Welcome to the Campo! Why We Traded the UK for Rural Spain (With 4 Dogs)

Hello and welcome to the very first post on From NLV to Campo!

If you’ve found your way to our corner of the internet, chances are you share the same dream that kept my husband Dave and me awake at night back in the UK: the dream of trading the frantic, grey daily grind for a slower, sunnier, and entirely authentic life in rural Spain.

In 2022, we finally took the leap. We successfully navigated the mountain of paperwork required for the Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), packed our entire lives into the back of our car, shoehorned our four Cavalier King Charles Spaniels into the remaining space, and pointed our sat-nav toward the Spanish hills.

Four years later, we are currently navigating our Year 4 residency timeline, and we can safely say it has been the most challenging, hilarious, and rewarding adventure of our lives.

The Real, Unvarnished Country Life

When we were researching our move from the UK, we found endless glossy articles about beach-side apartments and bustling expat holiday resorts. But we struggled to find the raw, honest truth about what it’s actually like to live deep in the campo (the countryside) as a British expat, especially when you have a pack of four-legged family members to care for!

This blog is the resource we wish we had back then.

Moving here was a proper baptism of fire. We quickly learned that country living means becoming your own mini utility company. We’ve had to navigate the infamous Spanish mañana time during a freezing cold winter gas bottle crisis, survive a terrifying shower-plumbing electrical shock left behind by a previous cowboy builder, and we’ve even had to deal with a local snake using nothing but a pair of kitchen BBQ tongs.

But alongside the chaotic trials, we also discovered the magic of Spanish village integration. Within just a few weeks of arriving, a chance “hello” to a mother and daughter at a local bar completely unlocked our social life. Today, we are firmly rooted in our community, participating in local walking football, netball, and the weekly village pub quiz.

What You’ll Find Here

As we count down the final months toward our permanent residency next September, we are using this space to document everything we’ve learned. To help you navigate our new site, you can use the links at the top of the page to explore our main pillars:

• NLV & Bureaucracy: Step-by-step, unvarnished survival guides to help you master everything from your Padrón at the town hall to the dreaded seven-hour fingerprint appointments and setting up your Certificado Digital.
• Campo Living: The honest day-to-day logistics of rural property management, off-grid infrastructure, and integrating into a traditional Spanish village.
• Adapting To Spanish Life: The quirks, the lessons, the fiestas and the sheer joy that is Spain.
• Our 4 Dogs: Vital country safety guides for pet owners, including how we protect our pack from local threats like Sandfly and Leishmaniasis, and how to save hundreds of Euros on pet care using local village piensos (feed stores).
• The Campo Kitchen: Comforting recipes and baking guides using local Spanish ingredients (and explaining the absolute minefield of Spanish flour types!).

We are so incredibly glad you are here for the journey. Whether you are currently waiting on your consulate appointment in the UK, packing your own car for the ferry, or just dreaming of a life under the Spanish sun, welcome to the family.

Grab a cup of tea, drop a comment below to introduce yourself, and let us know where you are on your moving journey?

Ella, Dave, & the Pups