Want to travel to beautiful and popular Spain on a budget? Here are some money-saving tips so tourists can make the most of their trip. Spain is the third most visited country in the world, and we are not surprised with it being one of the least expensive countries in Western Europe and full of lots of incredible beaches, in the scorching sun. Spain loves fiestas and fun and tourists can easily spend a whole day walking around and looking at stuff for free - and nights out at parties.
9 When To Go And Where To Eat
The best money-saving tip for traveling to Spain is to avoid traveling in July and August as these are the busiest and most booked time of the year for travelers. If travelers do decide to go in these peak times, they should avoid hotels on the coast as they will cost more. A top tip for when eating out is to eat out in the middle of the day rather than in the evenings and night times, as it is cheaper.
8 Free Tapas
Visiting Granada or Leon will give the opportunity for visitors to try free tapas. Granada is well known for this. With every drink they buy, usually alcoholic drinks, they will receive free food and not just any food, usually full meals such as a portion of paella or even a burger and some fries. Tourists can eat a full meal just for the price of a beer! So, take advantage and don’t forget this big money-saving tip.
7 Share Courses
When visiting Spain, they also offer share courses, this will save money as customers can share a plate between them and at the same time they can half the price they would usually pay! In Spain, there are lots of restaurants offering travelers to share a morsel, in many places, one only finds food meant for sharing.
6 Check Or Book Online
Another good tip is to check online. Online is full of discounts and offers. Travelers should make sure to research restaurants local to where they will be staying and look at booking the flights and hotel online so that they don’t miss out on any offers. Booking online also gives the opportunity to compare prices and offers with another company’s so the travelers can choose holiday deals and packages more suitable for them.
5 Hotels
Tourists should always make sure to check for food that might be included in the hotel reservation, some hotels offer free or cheap breakfast options, so there is one less meal to worry about paying for. Some hotels offer evening or afternoon snacks. Some hotels and hostels even offer a shared kitchen or fridges in the room, so it’s best for tourists to stock up on basics at a local store and even make meals.
4 Local Markets
Local markets are great to get food on a budget and they also offer free samples so visitors are not only getting free food, but they can also try new foods and get a taste of the different foods before buying a whole meal just to find they are not keen and need to pay for more. Avoid tourist areas, these are usually located in the city center, and they often have higher prices. Bakeries and cafes, just before closing, usually have sales to try and sell everything they have instead of having to discard them and letting them go to waste.
Car Hire
If more than one visitor is traveling to Spain and would like to hire a car when there, they should consider deciding on just one person that is going to be driving the car. They will need to pay insurance for each person driving so sticking to one driver will lower this cost.
Car hire firms make money by charging for extras such as sat navs and childcare seats so tourists need to make sure to bring their own. Always make sure to photograph the vehicle before using it to confirm there are no dents, marks, or problems with the car, if they don’t, and the firm discovers any problems after returning the car there will be extra charges.
3 Transport
If traveling by train, make sure to get a rail pass even though the train seems easier, traveling by bus will be cheaper. When flying over to Spain, travelers should try to travel with only hand luggage as most airlines charge to check bags in so hand luggage will save a lot of money but if the bag is too big, the passenger will be charged so they should always check this before traveling.
2 EHIC (European Health Insurance Card)
Visitors can also save money by avoiding unexpected medical bills by using a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This will give a visitor standard health care for free or at a reduced cost. The visitors will need to make sure to apply for this before traveling. This covers state healthcare, not private treatment, and is not a replacement for travel insurance. Prescription medicines are not free but with an EHIC visitors can get 50% of the prescription price. Just by showing the EHIC card to the doctor and stating that they want to be treated as a state patient to avoid being treated privately and then sent unexpected bills.
1 Free WiFi
Instead of using all of the data on their phone, tourists can turn off their roaming and make sure it stays off. Most places have WiFi and tourists will be moving around a lot so everywhere they go such as a café, shopping, hotel, etc, they need to just make sure to check for WiFi and connect, this way they can save their data and get WiFi for free!