We registered Hola Valencia with Expat Blog right after we started which was about 3-4 month ago. And due to this fantastic city, Mike’s writing and my photos we got chosen to be blog of the month May.

We even gave a little interview: Hola Valencia Blog of the month

Source: ADN.es

Street View is one of the more incredible of Google’s many free map-based applications. And now, it’s coming to Valencia.

Starting Monday, Google’s fleet of camera-equipped cars will be cruising our streets, taking pictures for their Street View of Valencia. Keep your eyes peeled.

If you’re not familiar with this application, basically: it’s awesome. Street View provides a navigable street-level view of many large cities. Check out, for example, my old house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. You can scroll down the city streets, almost as if you’re walking or driving.

So if you see a Google car in the next few weeks, make sure and do something memorable (like, say, holding up a huge poster advertising HolaValencia.net). Photographing an entire city is sure to turn up a few nuggets of gold. Here’s a list of the Top 15 Street View Sightings.

Breaking In, San Francisco (source: Mashable.com)

It might still takes months before the Valencia-version of the application is ready, but I can hardly wait. Ours is one of just 4 cities in Spain chosen for the initial European rollout of Street View (along with Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla).

We had a harder time finding a suitable apartment in Valencia than we had expected. There are plenty of agencies and resources who’d like to help, but not many are worth wasting time on — we lost many days with agents of dubious quality showing us shit apartments we would never consider.

Here are some of the things we had a little more luck with:

1. Pantoja Inmobiliaria

This is by far the best real estate agency that we dealt with while in Valencia. The places they took us to were of a far higher quality than those of other agencies, and it was through them that we ended up renting a place. Their agents were all friendly and helpful, happy to patiently explain things multiple times to confused foreigners.

Web Site: http://www.pantojainmobiliaria.es/
Location on Our Valencia Map

2. Idealista

Idealista is the best online market for apartments that we came across. Their site is multi-lingual, easy to navigate and mercifully spam-free. Their apartments run the gamut from agencies to private landlords, and from renting to selling, and cover all of Spain.

Web Page: http://www.idealista.com/

3. Walking Around

This is a great way to find places that haven’t been advertised online, or through an agency, and thus avoid any extra fees. A lot of people, especially with cool apartments in the city, just throw an “Se Alquila” sign in the window of the place they want to rent out, knowing it won’t be too long before they get a call. We spent many hours wandering through the neighborhoods we wanted to live in, finding and calling phone numbers in nice-looking buildings.

Oh, and one other thing that is really important — you have to know at least a little Spanish to be successful. Nobody we dealt with was able to speak English at all, except for one lady who was clearly not to be trusted (Gracia: we are onto you, and we always were). We got by with my minimal Spanish, but it wouldn’t have been possible without knowing the basics.

Have you already found an apartment in Valencia? Agree/disagree with our advice? Please make a comment here, or join the Hola Valencia forum to share your tips and experiences.

Craigslist is an insanely useful resource for anyone who lives in a decent-sized American city. Their international listings, though, can be a little lacking. Luckily, there is Loquo - a very similar site.

If you’re familiar with Craigslist, you’ll instantly be comfortable with Loquo, as the layout and navigation is almost identical. It serves a few different cities around Spain, and the Valencian version is popular enough to be truly useful. I put up a request for a Spanish-English language exchange, and within 24 hours had about 8 responses (shout out to Iván).

Of course, tricksters abound on the site, and you should definitely approach great offers with caution. There are a lot of “dream” apartments offered for a very small amount of money — which of course, you have to wire beforehand. But, if you’re looking for a used bike, or a way to meet people, Loquo is a great resource.