🏔️ Hidden Spain: My Affordable Nomad-Mountain-Getaway in rural Spain

€50 lodging and food per day in the Spanish Pyrenees

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Edition #94 is coming from the Spanish Pyrenees, around Canfranc.

This month I am in and around Canfranc Station, in the Spanish Pyrenees. My families more regular base - during school term time - is in Zaragoza, a city 2 hours south, in the middle of Aragon.

From mid January to mid February, my base is rural, in the stunning mountains here.

In essence, this is a mini-sabbatical, I have cut all live and sync remote work out - letting my clients know I am taking a break - so it is a chance to rest, relax and recharge in nature over almost 3 months.

Why and how I have chosen to do that I will write more on soon, promise!

Why the Pyrenees?

I have a family and my daughter attends state school in Spain. So I needed a location within 2-3 hours of Zaragoza and also somewhere my family could join me at weekends.

Also, we love the snow, so going North for the ski season was attractive.

Except, life laughs at your plans, eh!

There is almost NO snow, so -

Most days so far here in Canfranc, I have been hiking, exploring and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.

But Ro, you have a family!

As a parent and a partner, discussion and negotiation with my family was the first step.

I knew I needed some downtime from work, to take things down a few gears - but agreeing the details with my family - was the most important thing to do to start and flesh out how I could take the break practically.

Once the high-level plan was agreed, where I would spend most weekdays in the mountains and my partner would take parent solo those days, we would unite during the weekends in the main.

I am ever so grateful for my this support from my family, it makes such a difference, knowing there was a compromise to be found.

Practical planning considerations

Then, I started to think of a budget for the month.

As I was cutting out work, I needed to watch the costs, keeping things reasonable.

So I reckoned on about €50 per night on accommodation alone, was the range I needed to aim for.

I set myself these booking parameters:

• Self-catering mandatory

• Ensure any location could sleep my family too (important!), so a 1 bedroomed property with a sofa bed for our 10 year old, would be a good fit.

• Find accommodation near public transport (so a car was not necessary, as myself and my family would be sharing our car)

• Local services would included a supermarket in walking distance

• Had wifi or wifi access nearby (not a deal-breaker, as I could hotspot off my Mobile phone, but a consideration)

• Ensure some selection of local activities, like a local cafe, library, outdoor pursuits and amenities.

📷 For regular photo updates, you can also tune in to my trip updates on Notes.

So let’s break down the costs (so far):