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\n As she casually traverses one of the most scenic stretches of the Spain\u2019s Camino de Santiago, taking in the rugged beauty of the northern coast with her husband and three children, Dr. Colleen Crowley feels a wave of gratitude for where life has taken her.\n <\/p>\n
\n For many, hiking a section of Europe\u2019s most storied pilgrimage route would be a once-in-a-lifetime journey. For Crowley, an American psychologist, and her family, it\u2019s part of daily life.\n <\/p>\n
\n She knows the landscape so well that one might assume she had lived here for decades. In fact, they arrived just three years ago, along with her mother, then aged 80, and the family dog, Mo.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt sounds so trite, but I think everyone is much happier here,\u201d she said, describing the move as \u201camazing and transformative\u201d for all of them, particularly her three children, who were aged 16, 13 and 8 at the time.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAll three of them say, \u2018\u2018We wish we had done it sooner.\u2019 Which is really kind of amazing to see.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n Crowley and her husband had long planned to live abroad once they had children, but they were waiting for the right time.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think for both of us, it\u2019s sort of just been foundational to who we are,\u201d she said. \u201cTo sort of live in different cultures and communities. And it felt sort of antithetical to who we are to just reside in one location.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Crowley is originally from Colorado. Before moving to Spain, the family lived for a decade in Montecito, California, a coastal enclave in Santa Barbara County where Oprah Winfrey and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex own homes.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was a wonderful place to raise a family,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cBut honestly, maybe a little too wonderful. It\u2019s very manicured. It\u2019s very limited.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n She wanted her children\u2019s perspectives to be \u201cin a way that staying in such a sheltered environment would not allow for.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But leaving the close-knit community was difficult, especially as she and her husband, an environmental lawyer, she both had demanding jobs. \u201cIt can be tricky,\u201d she said. \u201cWe both had big careers, and three kids in different developmental places.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The shift toward remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic made the leap easier. Her eldest daughter graduated from high school around the same time, tipping the scales.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo between our careers, and where our kids were developmentally, we were like, \u2018I think it\u2019s time to go,\u2019\u201d she added.\n <\/p>\n
\n Why Spain? Crowley had long been intrigued by the country, partly through the works of Ernest Hemingway, and then an ancestry test revealed she had Spanish heritage.\n <\/p>\n
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The family also considered Chile, which she and her husband first visited together in 1997, but Spain seemed the more natural fit \u2014 even though she had never been there.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe wanted to live in a place where we could pursue our love of the outdoors \u2014 surfing, skiing and hiking,\u201d she said. The children took part in the decision-making process.\n <\/p>\n
\n They sold their four-bedroom home, pared down their belongings and persuaded her mother to join them. Crowley obtained a non-lucrative visa for her mother, which allows non\u2013European Union citizens to live in Spain without working if they can prove they have sufficient funds. She and her husband were granted digital nomad visas, which allow remote work for up to five years.\n <\/p>\n
\n In July <\/strong>2022, the family flew from Los Angeles to Barcelona with 10 suitcases, then boarded a ferry to Mallorca, the largest of Spain\u2019s Balearic Islands.\n <\/p>\n \n Mallorca, popular with visitors from around the world for its sheltered coves and limestone mountains, offered an easy adjustment. But after six months, the family felt it wasn\u2019t the right fit.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s very international, which made the transition a little bit easier,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cBut we really wanted family and nature and a Spanish experience.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n So they tried San Sebasti\u00e1n, the food capital of northern Spain\u2019s autonomous Basque Region, known for its striking coastline, world-class surf breaks and surrounding mountain trails.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe knew we had found the spot for us after two days,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cThe size, geography and nature were a great fit for what we prioritize and value.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n They rented a home and began establishing routines: enrolling the children in sports, finding doctors, joining friendship circles, discovering grocery stores. \u201cIt\u2019s a process,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Integration has not been without challenges. Basque culture, she noted, is \u201cknown to be quite insular.\u201d While locals have been kind, many socialize primarily within cuadrillas \u2014 close-knit friendship groups formed in youth. \u201cWe will never be in a cuadrilla,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you find some special relationships and that sustains you.