Inside Spain: Sandwich tourism and unstoppable property prices

Spain is no longer the cheap holiday destination it was once famed for being, nor is it as affordable as it used to be for those of us who live here.

Residents are having to tighten their belts, and although international tourists generally have more cash to splash, they too are looking for ways to cut costs.

Enter the new trend of el turismo del bocadillo, sandwich tourism.

This term has been coined to describe the increasing number of holidaymakers who are opting to buy their meals from supermarkets and bakeries rather than sitting down at a restaurant.

READ ALSO: Is Spain seeing a drop in tourists this summer?

"There are tourists who now order an orange juice and drink it between the five of them," a bar manager in the Mallorcan mountain town of Sóller told El Diario.

Some restaurant owners attribute their decline in customers to the rise in holiday lets, which they claim attracts a lower-income clientele who prefer to buy food at the supermarket.

Others attribute this trend to the rising cost of flights and hotel stays, which leaves holidaymakers with less money to splurge on eating out.

And it’s not just in the glitzy tourist hotspots where visitors are not willing to break the bank for a few meals.

In the western city of Salamanca, bar and restaurant owners have also told the local press that the terraces in the iconic Plaza Mayor are empty, to the point where some have preferred to close for the summer.

“They may tell us that prices have increased in bars, and that's true, but what we're doing is passing on all the extra costs we pay - the drinks, the food, the utility bills," one restaurant owner told La Gaceta de Salamanca.

One user on Reddit commented on the article by saying “If they treat tourists like idiots, selling them mediocre dishes that they buy ready-made and charge them an arm and a leg for them, then don't complain. At least give the tourist a typical Spanish experience, with traditional quality food.”

The latest study by the Spanish public research institute CIS found that around half of Spaniards are only willing to spend between €15 and €30 a head on eating out.

It’s no surprise that many locals prefer to go for the fixed-price menú del día lunch option, but even this is seeing a hike in prices throughout Spain.

READ ALSO: Is Spain's beloved 'menú del día' at risk of disappearing?

Overall, so-called sandwich tourism is simply a consequence of the rising cost of living in Spain, which has certainly made holidays in the country impossibly expensive for many locals.

And that’s in a country where there already existed the expression hacer su agosto (literally ‘make one’s August'), an idiom used to refer to a period of time during which someone makes a lot of money without much effort and/or without scruples.

In other news, but also related to the rising cost of living, house prices in Spain rose nearly 12 percent in August 2025 compared to the same month last year, according to data published this Thursday by Spanish appraisal company Tinsa.

That means that if you were looking to buy a house a year ago that cost €200,000, it now costs €24,000 more on average.

Spain’s islands (Balearics and Canaries) continue to lead the way with a 16.5 percent increase in prices ​​that have now surpassed levels of the last decade’s property bubble.

But no matter where you look, prices are up: big cities and provincial capitals (up 12.9 percent), Spain’s Mediterranean coast (up 11.3 percent), other urban areas (+10.3 percent), and smaller municipalities (+8.1 percent).

And how about rents, you ask? They’re also only going in one direction, and it’s not down.

In August 2025, rents were 10.5 percent higher than they were a year ago, Idealista’s latest data points out, slightly surprising given that the trend in recent times has been for rent hikes to surpass property purchase prices.

Nevertheless, renting a property is more expensive now than a year ago in 47 of Spain’s 50 provincial capitals.

For the vast majority of people in Spain, or rather those that can afford it, buying is the lesser of two ‘evils’ currently.

Yes, prices have spiralled and you’re certainly not getting much bang for your buck at the moment in Spain, but will it get any better in a month, a year or ever?

Perhaps it’s no surprise that property purchases went up by 14 percent in July compared to the same month in 2024.

Spaniards are buying homes like hotcakes thanks to more lenient mortgage conditions and because they fear if they wait any longer, they won’t be able to afford it.