Alicante, Spain cost of living. We cover rent, health care, groceries, entertainment, phone data, transportation, monthly recurring, and miscellaneous costs. We include budget-minded travel tips for ex-pats everywhere.
We are traveling the world in search of a place we can see ourselves spending extended periods of time or a place we could see calling home. Join us as we discuss Alicante and the surrounding area up Costa Blanca, Spain.
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42 Comments
927$ is not terrible at all, if you have your utilities included in the price, since if you were to add electricity, water, heating, and "community fees" on top of those theoretical 600$, it wouldn´t be much cheaper than that. Not to mention renting a flat in Spain without a job can be a bit of a nightmare, and/or force you to pay up to 6 months in advance…
What I don´t understand is how are you planning to spend "3 months to a year" in Spain, unless you have legal residence. It´s up to 90 days tops, and I don´t think you can leave the country and reenter the next day either…
Best.
Hi Brian & Carrie. Many thanks for your informative vlogs on Alicante.
We are from the UK and have had a holiday home in the Southern Costa Blanca for the last 7 years. We’ve just sold the house and bought an apartment in Alicante Centro (we move in later this month – again as a holiday home). It’s very central – close to Luceros.
We love the “little big City” as it has everything and also very good transport systems for visiting other places.
Hopefully you’ll be back to Alicante soon and we can catch up😊
Enjoy the rest of your adventure!!
Graham & Lou
$1789!!! What a deal for living the early retirement dream! Love you both! 😍 much
Great info. We needed a phone plan during our visit. Next time…I know. I need to also look into idealista for a long-term rental (6 months) as we look for a home to buy in Spain.
Thanks for all the great videos! We'll probably be traveling in your footsteps. Can you tell me what type of converter you're using for your electronic devices?
Thanks again for the medical and phone info. We are learning a lot from you both.
Great information guys. 🙏👏😀. Great job managing your cost of travel to a less than $2000 per month. It is sad but in the states it cost us more than that for medical insurance per month 🥲 and that does not include copays and deductibles 🥲.
What type of visa do plan on getting for your longer stay? I was going to move to Spain, but even with a Nom-Lucrative Visa they will charge me 25% tax on my income which is SS and a military disability pension. Both combined put me just over the required amount for a full time visa but not if they take a quarter of it every year.
Great video – thanks for all the wonderful wisdom and insight!
Would you mind sharing a "linked"/info on the International Health Care plan you have found you trust and are happy with?
Spain is the great unknown for North America, the Spanish know how to enjoy the small pleasures of life and our great Country with its spectacular landscapes, gastronomy and varied climate. All the best
We really appreciate and enjoy your videos, as we're on a plan for really retirement in 5yrs. Curious about your healthcare plan. Is that just for major medical? We're budgeting $1,000 for the two of us, but that's anticipating full coverage.
Airbnb is very expensive for live more than one month, you can find small flats for 600 euros month all year, this mean 7200 euros year, even you can buy one small flat, in Idealista you can find for 100.000 euros small apartments, you pay 25,000 euros and then 250 euros for month of mortgage in 20 or 25 years, while you are not using this flat you can rent in airbnb…;-)
Hey Carrie & Brian, did you prefer Valencia or Alicante overall?
How much is laundry or am I just a very practical person
I wanted to purchase residence property at alicante…
how much cost will expense
Comparing to US rooms, European rooms are small. Th ratio of space utility/rent is higher than in US. I would cut the rent by living a way from center and enjoy eating out more to maximize the Spain experiences. Thx for sharing.
You quickly mentioned a European version of Aibnb that was cheaper; could you provide the name or the link?
Thank you!
This is the video I’ve been looking for
Thank you 😎👍🏽
Really enjoyed this video. It was lovely to see such a nice, civilized lifestyle with the best of city and beach, great bars, markets,, architecture, etc. You did a great job both giving a sense of the city's personality and giving all the practical details. When you started off by saying your rent was over $900 I really thought your final figure would have been much higher. Alicante might not have been on my radar but now it is…
what medical insurance do you use?
I think I stayed at the same apartments as you. Andres's place? Really friendly and helpful guy. I'm British though living in Amsterdam and I visit Alicante 2-3 per year. By the way, there are much cheaper Airbnb's to be had there. I stayed at a great place with a rear sun terrace near the train station for almost half what I would pay right in town. Anyway, always good to see your videos. Take care.
Hi guys….planning on moving to Spain in November so doing my homework and found you! Thanks so much.
Thanks for sharing the cost ! Would love to visit Spain
Seems to me to be getting very expensive over here
Alicante is great to wine & dine. It is not expensive and tastes great. And most likely you can find restaurants with a menu del dia. That is always a three course diner including wine and water for around 16€ pp
When you say dollars do you men euros? 🙂 Just wanting the know the currency 🙂
We are targeting these places; england, greece, spain, italy, turkey, latin america and the south east asian countries. What your doing right now is giving us a lot of advantages ahead of time, so thank you too for sharing.
Can you pls. talk to us about access to cash or how you do it on a regular basis? thank you. According to Mick & Trudie they did not open an account in Turkey and transferring money from UK to their place now is a bit of a hassle.
what was the name of the arbnb you stayed at?
Can you give more information on your health insurance?
We want to do the same !! You are an inspiration !! Thank you for sharing your experience ! I have a question , if you need medical control for your hypertension or Thyroid medication, how would you do with the medical Insurrance? Is it possible to have that ?
Where are you now? I live in DC planing on moving to Spain. Have you checked out Malaga Estepona to be specific.
I have lived in España for twenty years, down the coast from Alicante. I love the water front area of the town the wavy pavement, the Ban-Yan trees and the narrow back streets full of restaurants and bars. Alicante and the Provence is wonderful. I ride a motorcycle in much of it.
They don’t have unlimited data plans for cell phones?
Curious…which global insurance company are you using? Thanks in advance.
Love it!
Hello there
I love your vlog! Very informative. In which part of Alicante did you stay? We are visiting Alicante by November.
Hi! Did you guys find any English worship in alicante? Thank you!
Where is your 'next stop'?
You might be interested in Frugal Travellers (NZ UK couple) video about cost savings when house / pet sitting in Portugal… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdmx6tYvu8Y
What global insurance company/plan do you use?
i live there since semptber 2021 its so nice 🙂