Moving to SOLLER in Mallorca
Every year a new intake of people arrive in the Soller Valley. They are people who have just achieved that retirement nest egg and dream, to the individual who came here on holiday and doesn’t want to go home.
The many others between those extremes represent families and career moves to those who are simply running away. The annual changes in population are a feature of life here and bring in people who make a difference and then leave to those that stay for ever.
The phenomena of a changing demographic population mean that the first rule of relocation to this place is to make yourself friendly. People will talk to you and if you gather in the bars and cafes you will soon be on nodding acquaintance with many. But if you don’t smile or make an effort to be interested in other people you may struggle.
Everybody here has a relocation story – yours will not be unique.
It is said that those that make the best transition to ex pat life in Mallorca are those who are themselves. It is very tempting to re invent yourself when you are starting a new life. A little exaggeration here and a half truth there and all of a sudden the people you left behind in the UK wouldn’t recognise the reinvented you. Big mistake because that façade always crumbles. It’s difficult to live a story where you have to keep remembering the plot. No-one here is very interested in your previous life, where you lived or what fine house you had or car you drove.
That was then; your choice to live in Majorca is now.The Soller Valley is an acquired taste and does not work for all. The Soller Tunnel means that the journey time between Soller and Palma is a mere thirty minutes. The worlds of Soller and Palma are two completely different places separated by a huge mountain with a tunnel in it.
In choosing Soller you are immersing yourself in the searing beauty of the Tramuntana mountain range, the perfect horse shoe bay of the Port of Soller and the Soller people who love tradition. The fiestas and church observations infiltrate our lives and give our year purpose and form. You may never go to church but your months are dominated by the church calendar and the firos, fiestas and events that accompany it.
In moving to the Hidden Valley you are joining a small minority of British people here. The majority of the English speaking people in Mallorca live on the other side of the Island. The Calvia and Pollensa regions have the most British people registered. At the last count in this area there were 300 UK people who had registered home ownership here. This, in a population of 15,000 underlines your minority status.
You will share your world here with many other nationalities – German, Swedish, French, Belgian, Bosnian, Rumanian, Nigerian, Italian, Mainland Spanish, and all the South American countries you have ever heard of.
The mix of cultures and people makes Soller a small melting pot with A Mallorquin heart.
