The big-ticket items, airfare, and accommodation rentals out of the way, let’s look at the other typical expenses we incur when we are wintering on the Costa del Sol. Those that are related to being in an interesting foreign country are included in the cost of our winter getaway.
Others are the same regular day-to-day living outlays that we would have at home and would occur wherever we happen to be. I simply refer to these as our “Normal Spending”. They are not included in the ultimate cost of the getaway.
I have included the table for our trip costs here once again, so you don’t have to go back to Part One of this series to check the numbers.
Winter Getaway Costs
Let’s begin by looking at the categories that I include in the total cost of our winter getaway. These include expenses like those related to our transportation needs while we are in Spain, which I categorize as “Internal Travel”. We also typically have some “Other Accommodation” costs, above and beyond the cost of our condo, like hotels in cities we might visit. Thirdly, we often have some touristy expenditures, like visiting a museum or a historical site, which are listed as “Tourist Stuff”.
Our Getaway Cost Categories
So, let’s start breaking down these extra costs. You might be interested in how you’re going to get around while you are in the location you choose – an important consideration, of course. So, let’s start with an examination of the transportation means which you will use to get around, and their related costs.
Yes, you can rent a car for your entire trip if you are a “must have a car” kind of person or family. If that is the case, I have been told that the rental places near the airport in Malaga are the least expensive for long-term rentals. Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions as to which one to use because we have never done that.
We rent cars on occasion for longer trips along the coast or for overnight visits to other locations, but it has been quite infrequent. The only thing I concern myself with when we go to rent a car is that I get one with an automatic transmission. If you do not ask for it specifically… Typically, they only have very few at each rental agency… You will end up with a manual transmission. Most often though, we simply use the local public transit.
Let’s get into it.
Transportation – Internal
As stated, this category does include occasional car rentals, but for us, it mostly includes things like cab fares, train and bus trips between cities in Spain, commutes on the short local train line along the Costa del Sol, and local bus charges.
In 2019, we took the train to and from Madrid and Malaga, and we frequently used the local rail line to travel between Fuengirola and Malaga. We rented a car for one day and made bus excursions to and from the towns of Ronda and Granada. The total cost for all this extra transportation in 2019 was $1293.21 as you can see in the table.
In 2023, we did a little more internal travel than in 2019. Once again, we rode the train between Madrid and Malaga and returned when it was time to head home. Additionally, we had an excursion out of Madrid to the city of Toledo. We also went on an overnight excursion via train to the city of Córdoba.
In March of 2023, we rented a car for three days and went on a road trip to Gibraltar and Estepona. Generally, we did more internal travel in 2023 than we did in 2019.
Our use of local buses to travel to other cities along the coast and in town was about the same as most years. All in all, our travel costs in 2023 were $1758.27. Not unexpectedly, the cost to use all the services increased between 2019 and 2023. Extra wandering around the country and good old inflation worked to increase our transportation costs in 2023.
I did not explicitly compare our Costa travel costs to our travel costs at home because we make much greater use of public transportation in Europe than we do at home. There are travel savings associated with not being at home, of course. You are not having to pay for gasoline for two months, you are saving on wear-and-tear on your vehicles, and any other charges like Uber or taxi fares or public transit fees.
Accommodation – Other
In 2019, nine nights were spent in hotels, five in Madrid, and four other nights in the Spanish towns Ronda, Nerja, and Granada. The total 2019 cost was $1261.12. That works out to about $140 per night. This may seem either expensive or inexpensive to you, depending upon what you are willing to pay for a hotel when travelling at home.
Although we do need to know what we are paying in Canadian dollars, sometimes it’s best just to do price comparisons in the local currency, in this case, Euros. For the nine nights of hotel stays in 2019 we paid €812.30 total. This works out to an average of €90.25 per night. That is extremely good value.
We spent more nights in hotels in 2023 than in 2019, twelve in total. Five in Madrid, one each in Gibraltar and Estepona, two in Cordoba, and wrapped up the trip with three in Lisbon. The net result was that we spent $ 2994.91 on hotels in 2023 – about $250.00 per night. Considerably more than what we spent in 2019.
I should point out that we had one very expensive hotel stay in 2023 which was very much an anomaly to our usual experience. On our way home we stayed in a hotel in Lisbon for three nights, as it turned out, during Holy Week.
Holy Week is a very big deal in Spain and Portugal and one in which lots of people are travelling and vacationing. As such, it’s very difficult to find hotel rooms to begin with, and those you do find are very expensive. We paid $1111.18 CAD for the three nights, or approximately $370 a night Canadian while in Lisbon… Ouch!
