Spain is one of Europe's cheapest countries if you eat when Spaniards eat and stay where they stay. It is one of the more expensive ones if you eat dinner at 7pm on a main square.
The menú del día
The single biggest saving available.
A fixed-price weekday lunch — three courses, bread and a drink, typically €12–16 — served in ordinary restaurants across the country.
The same food à la carte in the evening costs two or three times as much. Spaniards eat their main meal at lunch, which is why this exists.
Look for the board outside between 1pm and 4pm. If a place has no menú, it is aimed at visitors.
Where to sleep
| Type | Typical | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hostel dorm | €18–30 | Per person |
| Hostal double | €40–65 | Private room, often better value for two |
| Pensión | €35–55 | Simplest, family run |
| Hotel | €70–140 |
A hostal is a small guesthouse with private rooms and is a different thing from a backpacker hostel. For two people it frequently costs less than two dorm beds.
Getting around
Buses (ALSA and regional operators) cost roughly half the train and reach everywhere. Madrid to Seville by bus is around €25 against €40–70 by AVE, for three extra hours.
Trains booked two to eight weeks ahead compete on price — and Ouigo and Iryo undercut Renfe substantially on the main corridors. Compare all three.
BlaBlaCar ridesharing is widely used in Spain and is often the cheapest option.
Free hours
Many Spanish museums are free in the last hours of the day or on specific afternoons — the Prado and Reina Sofía among them, along with numerous regional museums.
Times change, so check each museum's current schedule. Done consistently this saves €15–20 a day.
Cathedrals often have free hours for worshippers, which is a different thing from free entry for sightseeing — be respectful about which you are doing.
The cheap regions
Extremadura, inland Andalusia, Castile and León, inland Galicia, Aragón.
A good restaurant meal in Cáceres or Salamanca costs what a plate of tapas costs in central Barcelona. Accommodation runs 30–40% below the coast.
Granada deserves a special mention: bars there still serve a free tapa with every drink, which means €8 of drinks is effectively dinner. Jaén and Almería do the same.
A realistic daily budget
| Tight | Comfortable | |
|---|---|---|
| Bed | €20 | €50 |
| Food | €18 | €35 |
| Transport | €8 | €15 |
| Sights | €4 | €12 |
| Total | €50 | €112 |
Fifty euros a day is achievable in the interior regions and difficult in Barcelona or San Sebastián.
Two things worth paying for
The Alhambra — book weeks ahead, it sells out, and there is no cheap alternative.
One proper meal in the Basque Country, where the cooking justifies breaking the budget once.