The 5 Best Gay Cities to Retire in Spain | Queer Money Ep. 592

Hola, Spain. Yes, Spain is one of our favorite countries. And according to recent Queer Money polls, across multiple platforms, most of you have told us that's the country you would want to retire in. So what are the best cities in Spain

for gay retirees? This is Queer Money episode number 592, brought to you today by Pensionbee. And today we're sharing with you the top five cities in Spain for gay retirees. Coming in at number five, going from five to one, we have Malaga, which is one of our favorite cities in Spain. Had a great time there ourselves. So why is Malaga great? It's got a warm. It has warm weather, has great culture, Tons and tons of culture.

But, I mean, arguably most of Spain has great culture, has a thriving expat scene, and it's one of the more affordable cities on this particular list, especially relative to Madrid and Barcelona. And one of the great features about Malaga is that you can see Africa from your house. One of the downsides, however, is that there's not a lot of English speaking there. You definitely have to learn your language.

And let's just say that across the board, with all the countries we are talking about in this series, don't be that American. Learn the language as best you can to at least get a conversation started. There's some respect. Also, it's not really a gigantic city. You're not going to have a lot of the gigantic city amenities. It's a little bit more toned down. It's got a sort of a beach life going on. That reminds me a little bit of Santa Barbara, California. Yeah. Yeah, I could see that.

Absolutely. So what's the LGBTQ vibe? It's definitely more on the chill side, but it's also very welcoming. Some career perks include that they have several LGBTQ plus bars. They do have Pride events every year, and about half. It's about a half an hour drive away from Termalinos. Did I say that right? Yeah. Terminos, which is a gay hotspot. Yeah, a very gay hot spot. So this might be like the suburb of Terminus. Right. Is Malaga.

Two bedroom apartment there goes for about 1400 US dollars a month. So definitely more affordable than the US and Canada, which was the last city that we or the last country we discussed. The overall cost of living is about 35% below the US national average. So Malika gets the Queer Money retirement

rating of eight and a half out of ten. Nice. Coming in at number four is Valencia. Valencia is a gorgeous city. It's beautiful. The best paella that we've ever Had. Absolutely. It's a very colonial looking city. So the architecture is really a big part of this city. It is a coastal city with Mediterranean charm. It's very walkable and it has excellent healthcare. It does have a slightly slower paced life than say, for example, Barcelona, but it is still vibrant. Lots of oranges.

Yes, that's where they come from. Valencia, oranges. One of the things to remember about Valencia is it is one of the largest cities in Spain and for that reason it's a much more industrial city, especially on the outskirts. Some of the downsides are that it can get very hot there in the summer. Again, it's a Spanish city. It's important that you learn Spanish before you go there. The LGBTQ vibe is a very open minded, artistic and inclusive city. It is.

Has a very active pride scene, lots of LGBTQ bars and it has a great beach vibe. Very a great beach scene going on. As far as cost of living, it's a little bit more expensive here. Average two bedroom, two bathroom is going to cost you about 1600-1650amonth US dollars. Overall cost of living is about 35% lower than the US average, which is significant discount. So for that reason we are giving it a Queer Money retirement rating of 9 out of 10.

Yes. You might notice that David and I are wearing these hats. Both say Es on it. If you're not familiar with the Spanish clothing line es, definitely check out their website. You'll find if you know, you know you're going to like what you see. And suddenly your Facebook ads will become all about Spanish clothing lines. Right? You might notice that this analysis, you're recognizing more of the city names relative to the analysis we did for Canada.

But that's simply because Spain as a whole is simply more affordable than the United States and Canada. Canada might as well just be the 51st state, right? No. If you like this series, if you like this particular episode, please remember to share it in the comments. What you're liking and not liking about it, what we got right and what we you didn't think we got right. And

of course, please share this with other people and then let us know what countries you want us to visit in the future and why. And in two weeks we're going to be doing Mexico. Right, so stay tuned for that. Coming in at number three is the capital of Spain. That is Madrid. Madrid, again is another colonial looking city. Again, gorgeous architecture. It has excellent public transportation, healthcare, beautiful museums and great cuisine. Amazing parks. Yes, exactly.

We ran through the parks there. Very, very hot days. Yeah, Exactly. That's one of the downsides, is that it's not on the coast and it can get very hot in the summertime there. It has a great LGBTQ vibe. It is politically and socially progressive for the most part. I will say there's a caveat there. There has been a recent push to the right. There have been some attacks against the trans community there legislatively, so be careful about that.

Although there is a massive LGBTQ population there, and one of the queer perks are the queer neighborhoods. There are so many of them and they're super cute and they're full of queer cafes. Inclusive areas that it does have an international pride festival. One of the neighborhoods, I think is pronounced Chueca. So it's a beautiful place that we stayed in for a couple of days. I would definitely recommend checking that. We pretty much slept in a closet.

