About Me

The New SunSeaSangria

¡Hola! I’m Joanne, and I’ve called the Costa Blanca home for over 20 years. What started as a sunny “let’s buy a holiday home” dream quickly became a full-on “sorry, UK—we’re staying for the blue skies and never looking back” reality. And honestly? We’ve never been happier.

For more than 14 years, my husband and I ran two little apartments under the name SunSeaSangria. We welcomed hundreds of amazing guests who arrived for the sea views and departed with sun-kissed noses, fuller hearts, and probably a few legendary stories from those epic sunset sangria sessions. Those apartments weren’t just a business—they were our immersive crash course in real Spanish life: mastering the endless red tape, building lifelong friendships, and raising our kids surrounded by almond blossoms and beach days.

Life since then has been wonderfully, gloriously chaotic. Along the way, I’ve:

•  Cleaned more villas and holiday lets than I ever thought possible—from villas full of bugs to apartments full of junk, you name it, I’ve cleaned it.

•  Hand-made and poured homemade scented candles that turned our home into a fragrant haven.

•  Taught English online to students across the globe—sometimes mid-fiesta, with fireworks exploding outside and my poor students convinced World War III had begun.

Now, I’m finally turning that longtime dream into reality: relaunching Sun Sea Sangria as a proper website and blog. No corporate polish, no filtered perfection — just honest, lived-in stories from someone who’s experienced every almond-blossom-pink, ridiculously beautiful (and occasionally absurd) moment of Costa Blanca North life.

Whether it’s juggling the red tape with a cuppa in one hand and a NIE form in the other, chasing the perfect sunset photo, or simply surviving another gloriously chaotic fiesta, this is the real deal — the sunny highs, the quirky lows, and all the gloriously messy bits in between.

I’d really love you to join me on this new adventure. Pop over to the comments, hit reply on the newsletter, or drop me a message to say hello — and while you’re at it, tell me: what jobs (or mad side hustles!) have you tackled here in Spain? Bar work in Benidorm? Teaching English with a side of beach? Running a little holiday rental empire? Real estate viewings in the blazing sun? Or something completely off-the-wall? Your stories make this place sparkle, so please share — I’d love to feature some (with your permission, of course!) alongside photos of my own escapades. 💛

¡Bienvenidos! 🌞🍹