Lower-Cost Alternatives to BA?

[Crema Americana]

While the blue rate helps, I wouldn't say that makes it a budget destination. I would say it's reasonable at the blue rate... and expensive at the official rate. In general.

When it comes to labor costs, it's budget - but you often get what you pay for as well.

I don't earn dollars so this really doesn't apply to me - I look at prices in terms of hours worked or dividing prices by 4 or 5 to compare to home. Either way, it's expensive.

 

[Joe]

More questions about Spain:

What are the best cities and towns for expats?

One of the things I like about BA is the lack of English skills helping me slowly build up my Spanish. In Mexico (Puerta Vallarta) I never spoke Spanish because the English skill level is so high. How does Spain compare on this?

Anyone know the cost of monthly, furnished apartments in any of the cities and/or towns?

Cost of groceries. Are groceries subject to the 20% and ever rising VAT?

I have two passports so, although it is probably against the rules, I could stay indefinitely by switching passports on visa runs. Possible?

 

[StevePalermo]

I know Spain pretty well having lived there for 2 years and then spending a couple of months a year there while living in BsAs. I'd recommend Cadiz, a great little city with a bit of everything. Great beaches, lovely old town, which is busy with people, big university, great market, plenty of good/reasonable places to eat, and really friendly people. You'll notice the difference from the Porteños. Good communications with airports at Jerez and Seville and buses go all over. I'm renting my 3 bed apartment for €420 a month, which is probably about the going rate. You can find somewhere smaller for much less. There's a great market for fish, meat and fruit/veg, and food prices are very reasonable, less than Barcelona for sure. Not much English spoken though, and their Spanish is pretty hard to get the hang of, they speak so fast. I love the place and go back every year even though I've emigrated to Australia now.

 

[fifs2]

I know Spain pretty well having lived there for 2 years and then spending a couple of months a year there while living in BsAs. I'd recommend Cadiz, a great little city with a bit of everything. Great beaches, lovely old town, which is busy with people, big university, great market, plenty of good/reasonable places to eat, and really friendly people. You'll notice the difference from the Porteños. Good communications with airports at Jerez and Seville and buses go all over. I'm renting my 3 bed apartment for €420 a month, which is probably about the going rate. You can find somewhere smaller for much less. There's a great market for fish, meat and fruit/veg, and food prices are very reasonable, less than Barcelona for sure. Not much English spoken though, and their Spanish is pretty hard to get the hang of, they speak so fast. I love the place and go back every year even though I've emigrated to Australia now.

Second this, as Cadiz is 15 minutes up the road by car from us and the beaches are wonderful...ancient walls of a fascinating city to one side and blue blue sea to the next. Joe we chose Andalusia for many reasons:

1. Little English spoken so we could continue to live and improve our Spanish
2. Conservative & historic town (s) that have life all year (ie life not ruled by the coastal tourists even if the beaches are beautiful)
3. Countryside 20 mins by car for riding, hunting etc
4. Mountains 4 hours by car for skiing(Sierra Nevada)
5. Multitude of beaches at 20 - 30 mins by car (Cadiz, Chiclana, Puerto de Sta Maria are our regular haunts)
6. Proximity to airports (Seville, Jerez, Malaga)
7. Great international schools following UK Cambridge system

In our hunt for the new place to live we also spent time in Cordoba, Almeria, Valencia, Murcia, Alicante, Elche, Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Ronda, Jaen and too many white villages to mention. There's a host of beautiful places to live in Spain untouched by the English speaking tourism. You need to visit.

Sorry I don't have details on shopping costs to hand but on age we spend 120-150euros per 10 days for supermarket shopping including meat, chicken, pork, lamb, wine and the rest for a family of 4. We buy fruit, veg, fish U& bread from the local market for 10-20 euros a week. Will aim to dig out a shopping receipt and post details for you to compare. For us food is cheaper here than Bsas but that's because we didn't live on lentils and sugar whilst in Bsas. For idea of rental possibilities across Soain see tucasa.es...but as mentioned before the prices are dropping every month so you can take the prices and consider them negotiable.

 

[Rich One]

Would it be fair to say that Argentina is still a budget destination at the blue rate but one with first world prices at the official rate?

Argentina WILL soon become again a budget destination ...!! Destinations with a Country Risks over 600 points are prime Budget destinations, namely Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ecuador, Argentina, and Venezuela.


Ambito Financiero reports today, that a year from now the official dollar will be $5.65 pesos, assuming as a minimum the same spread as today with the Blue would place it at $7,70 Based on predictions by the Argentine Finance Institute. If it's a lineal slope in March should be $7.10 . Hold on to your dollars

 

[tez]

To fifs and StevePalermo, which of those cities in Spain can you live in without a car? What about the north of Spain? I've been dreaming of somewhere in Basque country... But I really don't want to have to worry about having a car...

 

[fifs2]

To fifs and StevePalermo, which of those cities in Spain can you live in without a car? What about the north of Spain? I've been dreaming of somewhere in Basque country... But I really don't want to have to worry about having a car...

Tez I never met anyone who didnt LOVE San - Sebastian and Bilbao and we did when we visited. We certainly thought about those as new home options except we didnt want to add another language for the kids. They are both fine without a car as theyre well served with transport links but of course nowhere near the regular bus service etc of Bsas that spoils us all with so many routes, options and frequency..

