Brits Find it Cheaper to Meet in Spain Than Purchase a Return Rail Ticket

Brits Find it Cheaper to Meet in Spain Than Purchase a Return Rail Ticket

Low cost flights continue to be better value

than train tickets in the uk

A few old friends from university found themselves enjoying an impromptu flight to Malaga to catch up after finding that flying to Spain was cheaper than booking a return rail ticket to Birmingham from Newcastle.

Zara Quli and Lucy Walker got the idea after finding out the price of a last-minute train ticket. These prices are shocking, but predictable, given the expensive nature of UK rail travel.

Ms Walker says that it would have cost £105 for a return ticket between Birmingham and Newcastle; a trip of 400 miles. She looked for cheap alternatives and found it only cost £19.98 for a return flight to Malaga from Newcastle. This prompted her to find out how much it would cost to fly from Birmingham to Malaga.

The result? Only £55.29 for a return ticket. The friends agreed to meet in Malaga instead for a combined cost of £75.27, including two nights at a Granada hotel.

Walker commented that it’s a real pain to buy last minute train tickets in Britain because rail companies place high premiums on them. Instead of being stuck on a train they got to take a trip to one of the most beautiful cities in southern Spain and highlight that there are alternatives for the cash-strapped, sun-loving Brits out there who want a weekend away from the rain.

When you add in that it only takes a few hours to fly to Malaga from every corner of the country, you could be in Spain and enjoying the sun by the time your train reaches its own, rather more expensive, destination.

Study Finds the Cost of Buying Property in Spain and Living is Cheaper in Southern Spain Over Northern Spain.

The United Kingdom has a north-south divide that can be found in politics, class, and even football rivalries. This north-south divide is something that is no longer found only in the UK.

A study done by Kelisto.es has found that Spain has a north-south divide of their own, especially in terms of the cost of living. It’s different from the UK divide, however, in that value for money is found down south.

            Cost of living in Spain

Research showed that the cost of living in Barcelona was as much as 30% higher than the national average cost of living. However down in the southern cities of Jaén in Andalucía and Cáceres near Extremadura the cost of living is over 10% lower than the average.

Higher living costs were found all the way across northern Spain including San Sebastián, Madrid, and Palma, the capital of Majorca.

The price of property is also cheaper down in southern Spain. It’s cheaper to both rent property in costa del sol and buy property in the south. An 80 m2 home in the northern states of Barcelona or San Sebastián would set you back on average between €241,000 to €328,000. In the south however it costs around €131,000.

Kelisto.se also looked at living costs and took daily living costs into account. These costs are how much tax people pay, the costs for public transportation in Spain, the cost of accommodation and petrol, the average price for daily essentials like bread and milk, and also the cost of leisure activities like tickets at the cinema and a meal for two including beer.

They took a look at 50 cities overall and there was a strong correlation between high wages and high costs of living in Spain.

The research showed that San Sebastián had a cost of living that was roughly 28% higher than the national average, but the average household income was also around 25% higher than the national average.

The inverse was also shown to be true. Teruel is the tenth cheapest city in the country where citizens pay approximately 8% less than the national average, but the average income there is also around 11% lower than the national average wage.