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The family spends much of their time outdoors, hiking sections of the Camino de Santiago, surfing in nearby France and exploring the Pyrenees. \u201cWe had a really lovely quality of life in Montecito,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s just different here. It\u2019s just a different ethos entirely, and a significant increase in quality of life.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Most of the family has picked up Spanish easily, but Crowley admits she is still learning. They are also studying Basque, though she calls it \u201ca really difficult language to learn.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n They eventually moved into one of the few large houses in San Sebasti\u00e1n, with views of both the ocean and town \u2014 a rarity in a city dominated by apartments. Her mother lives nearby, in a flat overlooking the Bay of Biscay.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBecause we work from home and have a big dog, apartment living was a stretch for us,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cThere are not many homes like this in the area so we were lucky to find it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n They have a car but rarely use it, preferring to travel by bicycle. \u201cIn the United States, you have two cars. You\u2019re always driving, and it\u2019s horrible. So that\u2019s been amazing,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Crowley feels that the most valuable aspect to living in Spain has been the difference in her children\u2019s perspectives of the world.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019s a diversification and a worldview that has been monumental,\u201d she said, explaining that her older children now \u201ctravel constantly, and have friends all over the world.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHow they think about the world, how they move through the world, the skills they have\u2026 I mean, we traveled the world and lived abroad, and so we had a lot of that.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBut to sort of watch that unfold. Seeing them sort of create their lives in a way that it would have never been had we stayed in California\u2026 There\u2019s just tremendous satisfaction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The biggest cultural adjustments have been Spain\u2019s slower bureaucracy \u2014 which they jokingly call \u201cgetting Spained.\u201d Crowley recalled walking into various government buildings \u201cto get one of the million things you need to get\u201d and never quite managing it the first time around.\n <\/p>\n \n \n \u201cBut that\u2019s also part of the ethos of Spain, which is nice. There\u2019s just more balance and less panic.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The family has also had to adapt to the Spanish schedule, which sees some businesses close for siesta in the afternoons.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMan, siesta gets me every time,\u201d says Crowley. \u201cI work in the morning, I get all my paperwork done. So then I\u2019m ready to run errands at 1:30 p.m. And I get there, and of course, they\u2019re closed.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAnd then it goes quite late\u2026 But I mean, nothing that\u2019s been challenging. If anything, it\u2019s the opposite\u2026 It\u2019s been so refreshing to see the difference in their culture.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Spain\u2019s cost of living has also been a positive shift. Even in San Sebasti\u00e1n, among the country\u2019s pricier cities, they live on roughly half of what they spent in Montecito.\n <\/p>\n \n She has also been impressed with Spain\u2019s public health care, particularly after her mother received treatment for health issues. \u201cThe level of care\u2026 the responsiveness,\u201d she said, \u201chas been amazing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Her mother\u2019s proximity to them has been invaluable, Crowley said. \u201cIf we would have to go back to visit her\u2026 California is far from Spain. And there are so many other places we\u2019re trying to explore.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Crowley said she hasn\u2019t returned to the United States since the move, and neither have her children. \u201cMy kids have no desire to go back,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Since relocating, she has combined her psychology background with her personal experience to create a workbook and online course guiding others through the process of moving abroad.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cEverybody sort of has a fantasy to move abroad,\u201d she said. \u201cWhenever you tell someone, I don\u2019t care who they are, they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve always imagined moving to Thailand or wherever. And so I sort of accidentally got contacted by all these friends of friends and family of friends asking for tips and tricks.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s really fun to watch people decide where they\u2019re going to move to start living out their dream.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n And as her own family continue to live out their dream in Spain, Crowley is in awe of her three children, who she said have been \u201cleading the charge\u201d in redefining their lives.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMy 16-year-old said to me a year ago, \u2018Sometimes I feel like life didn\u2019t start for me till I moved abroad\u2026\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThey could land anywhere on the planet now and thrive\u2026 Even traveling doesn\u2019t give you that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link As she casually traverses one of the most scenic stretches of the Spain\u2019s Camino…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-349601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115039474886569415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/hiking-the-north-coast.jpg\")
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\u201cYou\u2019re lucky if you hear back in two weeks\u201d when you send an email, she added.\n <\/p>\n