How much spending money in Majorca

[mummyrocks1]

We, 2 adults, 2 dcs, and are going to Majorca for two weeks, one week each in a villa.

Planning on going to the supermarket to buy breakfast items and some booze and lunch items and the odd bbq but most lunches and dinners will be out. We will need petrol for the hire car and plan on exploring the island and buying ice creams etc

How much spending money will we need? I was thinking £1000 dh thinks more.

How much do you think?

It depends how old the DC are.
Teenagers, much more than £1000.
Really I never take "spending money" I just use a card for all purchases and draw cash out as required.

Dcs are 6 and 4. I am planning on taking one of those Pre loaded cards so need to have right amount on it. Need to budget rather than just spending

£1000 might be a struggle if you're eating out a lot. Mallorca can be quite expensive, but you can find cheaper places if you need to. We found Puerto Soller and Port Andratx especially expensive for eating out.

With younger DCs it might work if you mostly eat out at lunchtime and make most evening meals in the accomodation - barbecues, ready made pizza, bread/ham/cheese/olives/crisps etc. Just have a relaxing evening on the terrace, which often doesn't feel like you're missing out if you've been out and about all day and have already eaten out. Plus make sure you stock up on supermarket drinks and ice creams to avoid paying convenience/restaurant prices.

We usually have quite a decent breakfast and then either a late restaurant lunch (normal lunchtime in Spain is between 2 and 4 pm anyway and you can often get meals at any time of day in tourist areas) and then tapas or food in the accomodation in the evening.

Or we have something like a big ice cream or slice of pizza while out and about and then go out for a restaurant meal in the evening. So we're not buying two full restaurant meals a day, but that's too much food for me anyway.

If you need to budget and want to do things like aquarium or waterpark, obviously that could take quite a big chunk, so might be a reason to eat out a bit less, but also look for discount vouchers on leaflets in shops or tourist info place, or at the airport on the way in.

We're going to Greece for 2 weeks SC, taking £2000 and a credit card. The pound is so weak at the moment we're thinking at least E130 a day

There are a few Lidls in Mallorca, trouble is they are much nicer than here so we ended up buying loads of frozen seafood and wine and it worked out quite expensive. We tend to have a couple of days with picnics so we aren't eating out all the time. Otherwise eating out in nice restaurants is similar prices to here.

No, I don't think it's enough. That's £17 per person per day. What about activities / trips, and then your petrol as well.

We went to Spain last year and we're there for 12 days. We did breakfast in the apartment and had dinner at home a couple of times but generally ate out. We spent approx £2k although that did include about £300 on go karting and the water park
That also includes petrol in the car.

I'd say you need a bit more than £1000.

Prices are roughly similar to here. There's no way 4 people would be able to eat out twice a day in the U.K. for £500/week so I don't know why you think you'll be able to do it there!

You can usually top up those cards via an app can't you?

We spent 1k on five of us for 10 days in Mallorca last year.

But we had a lovely villa with pool and spent days just swimming and reading (teens)

Just back from Majorca and i would say very similar prices to the UK

We found one beach bar charging €24 for a toasted sandwich and fries but that evening had the most fabulous meal in a tapas restaurant for about €125 which included alcohol (for 4 adults)

As with most places, slightly off the main square/beach front will equal slightly cheaper prices.

For petrol, activities, snacks, lunch and dinner out daily , £1000 will not be enough, I'd bank on £2k

Eek- hadn t banked on it being so much. Will have to cobble it together. Thanks

For gods sake dont put it on a credit card like a PP! You don't have to eat out at every meal!

A Monzo card it will be going on.

If you read my original post I stated we would be having breakfast in and some bbqs.

Plus we will probably do picnics. It's not a holiday to me if I have to cook and wash up, I do that enough at home! So majority of meals will be out.

Ok then 1k is nowhere near enough.

For gods sake dont put it on a credit card like a PP
In fact a Halifax clarity credit card is the cheapest way to convert money because they don't charge a fee. That is the only time I would ever use a credit card to get cash because debit cards actually work out more expensive. You must, of course, pay off the full amount straight away. when used to draw foreign currency.
Martin Lewis explains

Much easier than faffing about with prepaid cards and you spend what you choose, no one will make you go over budget.

I would argue that the Starling debit card has overtaken the Clarity card as the card of choice for overseas spending as you don't have to worry about paying it off to avoid interest or keep within a credit limit, is also totally fee and commission free, or that some places don't accept or charge extra for credit cards and they pay 0.5% interest on credit balances.

We also have a Santander Zero card, which also has no fees and is good for putting the hire car deposit on, plus a backup to the main payment card. You can also get fee free cash in Spain from Santander cash machines (many others have started charging).

I've used my Clarity card for years, but it has now become redundant especially as they will only let me have a £1k credit limit, which is uselessly low for holidays. Santander card has a higher limit so much more useful.

BarbaraofSevillle
I suppose credit limits vary, my Halifax one has £7000 so the limit isn't an issue unless I paid for the holiday as well as spending money. The Starling card does look good, I might consider whether it's worth opening an account just for that.

OP, slightly off topic but i would ask for an automatic car especially if you’re thinking of going to the lighthouse ( cap de formentor?) or Soller. You really don’t want to be faffing with changing gear 2000 times on those roads!

Wanda Limits certainly do vary. I have other cards with limits of £7/8k and one that was about £12k before I asked them to reduce it but Halifax have always refused to increase the limit above £1000, and at one point they kept reducing it to £500. So as there are better cards out there, cancelling it completely is on my to do list.