 

[mariano-BCN]

how interesting your information about Spain Fifs2, many thanks! I'm planning to go to Andalusia and search for a place to live when I come back from Colombia and Argentina in February or March next year and will move from Amsterdam to Andalusia somewhere next year.
I would like to find a house of flat to buy for let's say 120-130 thousand euro's. Or to rent for 600 euros a month. I need two bedrooms, cause I expect to receive regularly visitors. So far on sites of Spanish state agencies I couldn't find something nice to buy for that price but maybe I'm looking at the wrong sites.
I would prefer to live in and around a middle city like Cadiz, Granada or Sevilla. Which would you recommend in terms of good private health care, airport with regular flights from elsewhere in Europe (and therefore budget flights, I saw Vueling is flying directly from Amsterdam to Sevilla) and culture-eventes beyond the flamenco-thing (meaning independent movies cinemas, festivals, etc)?

I'm originally from BsArs but have been living for decades in Amsterdam, also 6 years in that time expensive Barcelona and hope to live some years in beautiful and more affordable Andalusia.

thanks again!

 

[fifs2]

how interesting your information about Spain Fifs2, many thanks! I'm planning to go to Andalusia and search for a place to live when I come back from Colombia and Argentina in February or March next year and will move from Amsterdam to Andalusia somewhere next year.
I would like to find a house of flat to buy for let's say 120-130 thousand euro's. Or to rent for 600 euros a month. I need two bedrooms, cause I expect to receive regularly visitors. So far on sites of Spanish state agencies I couldn't find something nice to buy for that price but maybe I'm looking at the wrong sites.
I would prefer to live in and around a middle city like Cadiz, Granada or Sevilla. Which would you recommend in terms of good private health care, airport with regular flights from elsewhere in Europe (and therefore budget flights, I saw Vueling is flying directly from Amsterdam to Sevilla) and culture-eventes beyond the flamenco-thing (meaning independent movies cinemas, festivals, etc)?

I'm originally from BsArs but have been living for decades in Amsterdam, also 6 years in that time expensive Barcelona and hope to live some years in beautiful and more affordable Andalusia.

thanks again!

Well it's always nice to try and be helpful but without wanting to sound like Spain is heaven as my experience tells me paradise doesnt exist unless we get to cherry pick our favourite things from different places and make our own paradise! There has been too much press about the "give away" that is Spain but having seen some of the give aways myself you wouldn't want them for free as the Costa del Sol is filled with poorly constructed illegal housing for the 50-150k range. Many towns are practically all illegal housing (Chiclana as a Cadiz province example) so you have to be super careful as you can end up having a lovely property but no services like gas or water which the estate agent wont tell you when he sells it. 600 a month rent for a 2 bedroom is easy in any of the cities aforementioned but for 100k - 150k to buy your best best are agencies working on bank reposessions such as www.solvia.es that has lots of really discounted properties. Earlier this year our friends bought a large 3 bedroom property with pool and tennis court, 3 bedroms for 220k in Carmona - a Roman village 15 mins outside Seville, so bargains are there to be had and the key is finding a diligent and trustworthy estate agent but you'll need to be here as estate agents arent great on email.

In terms of location Seville is very well served for flights - we flew with Vueling to Paris recently. Jerez (40 mins from seville) operates with Air Berlin so Amsterdam, Brussels and all major European capitals etc are also well covered. If you take the train to Malaga (1.5 hours) you're get a huge flight selection too. Seville is a cultural center for Spain and the world. Im probably too old and boring to be the person of reference on this one but from personal experience the Seville Feria and Semana Santa week were just mind blowing...Cadiz is renowned as being less conservative than Seville and Jerez...the annual Cadiz carnival (Feb) was crazy but just brilliant and not to be missed. I honestly could only chose between Cadiz, Granada and Seville because of the Cadiz beaches..otherwise all 3 cities are culturally rich and have their own offerings re dance, film and music festivals but as Ive never bene to any I cant speak of their quality. Re private health care its accessible in any city..we have looked into it but are actually going public as we work and pay Spanish taxes and thereby qualify and it's been more than adequate so far..we miss the marble hospital halls of Buenos Aires but have had no need to go private so far and that makes a big difference to living costs being lower here of course.

Lastly Andalusia is beautiful. Stunning. We're still in honeymoon mode after 14 months here as the people are lovely and life is just easy...we got our NIE (DNI) in literally 30 mins as the people were so welcoming and helpful...Bsas served us well to alwasy prepare for the worst and be delighted by the best and I hope I never turn into a ungrateful Spanish resident as they have so many good things here ..financial crisis notwithstanding.

 

[Argento]

Reading these recent Spain posts, I was there not so long ago, probably should have just stayed. Oh well.
I did like the real nice courtyards, impressive food markets, easy access to nice sea and other perks, despite the crisis, still a decent feel in the air.

Considering this is a "lower-cost" thread, and noting how Spain is also added in with budget destinations the likes of Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, etc., it has me wondering if Spain really does fit with those from a financial standpoint (3 bedroom in Spain for 420€? as stevenpalermo mentions!).
I'd guess not quite as much, but seemingly still budget enough.

If anyone can share recent info, I may need to fly out of Montevideo (requiring a stay there for a couple weeks), how do prices compare there to BA in regards to budget hotels? I heard MVD was somewhat more costly than BA.