Barcelona is a bargain
With the dollar going strong, Europe-bound Americans are sitting pretty
Cathie Golden takes a European vacation each year with her sister and their children.
This year they chose Barcelona and Madrid. For the first time in more than a decade, the euro is almost equal in value to the dollar, which makes Spain and other European cities more affordable to Americans than even some domestic destinations.
“We’ve been shopping up a storm because of it,” Golden says, showing off a new pair of sneakers. “Here you’re just throwing money around.”
The family stops into the Hotel Colon in the Gothic Quarter for drinks. They are surprised when two glasses of white wine and a beer cost as much as one drink in a New York City hotel. Their train tickets to Madrid are less than seats on an Amtrak train from New York to Washington, D.C. A 15-minute cab ride to the beach is 10 euros.
Golden, who lives in the New York area, has good reason to throw money around. TripAdvisor’s TripIndex Europe, released last week, found travel expenses for popular European destinations have dropped an average of 11% year-over-year. Travelers will be able to save as much as 25% on their summer trips.
Booking.com has found that Americans may even pay less for accommodations in Europe than one in the USA.
For instance, a 14-day stay here in Barcelona can cost as much as a seven-day stay at a comparable hotel in Palm Springs, according to Booking.com’s calculations.
“What may have once seemed unaffordable is now an attractive option for U.S. travelers,” says Joseph Moscone, senior manager of public relations for the Americas at Booking.com. “Compared to some popular domestic destinations, Europe is actually more affordable for many travelers given the weaker euro currency.”
BARGAINS IN BARCELONA
Spain is pulling itself out of a long recession. The job market is still depressed, and consumer spending is ticking back up. It’s still not a completely rosy picture, but destinations make money off tourists, and in that regard, Spain is looking promising.
The Barcelona Tourism office has already seen an increase in visitors from around the world. The number of U.S. visitors to Barcelona hotels increased 4.3% in 2014 from the previous year to 654,131.
Seeing Spain as an opportunity, I decide to book a trip there Easter week. I find a round-trip ticket on TAP Portugal from Newark International Airport to Barcelona for $800.80 with a connection in Porto, Portugal. I can’t recall the last time I paid less than $1,000 for airfare to Europe in the decade I have been traveling there annually.
When I land, I head to the Barcelona tourism office at the airport to buy the new two-day Barcelona Card Express, which entitles me to free metro and bus rides and discounts on popular attractions such as Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. It costs 20 euros, or a little more than $20.
If you ride the metro and bus for two days straight, the card pays for itself. In one day, I take the metro five times.
I don’t find all the discounts that rewarding. The card entitles me to a 1-euro discount at the Sagrada Familia — if I take an audio-guided tour. I forgo my discount and go for the regular admission with my iPhone as a handy guide.
At Casa Batlló, which Gaudi redesigned in 1904, I get a three-euro discount. At La Pedrera, a UNESCO Word Heritage site that is one of Gaudi’s magnificent creations built between 1906 and 1912, I get a 20% discount. Both are amazing examples of architectural innovation.
My admission gets me a tour of one of the apartments, which recreates the home of a Barcelona bourgeois family of the early 20th century.
In modern-day life, I am pleasantly surprised by the cost of food and drinks and hotels in Barcelona. I splurge during my first nights at Preferred Hotel Group’s Hotel Murmuri on the bustling Rambla de Catalunya.
A night at the charming boutique hotel runs me 186 euros on Booking.com, or about $197. The average rate there is 249 euros. General Manager Gemma Ravasi says bookings from American customers are up 10% over this time last year.
The exchange rate makes me more willing to spend money on activities such as a food tour with Culinary Backstreets. Paula Mourenza, a Spaniard, is my guide. The price is $135, but it is worth it, as I spend a full day eating and drinking with a local and knowledgeable expert on food.
MaryJo Carbonara and her daughter Alyssa have a similar experience. I meet them as they pose for photos on the Pedrera rooftop. They’ve been traveling around Italy and Spain for more than a week. They find the trip so affordable that they decide to take a guided tour to Tuscany. It costs about $100 a person, but they get to visit several towns.
“People say Europe is more expensive,” Carbonara says. “I don’t think so.”