Healthcare, safety, freedom, food, language, and business
I've lived in Spain for ten years. I arrived on my own, without the language and without support, and worked my way from a first student residency permit to running my own company. In that time I've been treated in Spanish hospitals, built a business, travelled half the country, and helped hundreds of families relocate. So this list isn't from a tourist guidebook, it's from real life. Here are ten things I love about Spain, and why I never want to leave.
1. Healthcare That Makes It Less Scary to Be Ill
This is my number one. Many people complain that for a cold you get paracetamol and ibuprofen instead of ten medicines at once. That's true: Spanish healthcare doesn't over-treat the small things. But when it comes to something serious, surgery, chemotherapy, complex care, Spain knows exactly what it's doing.
Over ten years I've treated cancer here, joint problems, and my constantly low haemoglobin. I'm in clinics and hospitals often, and the empathy and care matter to me. Public insurance gives discounts on medicine: a drug that cost 25 euros I bought at the pharmacy for 4. Through an app I can see all my test results and my doctor's notes. I have control over my own health, not dependence on one doctor's mood.
The secret is communication: when you smile at a Spanish doctor and speak Spanish, the service gets noticeably warmer. Many who complain about the healthcare simply never learned to communicate with locals.
2. Travel: The World Gets Closer
From Spain it's cheap to fly anywhere in Europe. In ten years I've visited more than 30 countries, and there are always affordable tickets to find. But over the years you realise something else: it's a pleasure to come back to Spain. This isn't a place you want to escape. You fly out, and within a week you already miss Barcelona.
Travel within the country is its own joy. I still haven't seen half of Spain: Asturias with its forests and mountains stunned me, and I've been all over the Costa Brava. And it's easy to nip off for a weekend to Venice or to Carcassonne castle in France.
And here's a key point for anyone relocating: with Spanish residency, any visa is easier to get from inside the country. Visas are easier, Schengen is easier, moving around is easier. The world genuinely gets closer.
3. Growth and a New Way of Seeing the World
Moving to any new country means growth: new culture, language, people, traditions. In Spain the level of kindness and empathy, instilled from childhood, astonishes me. Spaniards assume the good by default rather than waiting for a catch. Their principle, vive y deja vivir, live and let live, changes you too.
But growth doesn't arrive on its own. If you sit in a corner repeating 'these Spaniards are lazy and slow, and then there's me,' nothing happens. But if you open your mind and heart and accept that things are simply done differently here, you realise relocation lets you expand. In Spain it happens easily, because locals share their knowledge freely at meetups, events, and courses.
4. Food: Fresh, Delicious, and Affordable
I've travelled almost the whole world and tried cuisines from across the planet. I love Spanish food because it's fresh, tasty, and light: you eat and you're not digesting it for three days. And crucially, it's affordable: lunch at a spot near my office costs 12-14 euros on the menu of the day.
Spain has food for every taste. Near my office there are Mexican, Vietnamese, and Indian restaurants, run by locals from those countries. And it's not just delicious in restaurants: a trip to Mercadona for fresh produce doesn't cost a fortune, and at Lidl a pack of carpaccio is 5 euros.
Honestly about the service: it could be better, waiters can be slow. But as my friend from Estonia put it, you sit there getting nervous, and then they bring the food, and it's so good you forgive everything.
5. Events and Cultural Life
Spain is the land of siesta and fiesta, and there really are a lot of festivals: sporting events, concerts, local city celebrations. Whatever weekend you pick, there's always somewhere to go. Most events happen in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia, but from a small town you can always hop on a bus or train.
What I especially love: Spaniards are very well-mannered. They don't get blackout drunk, don't fight, don't shove. You'll leave a concert calmly, without trampled feet or conflict. The whole entertainment ecosystem is built not around drinking to oblivion, but around having a good time and getting home safely.
6. Business and an Open Entrepreneurial Community
Any foreigner can easily open a company or register as self-employed (autónomo) in Spain. That alone is a huge plus. The system is transparent: nothing is hidden, everything can be studied. There are no enforcers coming to collect protection money. And the business community itself is very open.
I love how down-to-earth local entrepreneurs are. My business club includes someone with 50 hotels worldwide, and he wears ordinary jeans and a t-shirt. People know their worth but share their experience freely. The social ladder here is short: an acquaintance of mine was shaking the hand of Queen Letizia within six months of launching a project, because the queen sponsors women-led businesses.
And on women in business: there's no division into male and female here, and sometimes there are extra subsidies and support for women founders. In my entrepreneurial club, 40 of 100 members are women, which reflects the national statistics.
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7. Rooftop Terraces and Views That Rest the Mind
The terraces in Barcelona, Mallorca, Madrid, Valencia, and Seville are a love of their own. You're up high, the whole city before you, with great food and drinks too. Spain has perfected it: delicious to eat, delicious to drink, and delicious to look at.
I now have a wonderful terrace both at my office and at my apartment. Whenever I go somewhere, I try to get up high, towards the sky. And it's not just about beauty: I've read that when your gaze has a wide horizon, the brain relaxes and it's easier to make decisions and think big. It's exactly this sweep of mountains and sea that inspires me to build Dream Life around the world.
8. Spanish: A Language You Actually Want to Learn
Spanish combines the two things that matter: it's genuinely learnable (unlike German or Finnish), and it's spoken across a huge number of countries. Mexico, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, all of Latin America. It's also a great stepping stone to other languages: after Spanish, Italian and French come more easily.
And Spaniards themselves are motivating. They're not the French, who'll correct you over a single mistake. Say two words with an error and they'll already be hugging you and thanking you for learning their language. Worth remembering that Spain has six national languages and many dialects, but basic Spanish gives a huge boost for life, work, and connecting with locals.
9. Safety and the Right Proportion
Spain is safe, day and night. Yes, tourist areas of Barcelona have pickpockets, and in a Madrid crowd someone might try to lift your phone. But these are small things. People don't carry weapons here, and they're generally inclined towards positivity rather than conflict.
Even when something happens, Spaniards are more likely to help than to fight. For comparison: in three days in Paris I saw three fights, including an attack on my driver right at a traffic light. In Spain there are incomparably fewer of those hot-tempered characters. When Spain recently won the championship, nobody burned cars or smashed streetlights. It's a calm kind of joy.
I'm not saying it's paradise on earth. Things happen. But proportion matters: it's one thing when something happens ten times a year, another when it's ten thousand. In 11 years here, only good things have happened to me.
10. A Sense of Freedom: The Biggest Plus
This is the plus I can't stay silent about. I work in relocation and hear a lot of stories. Some people hold different political or religious views, some have an orientation that isn't accepted back home, some simply had the wrong hair colour and were beaten in the street for it.
In Spain, you just exist. You're one of many, you're not even special. You can be yourself, work and live freely. With piercings and tattoos you'll still get hired. There's none of that lifelong judgement over a single detail.
That said, don't think Spain is spineless and anything goes. No: there are clear rules, laws, and very large fines for breaking them. But it's not an extreme, it's a balance. There are rules, and we follow them. There's freedom, and it's given to you and not taken away. For very many people this factor was the deciding one when choosing Spain: not just the sea, sun, and mountains, but the chance to be yourself and live a happy, safe life.
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