Interested in the cost of living in Granada Spain? is a freelance writer who lived there for a year. He blogs at . I’ll let him explain…
Simply put, Spain is a pretty cheap place in general, at least as long as you stay away from the hottest tourist spots like Barcelona, Madrid, or San Sebastian. While Granada is a bit off the beaten path, it’s still pretty popular with the tourists. The Alhambra Palace, for example, is the most visited destination in the country. Yet somehow it manages to be one of the most inexpensive places I’ve ever lived.
The cost of living fluctuates a great deal based upon the neighborhood you’re in. When I was living in the posh Gran Via region, it wasn’t uncommon to have a base cost of living of around $2,000. When I relocated to a quieter part of town, however, that dropped to around $1,400. It’s a place where you can spend as much as you want, but you don’t have to spend much at all.
Here’s a rundown of the monthly costs for me and my girlfriend. We’re both freelance writers, which isn’t the most lucrative profession out there, but we live very comfortably.
$600 in rent. It’s possible to find places as low as $300, and the sky is the limit, but we had no problem finding a place right away for $600. It was right on Gran Via, which felt like a steal considering we were right in the middle of everything exciting. Later we moved to a place that was on a smaller back street which cost about $50 more but included water, heat, and wifi. That sounds like a great deal, and I guess it was, but I’ll have a word on the heat and wifi in a moment.
$100 to $200 in electricity. Electricity in Spain is expensive. It’s the only aspect of life that is more expensive than it is in the US. Our first apartment had electric heat, and it gets cold in Granada in the winter, so it cost us a bundle. When we got the chance to move into an apartment that included heat, we were thrilled. Then we found out that apartments using free city heat don’t get it turned on until deep into winter, and that it only turns on from six pm til nine pm. You have no control over it. Space heaters end up being a must, which runs up the electric bill even more.
$40 in water. Water is pretty inexpensive, and often included in rent.
Internet. Spain is still catching up when it comes to connectivity. Some homes aren’t equipped for a connection, and you have to pay a fee to have it installed. There are a bunch of different providers, and basically none of them are any good. Orange, Jazztel, and Movistar are among the most popular, but complaints abound about connection speeds, dropped connections, and customer service. They cost as low as $15 per month, and can go much higher from there. We actually never had the internet installed (you have to have a local bank account, we didn’t), electing instead to live someplace with wifi included. It turned out that meant we got a little USB thumb-drive like device that was so slow that we could barely check our emails, and we couldn’t be online at the same time. A bit of a hassle. More reading: .
Furniture. One great thing about Granada is the plethora of furnished homes. And I mean furnished—not just a bed and a couch but TV, kitchen utensils, coffee maker, iron and ironing board, and more.
$20 on taxis. Taxis are pretty cheap, and Granada is a fairly condensed place anyways, so getting around on foot is pretty easy. I estimate that you can walk across the entire city proper in about an hour, which isn’t bad.
$20 on buses. Each trip costs €1.20, but we didn’t use them unless we were heading someplace really out of the way. You can also take a bus to the coast for around $15 per person round trip.
Flying. Flights are pretty cheap throughout Spain thanks to low-budget airlines like Vueling or Ryan Air. I have paid as little as $20 for a flight between Granada and Barcelona.
There are a few main sources for groceries. The Cortes Ingles is a giant superstore that offers pretty much everything, but at a much higher price. Mercado is much more affordable, but you’re never exactly sure what they have in stock. Then there are little places like Coviron and Dia.
They’re scattered all over the place, are pretty affordable, and you can depend on them to have the basics.
Some basic food prices (at anyplace but Cortes Ingles):
All told, I would say that we spent around $400 a month on food and other groceries. The booze tab fluctuated with the weather.
So, we’ve all heard of tapas? Little plates of food that are supposed to come free with a drink?
Well, Granada is the home of tapas, and it’s the last place in Spain where they’re free.
It’s amazing. You can go out and order three or four $1.75 euro beers and have a full meal. If you know where to go, this can really keep the expenses down.
A delicious café con leche (the local staple coffee) will run you around $1.00, and you can usually get a tostada (toast with tomato and optional cheese or meat) for about the same price.
Don’t get me wrong—it’s entirely possible to spend a lot of money in Granada. An entrée at a medium quality restaurant can easily cost $30.00. You can buy expensive wines and overpriced (and generally poorly mixed) cocktails. But even the most expensive restaurants offer a cheap beer plus tapas option.
Alhambra Palace: A general admission ticket costs $16, and it’s worth it. The gardens, palace, fortress, and view are all astounding.
Entertainment in Granada can cost nothing! There is so much happening all the time that you can just walk around and enjoy. Parades, fiestas, concerts, street performers, incredible architecture, and beautiful parks provide an endless wealth of entertainment. My advice—just walk around and enjoy. It’s an incredibly safe city where everyone is polite and helpful.
To sum it all up…
I know expats who have been living in Granada for 20 years, and they live rich, luxurious lives in fantastic apartments filled with great food for around $1,000 per month. They go out every night, go on week long vacations to the coast, and own nice things. This is, of course, because they’ve had time to learn all the tricks.
Once we learned to stop shopping at Cortes Ingles (it is really that much more expensive), we were living off an average of around $1,500 per month. There were months in which we were forced to live off much less, freelance writing being an inconsistent paycheck and all, but even when we were forced to live off around $1,000 we never felt as if we were doing without.
Bottom line: it’s possible to live in Granada for as little as $12,000 per year, but I would say a more realistic figure is $20,000 on the low end and at least $32,000 if you think you’ll be traveling a lot or have more expensive tastes.
Additional Resources: Learn more about living in Spain with these resources:
Bio: Nick Hilden is a freelance travel and marketing writer from the Pacific Northwest region of the US. He bounces from place to place regularly, but spent all of 2013 living in Granada with his girlfriend. Nick’s writing has appeared in Vice, LiveStrong, the Oregonian, Global Living Magazine, and many more. You can view his work at , his blog at , or follow him on Twitter .
Interested in other locations? Read more about around the world.