Tips to save money on Barcelona holidays

Tips to save money during your vacation in Barcelona
Enjoy a good time without spending that much money.

A vacation is is most cases more expensive than planned. It's very easy to spent less and still have a great time. Read further and I'll give you some tips on how to save money during your vacation.

We planned a weekend to Barcelona to mind off things and relax for a while. We booked a flight and a little hotel down town. We really enjoyed the weekend, but once we came back home we found that we spent over 600 Euro more than planned for a city trip for 2 people.
L. Smith - Barcelona 2010

People really enjoy a city trip to visit a famous city, a lovely beach vacation or an active vacation. A city trip for a weekend or a nice and relaxing beach vacation means a great time for most of people. But back from vacation it appears that you've spent more money than planned. Many travelers are facing this problem too. The next question that now comes to mind is: "Where did I spent all that money on?". This isn't necessary, because it's really possible to join a similar vacation with a smaller budget. Therefore I'd like to give you some tips.

As an employee of a company specialized in vacation apartments in Barcelona, I daily receive these kind of remarks. That's why I decided to write an article about saving money on your vacation. I hope that everybody that reads this article will take advantage of my tips.

What are the main requisites for a vacation? Very simple, it's just transport, an accommodation and food of course. Additionally, you want to undertake all sorts of trips and activities. On all these 3 primary requisites I'll give you some advice to save money.

Food
Less touristic places = Better food + Lower price.

During your vacation you obviously want to enjoy pleasant dinners. There are 2 possibilities, either you choose to prepare you own meal or you go out to dine in a restaurant. In both cases you can save money. If you choose to cook your own meal, you need to rent an accommodation with a private kitchen. Apartments always have a kitchen with all the necessary equipment, so you can save money by self catering. If you don't feel like cooking, you can of course go out to have diner. In Barcelona there are good and cheap restaurants. Use the Internet to search for restaurant reviews and try to avoid the restaurants in very touristic areas. A good way to find the best and most affordable restaurants is just to ask some (local) people on the street.

Transportation
Flying for less than 30 Euro is just a rumor?

How far from home are you planning to travel and with how many people are you traveling? These are the first two questions you should ask yourself. Going far from home means that you can't avoid to book a flight ticket. I'll give you some ideas for flight tickets hereafter. Whenever you're not traveling that far, maybe the distance is easily bridged by car. Compare the costs of traveling by car with the costs of flying.

This is an example:
I assume that a "normal" car consumes about 1 liter of gasoline each 15 kilometers. The price for gasoline in Europe is about 1.50 Euro. This means that for every 15 km you travel you should count 1.50 Euro. For a return trip of 1500 km you will spend about 300 Euro in gasoline. You'll probably bound to a hotel two times. A simple hotel will cost you at least 35 Euro per night. (Formula 1 is such a cheap hotel for a stopover). So this means that you will spend at least 370 Euro for your journey and 2 nights in an hotel.

In order to make a comparison with flight tickets you should divide the total costs by car by the the number of people that are traveling. What are the costs for the same trip by plane? Dependent on your destination, you can also opt for low-budget airlines. Please browse to the Websites of Vueling, Ryanair and EasyJet before you surf to the more common airline Websites. Vary with the airport of arrival and departure. It is often less expensive to choose an airport a little bit further from downtown. Flight tickets are strongly dependent on season, but when you are traveling within Europe you can find flight tickets from 30 Euro including taxes. Compare the advantages of flying with traveling by car. Flying is often much faster , but on the other hand you won't have access to a car at your destination.

Apartments in Barcelona
Apartments in Barcelona: more luxury, less money.

Of course you'd like to stay in a comfortable accommodation and also on a fantastic location. And.. above all, you'd like to spent as less money as possible. Let's assume that you are not going to camp and that you want hire an accommodation in Barcelona. The most common choice is to rent a hotel room. Yet, this is often not the most economical way to stay. For a stopover, an hotel is a good place to stay. But if you like some luxury, like a living room and a kitchen, than an apartment is the perfect affordable alternative. Apartments can be found in various shapes and sizes. Often you can rent an apartment for an attractive price, especially if you travel with more people. In addition, you can enjoy all the comforts of your own equipped kitchen and stay in total privacy. Just like a hotel you'll find clean bed linen and towels in apartments. For a good overview of apartments have a look at this website about apartments in Barcelona.

To read more about cheap accommodations in Barcelona, check out the website of holiday apartments Barcelona.