If you judge a city by the cost of a beer, a pack of cigarettes, and a night out, Spain still compares well — although there are a few price shocks hiding in the details.
Deutsche Bank’s Mapping the World’s Prices 2025 doesn’t stop at wages, rent, and housing costs. It also looks at everyday indulgences and small luxuries: beer, wine, cigarettes, cocktails, fast food, and cinema tickets.
So how do Spain’s major cities score on the global “fun” scale? In short: cheaper than London or Paris, but no longer the steal they once were.
Beer and wine: holding their ground
Starting with the basics. A draft beer in a typical bar in Madrid or Barcelona costs roughly €3–€3.50, while a supermarket bottle of table wine averages around €4. That’s well below the €6–€8 pints common in London, Amsterdam, or Zurich — and a fraction of what shoppers pay in the US or Nordic countries.
Wine, in particular, remains Spain’s standout. You can still buy a genuinely good bottle for less than the price of a single glass in many other European capitals.
Cocktails: no longer cheap
Step up to cocktails and the mood changes. In Madrid or Barcelona, expect to pay around €12 for a mixed drink. That’s still under prices in cities like New York or Singapore, where €20-plus is common, but it signals a shift. Nights out — especially in fashionable neighbourhoods — are no longer budget-friendly by default.
Fast food and films: creeping up
A Big Mac meal now sits close to €9, and two cinema tickets in major Spanish cities will cost around €18–€20. Internationally, that puts Spain squarely in the middle: cheaper than much of Western Europe, but a long way from the bargain era of two decades ago.
Smoking: pricier and less popular
Cigarettes have seen some of the sharpest increases. A pack now costs about €5.50–€6 — still below France or the UK, where prices exceed €12, but climbing steadily as taxes rise and smoking continues to fall out of favour.
Bottom line
Spain is still a relatively affordable place to enjoy yourself — but the margin is shrinking.
- Wine remains excellent value.
- Beer is reasonable, but no longer dirt cheap.
- Cocktails and cinema nights hit the wallet harder.
- Cigarettes cost more and offer less appeal.
Overall, Spain continues to offer decent value for leisure, especially for visitors and foreign residents. For locals earning Spanish wages, though, even the simple pleasures are starting to feel more expensive.
