry for any upset feelings, and thanks for keeping your comment civil.
Hello,
“Why we’re thrilled Cullera Spain Disappointed”. Ouch.
Yes, I may be a little sensitive for my home town. Isn’t everyone? Your blog title didn’t help to promote tourism and residency. That being said, I’ve spoken to a few expats recently and when they asked me about Cullera – Two unrelated separate women said that they were thinking of moving to Cullera but was turned off the town because of your actual blog and negative comments about the area in the winter. Hence me reading your post. If you reread your story…Cullera sounds like hell on earth. The food is actually amazing here and I invite Valencians to come to Cullera and enjoy the weather, the beaches, small shops, restaurants and great people. I can’t promote my area enough and will end my thoughts here. Viva la vida 🙂