Steven Langford loves his life on the Costa Del Sol – but the heat and crowds in the peak holiday season can be too much to bear
A British expat who moved to southern Spain 15 years ago says he still returns home every summer to escape the sweltering heat and crowds of tourists.
Steven Langford, 60, swapped the Ribble Valley in Lancashire for Andalusia in 2010.
He settled in Nerja, a picturesque beach town east of Málaga on the Costa Del Sol.
Mr Langford, a financial adviser, said that for most of the time he loved living in the coastal resort – except during the peak tourist season in August, when the population quadruples from 25,000 to 100,000 and temperatures regularly exceed 35°C.
“Nerja becomes, for me, a little too busy in the height of the summer,” he told The i Paper.
“During most of the year, it’s quite ‘touristy’ but generally, this keeps the town relatively busy so it doesn’t completely die off in the winter months.”
Mr Langford still owns property back in England and regularly visits his three grown-up children and three grandchildren from a previous marriage. He also spends Christmas back in the UK.
In recent years, tourism has become a contentious issue in Spain – the second most popular holiday destination in the world after France.
In 2024, more than 20 million tourists flooded into the country during the peak summer months.
However, over recent years protests calling for curbs on mass tourism have been held in popular holiday destinations, including the Costa Del Sol, with campaigners blaming the industry for pushing up housing costs and inflicting environmental damage.
For Mr Langford, the combination of the crowds and summer heat can be too much to bear.
“The heat and humidity also increases with queues for parking, supermarket shopping and even restaurants, so like many people I tend to spend quite a bit of August away from this and go to the UK.”
Spain, like much of southern Europe, has experienced intensifying summer heat in recent years, driven by climate change.
The country has been hit by its worst wildfire season in decades in 2025, after a prolonged period of drought and successive heatwaves.
Some 400,000 hectares of land have been scorched, mainly in the northwestern and central regions, though parts of Andalusia, such as Cádiz, have also been affected.
Temperatures can reach 40C in Andalusia’s inland areas, and this summer has been particularly hot, hitting 42C in the region.
The climate is somewhat cooler in Nerja because it is by the coast, but temperatures often reach the mid-30s during the summer in the hottest hours of the day.
In the UK, meanwhile, the mean temperature between June and August this year stands at around 16C, according to the Met Office.
Having always dreamed of living abroad, Mr Langford initially moved to Nerja on a temporary basis.
“I got extremely lucky with choosing Nerja as a place to live,” he said. “It has a fantastic community… I have a fantastic social life, lots of friends and lots to do.”
He applied for full residency when the UK was still part of the EU, so there was no need for him to have a visa.
“There is generally something going on most of the year,” said Mr Langford, who lives with his partner. “People have time to stop and chat and go for coffee, or “even something stronger depending on the time of day.”
In his spare time, he goes to the gym, hikes, rides motorcycles, and skis during the winter.
Mr Langford works for a large wealth management company with offices across Spain, helping other Britons to manage their finances and tax regimes in Spain, mostly ISAs and lump sums from pension schemes.
He works from home most of the time, travelling for face-to-face meeting when needed. Since Covid, this had developed into a very “acceptable” practice, he said.
One downside of living in such a popular town was the cost of property, however, said Mr Langford, who has always rented in Nerja.
House prices have never slowed down, he said, even during the financial crisis of 2008, making it expensive to buy.
Today, he lives in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house with a communal pool.
The property is within walking distance of the town centre, but crucially not dominated by tourists, Mr Langford said.
“Tourists are great and good for the town and area, but obviously they have a different agenda than people getting on with their daily lives,” he added.
“My neighbours are all Spanish, which not only helps me with the language, but they all actually ‘live’ there, so I am able to live a ‘normal’ life.”
