Spain is one of the leading European destinations for British expats and a Spanish city was recently named as one of the world’s best places to live.

However, it’s not always easy for expats to settle and one former expat has shared the difficulties they had on Reddit.

Reddit user ‘Ripper31189’ said they lived in Spain in 2017 and while they loved their time there, there were a few issues.

They said one of the main problems was a lack of international food compared to everything on offer in the UK.

They said: “As much as I loved Spanish food, I couldn’t live on tapas or paella every day. Coming from a big city in the UK, I found myself craving a good curry, greasy burger or bangers and mash than I’d admit.”

Spanish food varies by region and paella is actually from Valencia, despite its ubiquity across the whole country. The northern Basque region is often thought of as Spain’s gourmet hub.

Although Spain does have a range of cuisines on offer, British expats may find there is less choice than in the UK outside of the main cities such as Madrid.

The former expat added: “As dumb as it sounds, you really need the language. Outside the Brit enclaves of Benidorm and the Costa del Sol, hardly anyone speaks English.

“Spanish is a global language, why would they? Of course this is a pain for anyone who doesn’t know Spanish.”

British expats who want to live outside of popular ‘British’ areas such as Benidorm and the Costa del Sol will probably need to learn some Spanish if they want to get a job and make local friends.

The US Foreign Institute estimates that it takes around 24-30 weeks to learn Spanish, which equates to about 650 hours of class.