Cost of an extended stay in Barcelona as a tourist…
Posted: 03 March 2009 12:43 AM  
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Hello all. This is my first post on the forum, and I have a question about finances and the cost of living in Barcelona. 

I am a 23 year old Canadian moving to Barcelona for 3 months in April.  I have about 1000 Euros for each month I will be there.  I have an apartment rented for the three months which I will share with a partner and two others (250 Euros a month).  My question(s) for all the learned tourists/expats is (are): Do I have enough money allocated for my three month stay? I don’t expect to live like a king, but will 1000 Euros give me a life style with a reasonable amount of entertainment? Or will I be living off bread and water, and not be able to do any traveling outside the city?

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Posted: 03 March 2009 04:22 AM   [ # 1 ]  
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Sounds kinda low. That’s not a lot for a tourist, but beer and smokes are cheap. Bars are cheap but discos are expensive. Travelling by train and staying in hostels is cheap - hotels are less so, while Vueling and other low cost airlines can get you pretty far for very little.

Concretely - I’d budget at least 300? more per month to be able to take one decent trip per month that you’re there.

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Posted: 03 March 2009 10:58 AM   [ # 2 ]  
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I can probably budget the extra 300 Euros in without much trouble.  I won’t be doing an a lot of traveling, once a month sounds reasonable. Thanks for the advice. Anyone one have similar experiences? Anyone tried to live off less in Barcelona/Spain?

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Posted: 03 March 2009 03:16 PM   [ # 3 ]  
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Public transport is very cheap (by comparison with, say, London).  Best value eating-out is set-price menus del dia from most restaurants, but that is lunchtime only. If you can cook at home, buy fabulous produce for very low cost at markets.  Barcelona has quite a lot to do that’s free - parks, the beach, street entertainment, wandering around.  You can of course spend a fortune, but you certainly don’t need to to have fun.  A good thing to do would be to rent a car for a few days - say ?100 plus a tank of gas, split with girlfriend and other pals - and discover the Catalan countryside; there is a huge variety of landscape, villages, towns all within a few hours drive.  But you don’t want a car when you’re in town.

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