That extra extreme hotel expense probably could have been avoided. I should have realized that we were going to be in Lisbon during Holy Week and if I had booked well in advance, we could have gotten a nice hotel at a much more reasonable rate. Lesson learned.
Cordoba Hotel
To provide a specific hotel rental cost in line with what we would normally expect to pay during one of our overnight wanderings, here is an example from our two-night stay in Cordoba. As you will see the second night cost more than the first and that is because February 28 was Andalusia Day, a holiday, so lots of people were travelling and staying in hotels. The total cost in Canadian dollars was $285.09, or $142.55 per night. Click on the first image to bring up the small photo carousel.
Tourist “Stuff”
The final category that makes up what I consider to be part of our getaway-specific spending is all the touristy things we end up paying for. These items include things that you would typically only do when you are visiting another city, province, or country.
Things like paying for walking tours, bus tours, museums, galleries, or culturally specific things like touring a bullring or attending a Flamenco show. Most of the things cited here, other than museums and galleries, we would not normally be laying out money for at home.
In 2019 we spent $158.52 and in 2023 a total of $393.08. So, not a ton of money. I don’t think the difference between the two years would be because of inflation. We simply visited more art galleries and historical sites in 2023 than we did in 2019.
Getaway “Normal Spending” Expenses
And finally, a look at the expenses we incurred that we would have been spending money on regularly at home. Not incredibly exotic items, like food, drink, and a whole bunch of “other” discretionary items.
That said, much of what we do and purchase during our winter getaways is exactly what we would be doing or spending money on if we were at home. We continue to track this “Normal Spending”, just like we do at home, but we don’t see it as being an additional cost related to our getaway. As such, we deduct it from our total cost for the trip.
Normal Spending – Food (Groceries)
When I went back and looked at the numbers, I was quite taken with the fact that we spent almost the same amount on groceries in 2023 ($1484.48) as we did in 2019 ($1427.40). Given that the whole world has been complaining about serious inflation in the cost of food during and post-pandemic I was wondering what accounted for that… Were we eating less?
This seemed particularly interesting in light of the fact that when I compared what we would typically spend in a 65-day time frame at home, there was a significant difference. In 2019 we averaged $1459.32, but in 2023 we spent an average of $2,194.75, basically, 50% more. The increase at home did not strike me as being odd because like most Canadians the increases related to inflation were very obvious.
Why didn’t that seem to happen as dramatically in Spain?
There may be several reasons unknown to me, like government regulation of food pricing, etc. but part of the reason I suspect was simply because we were very close to the original fresh food source.
I have written about grocery shopping in Spain previously, so I’m not going to belabour that here. If you would like to have a look back at that, you can read the article “Retiree on the Road – Wintering in Spain 2022 – #7 (Grocery Shopping)”. But, the proximity issue might be very relevant. I’m going to use a trio of images to explain this point… Not including this one of all the lovely fruits and vegetables in a local grocery store. 🙂
A region adjoining the Costa del Sol is a primary market garden area for all of Europe. Fruits and vegetables are grown and harvested here on a year-round basis. When we arrive in Spain at the end of January, many of the fruits we associate with Spain like oranges and avocados, and more recently mangos and papaya, are in the process of being harvested..
Secondarily, using very inexpensive white plastic greenhouses, a variety of vegetables and fruits are regularly grown and harvested very close to the Costa in the off-season for distribution across Europe. During February and March, we are eating locally grown and locally transported fresh food.
As you will see in one of the images, the greenhouses are so vast around the town of Almeria that it is visible from space. Locally it is referred to as “El Mar de Plastico”, or “Sea of Plastic”.
Anecdotally speaking, it seems to us that we are paying less for our groceries overall in Spain than we do at home. We have never bothered to attempt to compare prices, so that is really just my opinion.
Normal Spending – Food (Restaurants)
While wintering on the Costa, we eat in restaurants much more frequently than we do at home. When in Rome! We enjoy the local cuisine, and our frequent guests typically want to try it out as well.
When you look at my costs table you will see that we spent more eating in restaurants in 2023 than in 2019, $1747.84 versus $1450.69… twenty percent more. Part of that was attributable to inflation, but part of it is because we simply ate out more.
If you want to drill down into this further, I suggest you read my article about restaurant dining in Nerja last year. I have written about restaurant life in Spain before that, but the article about our 2023 stay in Nerja will provide you with my most current discussion and pricing. It will also provide you with some important general information about restaurant dining in Spain.
Our experience is that eating in restaurants is less expensive than at home. I should probably qualify that by noting that I am talking about “casual’ dining. I’m not sure how “high-end” dining compares.
