Barcelona is one of the best cities in the world & also one of the prime cities of Spain. The rich culture & aura of the city is unmatched. Being a budget traveler. I try to keep my accounts in check & Barcelona was no different. I spend wisely & was able to complete my Europe trip in around 1.2 Lacs all inclusive. It seems to be very less. In this post, I will share my tips & tricks for keeping the budget in check. This post is about Barcelona On Budget.
Budget is usually bifurcated into following heads. Accommodation, Food, Site Seeing & Transfers. If all these are managed then it is very easy to keep the price in check. As I feel there are so many destinations to cover & spending lavishly in each one of them will robe me from other destinations experiences. Thus, I spend the required & keep the price as low as possible.
Flights:
Flights are an important factor to keep the price low. The earlier, one book the tickets the cheaper it will be. Somewhere I read that, last minute tickets are cheaper. But, I have not encountered this situation till now. I booked the tickets 4 months prior the date of journey. The websites I refer are Skyscanner, Jetradar & google flights. These provide the best rate possible to book a flight.
Accommodation:
Accommodation is pretty important factor in touristic cities. As the prices of normal hotels are on higher side due to high demand. I mostly stay in Hostels, the reason being it helps me to keep the price very low & also helps me to interact with other backpackers. I stayed in the most premium part of the Barcelona i.e La Ramblas street & gave approx 80 Euros for 4 days of stay. An important aspect is the facility provided by the hostel. Most of the hostels provide a kitchen & a safety box to keep belongings. However, common washrooms & public utility area can be disheartening but everything comes up with pros & cons. I chose to keep the price low in return for some extra luxury. I book most of hostel stay through Booking.com (It allows free cancellation & has a very basic interface). The average rate of hostel starts from 20 Euros. But, this varies depending upon the time of the booking. At some places, it is as low as 10 Euros.But, expect to pay somewhere between 20 to 30 Euros per night.
Food:
Food is great compared to some of the other European places. After spending few days in Amsterdam & Paris, I was dying to have some good food & Barcelona literary helped me to satisfy my taste buds. Being a VEGETARIAN, it is difficult to get quality food. However, A “Wok The Walk” outlet provided with some Asiatic taste. An average price was approx 3 to 4 Euros for a plate of noodles. Another way is to cook the food, there are plenty of supermarkets available all around the city which are open 24*7. Also, the supermarket doesn’t sell alcohol after 11 pm. But, you can find some of the Asian guys selling cans of beer all night. For Indians, if in La Ramblas street expect to find some local Indian delights like Samosa & Gulab Jamun. A food at the restaurants will cost around 25 to 30 Euros.
Commutation:
There are few options available for commutation either by a bus, metro or renting a bicycle. I bought city card of 5 days, which allowed me to explore various modes of transport for free. The cost of 5 days city card is 60 Euros. The benefits vary with cards. There are various service providers who offer different types of cards for easy commutation & other benefits. It is the best investment as it helps you to skip the line & manage days in a more efficient way. I traveled mostly by metros & buses. It is easy to get card from Get your guide, Barcelona.de & tiqets. For the people, who are looking for daily commutation cards. There is a stack of 10 tickets which cost approx. 9 Euros if you are traveling in one zone. The zone concept is very confusing. The best would be to buy city cards. Also, city cards don’t work during the night so have to pay extra for night travel. There are buses in the night so no issue in commutation during night.
Site Seeing:
Like all tourist places, Barcelona is full of attractions. But, attractions come with some price. There are entry charges for nearly all the touristic attractions. So, be prepared to pay for that. It would be better to short list few activities & try on those activities to keep the price low. On average the prices to entry start from 7 Euros. There are different site seeing options available some of them are Picasso Museum, Barcelona History museum, aquarium etc. So, if visiting Barcelona buckle up for some of the mind blowing experiences.
I am sure by following above mentioned techniques one will be able to keep the price low. I did the same & completed my trip at a very decent sum.
The average amount expenditure considering all the activities shall come around 45-50 Euros per day. So, plan budget accordingly.
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