How Expensive is Spain?

We spent 13 days in the south of Spain as a family of 4.  How expensive is Spain with kids?  Here is a detailed breakdown of our costs, including travel via overnight bus from Lisbon to Malaga.

Transportation: $401

• We had a great experience getting to Malaga by FlixBus for $100.
• Bus from Malaga central to our stop was $27. 
• 3 day Jeep rental to drive to our adventures: $196.
• Diesel fuel was $50 total. 
• Jon used the local bus for less than $4 to get and return the car.
• All 4 of us took a bus+subway route to the airport, at a cost of $24.

Lodging: $846

We spent 12 nights at an amazing Airbnb with 2 bedrooms, a great pool, and a 12-minute walk to the beach.  It had a full kitchen and washing machine, and our clothes dried very well between our travel clothesline and the Spanish sunshine.

Food: $396

We ate very well in Spain by continuing to eat food from grocery stores instead of restaurants.  One highlight included fresh chorizo cooked in a skillet, served with fresh sauteed mushrooms and carrots and a fresh baguette.  That meal cost less than $10 for all 4 of us.  We also ate salad with chicken every other day ($6 total meal), a lot of fresh and frozen vegetables, and a lot of fruit.  Our experience of fresh bread in Europe being both amazing and cheap continued.  Of course, we also had ice cream every night.  One lowlight included Ashley accidentally bringing home tuna pizza: it was as gross as you’d think. 

Pro tip: not all grocery stores are equal in Spain.  If you stop at an “express” grocery plan to pay 10-25% more for a limited selection.  Therefore, it was worth the longer walk to a full-sized mercadona to have a much better selection at a much better price.  Jon carried groceries using his 60L backpack, one hand carrying a reusable grocery bag, and the other hand carrying an 8L water.

Entertainment:  $277

Our adventures in Spain immediately became the favorite part of our trip around the world so far.  We mostly spent our days between our local beach and pool, but during the 3 day Jeep rental we went crazy on adventure.  Read about all of these experiences here.

• We highly recommend using Tuur Adventures to combine bookings for canyoning and via ferrata.  Take advantage of their discounts for bundling these awesome adventures.
• Kayak rental in Nerja: We rented 2 double kayaks for $45.
• Hiking: FREE!  Because we missed out on buying tickets for Caminito del Rey, we ended up hiking on free trails.

Miscellaneous: $32

• Jon left his stainless steel water bottle in New York by mistake and finally replaced it for $18.
• We spent $24 on beach toys: bucket, shovels, net, 2 snorkels, and a paddle-ball game.

There you have it: 13 days in Spain with kids cost us $1,952.  Another way to look at it is that Spain can cost just over $1,000/week for a family of 4, including transportation into Spain if you follow our example.  We found Spain to be extremely affordable for a family with kids, even with the addition of a rental car and our adventures.

Spain was one of our first stops during a year-long trip around the world!  To see all our travel adventures, head over to our Instagram page.

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If you have questions or tips for traveling to Spain with kids, let us know!