Other factors notwithstanding, I think I can say with a high degree of confidence that a major contributor to the cost difference is the low cost of alcoholic beverages in restaurants in Spain. Priorities!
A bottle of wine that costs us $40 in a Canadian restaurant may cost us $10 in Spain. When we have lunch, I typically order a “Caña”, a small glass of draught beer. I approximate that it contains the same volume as 2/3rds of a Canadian bottle of beer. This typically will cost between €2.00 two and €3.00 in a restaurant… $3.00 or $4.50 CAD. A glass of wine is very similar.
Normal Spending – Booze
Speaking of all things alcoholic – booze is booze, and relative to what we pay at home, much less expensive. There are some specialty shops, but beer, wine, and spirits are normally purchased in grocery stores.
I should mention that our “Booze” expense category does not include drinks consumed in restaurants with meals. Because it is a lower-cost category, I will not break it down here. You can do your comparison by consulting the table if you wish. I primarily track it while we are travelling just so that I can report the low number to all our friends at home. 🙂
Normal Spending – Other
Finally, we typically have some “other” expenses that will match very closely to what we spend our money on at home. This is ongoing discretionary spending, including things like clothing, gifts, healthcare and hygiene products, healthcare services, cleaning products, books, home and outside entertainment, hairstyling and spa visits, newspapers and magazines, etc.
The bottom line here is that we spend way more when we are at home than we do when we are in Spain for a couple of months. The numbers are worth repeating here in a small table. I should also mention that these savings aren’t ultimately spent once we get home again. They are purchases made at the moment, for our needs at the moment.
When I calculated these at-home spending costs I was intentionally conservative with what I added in. As such, I am very confident that these numbers are conservative for both 2019 and 2023.
You might be thinking…
“I can come up with some other items that we spend money on at home that I wouldn’t be spending in Spain. I know that our costs for utilities would be much lower when we are away. Our water would be turned off, the temperature level in the house would be lowered, and a minimal amount of electricity would be consumed.”
“Are there other areas where you feel all travellers could save additional money because they are away from home for two months?”
Are There Other Cost Savings to Be Had?
In a word, yes. If you want to drill down further into the numbers, for us at least, there are other economies to consider when trying to work out a true net cost for a two-month getaway. I looked at many of these cost savings in my 2019 article, so much of what I say from this point on will be repetitive – except the dollar numbers will be very current.
Suspension of Services
The main area where we save money is by suspending some of our services for the time that we are away. I am sure that those of you who winter away regularly know this already.
Some service providers don’t go out of their way to let you know that they provide this opportunity, but most do. Many, if not all of them, charge a monthly administrative fee – to keep your account active, I suppose. This is usually a small amount relative to what the monthly charge would be and what you will save.
Here is a list of the services that we suspend each winter when we go away, and specifically what we are saving during our 2024 trip. I’ll provide a brief description of what services we have and who our service provider is.
Cable, Internet, Home Phone – Saved $485.26
Rogers is our service provider. They typically require you to suspend services for a minimum of 60 days. We have done this several times and have had no issues with the process. All our services have become active again on the date we requested, and we have never had to chase them. Usually, the reactivation date is the day we return home.
Rogers does charge a fee, of course, to suspend our services. The savings I am showing here, $485.26 is what we save after we have paid those fees.
Cell Phones ($226 – $120 = $106) – Saved $106
We don’t save a whole lot by suspending our cell services with Rogers because the fee they charge to suspend is over half of what we pay. Although we saved $106 by suspending, we paid for cell service in Spain so the whole thing was a bit of a wash. Let me explain.
As soon as we arrived in Spain this year, we picked up a European service provider, as we do every year. This year it was Orange. If you have never done this, it is incredibly easy, and compared to what we pay at home, inexpensive.
We paid €20 each per month (actually 28 days) on a pay-as-you-go plan. The plan provided 100 GB of data, unlimited calling throughout Spain, and free roaming throughout all of Europe. Our total cost was $117.15 in Canadian funds.
The net result was we spent a small amount more on cell service for the two months than we would have at home. But it sure beats paying Rogers $15 plus taxes per day for roaming charges in Europe. 🙂
Newspapers – Saved $85.18
Most of the cost savings here came from suspending our local newspaper. We also subscribe to the Globe and Mail, but we use their online Globe2Go which we continue to pay for when we travel.
The upside of continuing with the Globe service is that it allows us to read the Globe and Mail online while we travel and maintain access to its excellent financial tools.
That’s a Wrap
So, there you have it, an up-to-date look at what it costs us to spend our winter getaway on the Costa del Sol in Spain. I hope you find this information useful if you are considering it as a possible winter destination.
