You have decided that you want to learn Spanish and you know that there can be no better a place to learn than in Spain itself. Of course going abroad to learn a new language can be very costly so what we would like to do here is to help you decide which would be the best destination in Spain to study Spanish while trying to keep the costs down to a minimum.
Finding cheap flights from Scandinavia to Spain
The first thing we have to consider is the cost of the airfare as that is a major chunk right there, but it need not be if you do your research well and look to see which low-cost carriers fly from Scandinavia to Spain.
Below you can find more information about cheap flight from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium to Spain and if you are looking for advice about finding cheap flights from the UK and Ireland to Spain see our previous post Budgeting Your Language Trip – Our In-depth Flight Guide.
You have many websites to choose from when it comes to sourcing prices or buying tickets but two of the best we can recommend are Skyscanner and Wegolow both of these sites will show you the best prices availably from your departure city to Spain. It is also sometimes worth departing from an airport that is not the closest to your home or arriving in a city that is not your final destination.
A good example of this is that you want to fly to Barcelona but the ticket is too expensive have a look at an airport near by which is Girona a hub of Ryanair from where you can catch a bus directly from the airport to the city centre of Barcelona for 25€ roundtrip. The same thing applies when flying into other airports in Spain check for flights to other nearby citys.
While we know that everyone’s idea of Spain other than the major cities is a place to go on your summer holidays all the airlines know this and increase their prices subject to the demand they also raise their prices during school holidays as they know they have a group of people who cannot travel at any other time.
You can use this to your advantage and save a lot of money by going on a language course during the winter, as not only will your airfare be cheaper but you can save money on the gas and electric you would have been using back home to heat your house or flat.
The average daytime temperature for Malaga on the Costa del Sol in January is 16°C dipping down to 8°C during the night which if you compare to Stockholm in Sweden where the average daily temperature is -3°C during the day dropping to -5°C at night, southern Spain must feel almost tropical.
The warmer winter weather of course has the opposite effect on airfares when it comes to the Canary Islands of Tennerife and Gran Canarias with people looking for winter sunshine without the long-haul flight to the Carribean or Dubai. With eternal spring like sunshine the Canary Islands, and particular Gran Canarias can be busty year round, but if you are looking for a deal on airfare and accommodation the best months to go are May-June and then September –October.
All the airlines below offer low-cost flights from Scandanavia to almost every airport in Spain, to search for cheap fares and special offers just click on the images below.
Low cost airfares to Spain from France, Germany, Holland and Belgium
Here you can find information about cheap airlines that travels from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium to Spain:
Volotea
Volotea is a low-cost airline based in Barcelona. Since April 2012, it has been providing cheap flights from Bordeaux and Nantes in France to Spanish destinations, like Ibiza, Malaga, Palma, Tenerife, and Valencia.
Vueling
Vueling is Spain’s second largest airline today after it merged with Clickair, which used to be its competitor. From France, the low-cost carrier has Spain-bound flights in Brest, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, and Strasbourg. In Germany, the airline has flights to Barcelona and Madrid from Munich and Berlin, respectively. It has flights to Valencia from Brussels, Belgium, and to key Spanish destinations from Amsterdam and Groningen in Netherlands.
Ryanair is currently Europe’s largest low-cost airline. In France, the low-cost carrier has flights to Spain from Bordeaux, Marseille, and Paris. If you are flying from Germany, you can catch a Spain-bound flight in Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Karlsruhe-Baden, Memmingen, and Weeze. There are also low-cost flights from Brussels in Belgium, and in Eindhoven and Maastricht in Netherlands
One of the most popular low-cost flight providers in Europe, easyJet is a favourite among business travellers as they were the first one to remove limited weight for hand luggage. Aside from France, the airline also caters to passengers from Schoenefeld, Germany to Spain.
Transavia
The Air France-KLM-owned lost-cost airline, Transavia boasts itself to be the pioneer of online check-in for low-cost airlines like them. This low-cost carrier has flights from Nantes and Paris in France, and in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Rotterdam in Netherlands.
Details about the prices of flights from these low-cost carriers may not be a fixed figure because it varies from time to time, but definitely, these airlines are where you can get the cheapest flights to Spain for your Spanish language courses.
Other ways to save money
Another huge consideration to take into account if you are looking to study Spanish in Spain and save money is to pick your destination carefully. The big city’s like Barcelona and Madrid will be much more expensive than say Salamanca or Cadiz you will not only pay more for your accommodation but prices on food and drink will be higher as well because people need to earn more in order to live there. Another added cost would be getting around the town to and from the school using public transport, whereas in the smaller city’s you would be able to walk to and from school.
Also places like Seville and Granada sound like a great place to study, and of course they are but they are also on the tourist trail with the most visited site in Spain being the Alhambra in Granada, and where ever tourists go prices are sure to rise along with them.
Another great tip on how to save money while studying in Spain is to become Spanish, and when we say become Spanish we mean that you should try and live like they do by shopping in the local markets for all your fruit and vegetables.
For other items try the Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona, who are one of the few company’s in crisis ravaged Spain that is thriving thanks to its low prices and the fact that they do not waste any money on advertising. They have also taken every daily staple that people need and have squeezed their suppliers for the best possible prices that are then sold to the consumer for less money than you can find in any other retailer. The products are all sold under the brand name Hacendado and are of top quality.
You will of course want to eat out on occasion, and again here do as the Spanish do having their main meal of the day at 2pm before their Siesta which is a short nap after lunch. In all but the big city’s Spain still comes to a halt between 2pm and 5pm during the hottest part of the day with everyone going home to join the family for lunch.
In 1965 during Franco’s dictatorship the Spanish government in a way to provide a nutritious meal for the workers and to add value to the ever increasing tourist trade decreed that every restaurant offer a set price three course meal that would be affordable for everyone which quickly became known as the Menu del Dia (meal of the day).
Today the Menu del Dia is as popular as ever for a price of around 6-10€ you get either a soup or salad, followed by a choice of two or three main courses, and then a desert.
The days menu and price will be chalked up outside on a blackboard allowing you to decide where you would like to eat based on that days menu and price. For the best deals on Menu del Dia’s steer clear of any areas that are frequented by tourists, with the best food and prices normally found in industrial areas or close to the port.
You are also of course going to want to try some of Spain’s famous tapas and again here look at the blackboards outside the bars as many of them will offer what the call a tapa and quinto for 1.50€ (a quinto is a fifth of a litre of beer).
If you are planning an inexpensive night out go to one of a chain of fast service restaurants called 100 montaditos (a montadito is a small bread roll) who as the name suggests have a hundred different filling for these little sandwiches. 
In Barcelona for example the usual price for una jarra, or pint, of draft beer in the city centre is anywhere from 3.50€ right up to 7€, yet at 100 montaditos you can get a pint of Spanish Mahou beer for just €1 when you buy a montadito (little sandwich) for €1 or, if you choose not to buy a montadito, you’ll pay €2. It is such a great deal it is no wonder all the other bars hate them as they just cannot compete with the price.
The best night to go is on a Wednesday as every item on the menu is only 1€.
We hope that these tips will help you save some money when you come to Spain to study, and remember shop around for your best deal on airfares.
