4 August 2026
Cities are easy to compare on rent and weather, and those are rarely what the decision turns on. These are the factors that tend to matter more, and get considered later than they should.
The regional language question
This deserves to be near the top of your list rather than a footnote. In Catalonia, Valencia, the Basque Country and Galicia, there is a second official language, and it is the language of the school system. That is not a reason to avoid those places. It is a reason to go in knowing, rather than discovering it at the school gate.
The airport question
How often will you travel back, and what does each trip cost in time and money? A city with a direct flight to where your household lives is worth more in practice than a nominally nicer city two connections away. This is consistently underrated at the decision stage and consistently felt afterwards.
The size question
Big cities give you an established foreign community, international schools and specialists who speak English. Smaller cities give you cheaper rent, shorter distances and a faster route into actual Spanish life. Neither is correct. But you should know which trade you are making.
How to actually choose
Shortlist three. Visit each out of season for at least a week, and do ordinary things: a supermarket shop, a weekday morning, a school run at the hour it actually happens. Holiday impressions of a city are close to worthless when the question is whether you could live there.
And ask yourself honestly whether you want a place where your children grow up bilingual and local, or a place where the transition is gentler and the community more international. Both are legitimate. Families run into trouble when the two parents quietly wanted different answers.