David had to sleep on a cot and I had to sleep on the floor. And typically by morning David was on the floor with me. We were actually staying with a friend who had gotten an Airbnb for a couple of weeks. And I think the bathroom shower wasn't much bigger than my Apple laptop. Yeah, I think it was two feet by. By two feet. It was tiny. Anyway, some of the benefits here are the cost of living. A two bedroom, two bathroom runs around fifteen hundred dollars a month.

The overall cost of living is about 30% lower than the U.S. average. And because it is such a big metropolitan city, there's a lot of things going on there for queer people, for both in the queer community and outside. So for that reason, we give it a queer money retirement rating of nine and a half out of ten. We will say had it not been for the anti trans attacks from the far right in Madrid, we would have got given it a 10 out of 10. Correct. So maybe work on that.

Spain coming in at number two is one of our most favorite places in the entire world, and that is

Sicha Spain. Why is it great? Why isn't it great? There's just nothing that's not great about Sica Spain. It's a coastal town just south of Barcelona, about 30 minutes. It's super simple. Train ride from both the downtown Barcelona as well as from the airport. It's just world famous, world famous gay tourism everywhere because of that. Unfortunately though, the one of the downsides is that the cost of living is relatively high. It's increasing in demand.

More and more LGBTQ plus people, gay men particularly, are looking to move there. It was recently listed one of the beaches there in Siches was Recently listed in the Wall Street Journal as the best beach in the world. So the word's getting out. Therefore, unfortunately, the cost is going up. The gay vibe there is just. It's just everywhere. You just see LGBTQ + people everywhere. It's very opening and very open and accepting, even though it does have a religious influence.

I mean, you can see the church, the Peninsula Church, from pretty much any vantage point there. And the people, the Spanish people who live there are can be somewhat conservative, but they're very open and accepting of LGBTQ plus people. So definitely a place to check. Walk around holding hands as a same sex couple all throughout town. They don't care. So it's got a gay. It's got an amazing gay beach that is just great for sightseeing. Lots and lots of sightseeing on that beach.

Has a queer film festival every year. It has a pride scene. There are LGBTQ plus bars, nightclubs, restaurants, you name it. Cafes. I think it's. The population of siches is around 26,000. And when we were there, there were 14 gay bars or queer bars right before the pandemic. Crazy as to how many of them were there. Yeah. And it has a gigantic bear festival every year. Yes, International Bear Week is. And it's not a week. I think it's 10 or 11 days is usually the first week in September.

And I forget somebody told us how much money generates for them every year. It's like a ridiculous amount of money. Yeah. Anyway, a two bedroom apartment goes for about $1,800 US a month. We stayed there for three months. Do you remember how much we spent each month? Yeah, we stayed in a place that was two bedroom with a loft area, three bathrooms, a kitchen, a full living room, and we paid $1,100 a month. But that was in 2019. And then when we were back during the low season.

Yeah. And then we were back in 2022. 2, 23. 23. How much did we spend? Remember that was a little bit more expensive because we didn't extend over a month. Two weeks, I think. Yeah. Anyway, all right. Overall cost of living is about 20% lower than the average cost in the United States. I mean, we couldn't give this anything but a 10 out of 10 for our pre money retirement. There's a possibility we've given it 11. That's what you're getting.

So if you want to increase your chances of retiring in Spain, consolidate all your retirement accounts, get control over that all in one place so you can manage your financial future. Pension B can help you do that and make it easy. Click

the Pension B link in your podcast player if you're listening the description of this YouTube video if you're watching or scan the QR code on your screen today. All right, so our winner, which probably no surprise to anybody, is Barcelona. So why did Barcelona get the top spot? Well, it's a world class city. There's just culture everywhere. Architecture is meaning is amazing. Grotto, familia, if you haven't checked that out, it's a must see for sure. Healthcare there is great.

It has a huge international and expat community. In fact, we just had a friend move back home to Denver from Barcelona recently. One of the downsides though is that it is a big city. So it has all the big city challenges. It has expensive housing, busy tourists, tourist season pretty much all year round. It's just like a year round tourist season. Yeah, the LGBTQ plus vibe is pretty amazing though. It's a it's known as gay Mecca in Europe.

Queer parks include Gay Zambla, which is a gay district in Barcelona, has strong pride events every year, has a gay beach, queer nightlife, queer bars, restaurants, shops, es shops are there. Super fun. I spend more money there than I should every time that we go. Average two bedroom, two bathroom apartment goes for about 1700 US dollars a month. The overall cost of living is about 25% that of the United States and.

For this reason it's 25% lower, not 20%, 25% of, but it translates about 25% low lower. And then the queer money retirement rating is a 10 out of 10. So let us know what cities you think we missed in Spain and why. I can think of a couple. They're usually they're in the north but they didn't make the list. And tell us what other countries you want us to visit.

Grab the links to the Growing Queer Money Retirement rating card and your happy Gay Retirement calculator in the description below or your podcast player. And finally, if you love this episode and you like the series, please give us a subscribe and share this with other friends of yours who want to retire abroad fabulously. And until next time, stay fabulous.