Madrid is the capital of Spain and definitely one of the most famous Metropolitan cities in Europe. I recently spent a couple of days there and would like to share my experience regarding how much money you need for a weekend in Madrid!
Some general comments
Flight cost excluded
I excluded the costs for our flight to Madrid from the expense analysis below, since this highly varies from your destination of origin. Personally, I flew from Zurich and I paid 243 CHF for a return ticket. I believe, that given the rising cost of tickets, this is an average price for an intra-European flight.
Everything paid by credit card
Secondly, I used my credit card for all transactions. Hence, the expenses also include a small exchange rate fee. I usually use Revolut – check it out, I can highly recommend this card for traveling! If you use a different card, your fees might differ and lead to slightly higher prices.
Costs in CHF
Since I am Swiss, my expenses are obviously all calculated in Swiss Francs. However, lucky for me the Swiss Franc is basically on par with the USD and the Euro. This means, if you’re currency of reference is any of these you can just take the numbers as they are without converting them!
Trip for two
I was travelling with a friend on this trip. That means, we were able to split the cost of our hotel room, as well as the Uber costs. Other than that, the costs for a solo or group trip should not vary greatly. I will break down the cost per person in this post, so whatever your preferred style of travel is you can take this number as a reference…
Trip costs correspond to 2 full days in Madrid
We arrived on Friday evening and left very early on Monday morning. In other words, we were there for 2 full days (a weekend), but stayed 3 nights.
Now let’s get to the interesting stuff!!
Here are the most important stats
| Category | Total Cost | % of Total cost |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | 243 | 73% |
| Transportation | 13 | 4% |
| Food & drinks | 79 | 23% |
| Total | 335 | 100% |
Excluding the flights, the weekend trip to Madrid therefore cost me 334 CHF. This averages out to approx. 167 CHF per full day, including accommodation – looking back, this seems quite high and not how we perceived Madrid! But let’s dig a bit deeper, shall we?
Accommodation
By far the biggest expense in this trip was the accommodation. We had two criteria for this: we wanted to be in the center, and we wanted a private room. Given this, the cheapest option that we were left with was the Hostal Oriente, which averaged out to approx. 81 CHF per person per night. I think this is quite expensive honestly, but at the time that we booked (which was about a month in advance), this was the only non-dorm option left. And this was during off-season, mind you!
Therefore, if you are on a really tight budget, there definitely are more affordable options out there if you don’t mind staying in dorms!
Food
Next up, food. We spent around 39 CHF per person per day on food. This includes all meals and any snacks throughout the day.
The most expensive meal was usually our dinner, at around 13 CHF per meal without alcoholic beverages. We always ate out for dinner, since there are so many restaurants in Madrid and we wanted to try some of them! We didn’t have proper lunches during our stay, since we wanted to explore more and spend less time sitting around. For snacks and beverages throughout the day we spent around 9 CHF per day. This include extra coffees, juices, ice cream, churros, etc… We did however always have a big breakfast with coffee, which also averaged around 9 CHF per meal.
We only had proper drinks (cocktails, to be precise) once at a rooftop bar. One drink cost us 16 CHF, but I would almost consider this rather as an experience/activity and not simply “food”.
In summary:
| Meal type | Average cost (in chf) |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | 9 |
| Snacks | 9 |
| Dinner | 13 |
Transportation
Our Uber upon arrival was included in our Hotel price. Hence, we only had to pay for one additional Uber drive to the airport when we were leaving Madrid. An Uber from the center to the Airport costs 25 CHF, split two-ways this only cost me approx. 13 CHF. Just FYI, there is a metro that goes to the airport which would be cheaper.
Other than that, in my opinion you will not spend more on transportation, since the city is very walkable.
Highest single costs
Let’s break down my top three highest single costs:
- Hotel: This is an obvious one, and one you can’t avoid. In my case that was 81 CHF per night or a total of 243 CHF for the entire stay.
- Drinks at Azotea del Circulo: We had drinks at this cocktail bar for sunset and one drink cost me 11 CHF. However, there is a mandatory entry fee of 5 CHF, which brings the total for this “activity” up to 16 CHF. Coming from Switzerland, this is still a reasonable price to pay for a drink haha!
- Dinner at Museo del Jamon: This was a Tapas style dinner and split between my friend and I we each paid 13 CHF. While this is still super super affordable for a dinner, the food was mediocre and probably not worth that much… Also important to note, we didn’t order any alcoholic beverages with this meal.
What I would do differently
Looking back, our accommodation cost seems quite high to me. Therefore, if you are planning a trip to Madrid I would advise to book your accommodation as far in advance as you possibly can. We were quite late with our reservation which left us with very few choices.
Final remarks
I hope this breakdown of my costs helps you estimate the budget for your own travels! In case you’re not sure what there is to see and do in the city, check out my weekend trip to Madrid itinerary here! If you’re curious about cost breakdowns of other destinations around the world check out this page here.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to chat <3