Best places in Europe for a young freelance family?

Hello all. We are a Kiwi and a Brit with a 1 year old son and two small
dogs. We've lived in both the UK and NZ, with family in both countries.
We are reliably self employed and can work from anywhere with internet.



Right now we're renting in the UK but getting itchy feet, with an idea
of sticking it out one more Xmas then leaving in Jan 2015. Before we go
back to NZ more permanently (with dogs and before our son reaches school
age) we'd like to experience a different lifestyle renting in Europe
for a year or three. The British winter has totally killed our spirits
so like every English man and his proverbial we need someplace with lots
of sunshine.



We've been researching online and browsing forums but the factors and
choices are overwhelming and we really need help narrowing things down a
bit. Would anyone take a look at our wishlist and let us know if their
location ticks many of our boxes.....?



- warm/sunny mostly year round

- near the beach

- walking/hiking opportunities

- some English spoken

- some expat community

- town or small city fringe

- low crime rate

- not extortionate cost of living

- furnished rentals available

- dog friendly to travel to/live



One limiting factor is getting there with the dogs - we suspect a
car/ferry relocation would be easier on them than a flight. The question
being how close can we stay to the UK while getting far away enough for
the decent climate? Proximity/ease of commute will also help UK family
visit us more often.



We are also seeking good pre-school options for our son, but not really
sure if that is a big ask or something standard? And some social
activities or ways to meet English speaking people for us grown ups as
our work is self contained, so we wont meet people that way. We would
learn the language and get to know locals, but it takes time, so far we
have a little French and German.



We love the Greek islands - food, scenery, lifestyle, all very tempting
but a little far away re dogs? Cyprus also looks very wow. But I am
concerned about creating a life and not just going on perma-vacation!
For example in summer being overwhelmed in crowds of tourists and winter
seeing all amenities shut down and the place becoming lifeless. What
I'm really keen to seek out are pockets of expat communities which will
provide us with year-round integration. And of course the ability to
have the sort of outdoor lifestyle we once had in NZ, which we have
sorely missed in the UK.



Experience has taught us you cant have it all, but you can at least try to come close



Thanks for any suggestions. I know it's a broad question with probably
many answers, but all your ideas will help move our research forward.

Do you both have dual citizenship (British/NZ) or are one or both of you
sole citizens? That can be a factor in planning next steps.

We all have British passports. My partner and son have NZ passports as well, and I have a permanent resident's visa for NZ.

From my own research, having three dogs in tow (no kids) I have been
looking more and more at the Canary Islands. There seems to be a lot of
places that you can get away from the tourists.

This lady has a lot of helpful information on living and working there! 

To be honest only you can answer that question. I would find Cyprus a
bit too dry (not really green) and the greek islands will be totally
dead during winter + wet. There are hardly any ferry connections and you
might feel trapped after a while. There are plenty of countries that
offer just as much outdoor living as you had in NZ (just different).
Croatia, Slowenia, Italy are good locations if it's not permanent and
you have everything there. Portugal and Spain are the usual destinations
but even there you can get a bad winter depending where you go and if
you go where the sun shines it's usually dead during winter. If you base
your life on weather you will never find the perfect place. I'm in
Ireland and spend most of the year outdoors, just what you make out of
it, but others will complain. Would also recommend Germany, but it will
be too cold for you in winter.

We are two Northern Brits and our Yorkshire dog who took off last year,
partly because of the weather and partly because we wanted to experience
a different lifestyle before we get too old to do it.



For reasons that are too long to explain, we headed for Slovakia which
we knew had hot, sunny summers and cold winters. We actually found some
of the summer unbearably hot and the 3 of us would high-tail it down to
the lake each evening to cool down.



Our plan was to stay here for 18 months and head-off somewhere else
which we are about to do. The summer weather though has made us re-think
our plans about destination which we had always planned would be a hot
and sunny one, whilst we are actually heading to Germany for a more
temperate climate. This isn't the only reason for moving there but it
has been an integral factor. Still, if you are mobile then there's
nothing to prevent you from trying it out.



Until our dog got old she was very easy to travel with and she just jumped in the back of the car
and off we went. We have travelled all over the place with her and, as a
rule, have found mainland Europe to be more dog-friendly than the UK.
Hotels, apartments, restaurants, cafes are generally more likely to
welcome dogs. Of course there are many exceptions to this but we have
found it relatively straightforward.



I agree with Booboo that the Canaries appear to offer everything on your
tick-list other than they are quite isolated if you want to drive and
take the ferry. Other than that, they seem to fit perfectly.



Good luck!

Tenerife was my first thought too. I seem to recall you can get there by ship though it's a long journey.