A price comparison of Split and Dubrovnik with other European destinations – how do our coastal cities add up?
As much as we hear about local citizens complaining about the prices of catering services, which seem to rise overnight in the most famous tourist centers, they are still quite far off from what guests are paying in other developed tourist metropolises.
Thus, prices for food or services in Split or Dubrovnik are two times lower than in Barcelona, Nice, Venice, Lisbon or Ljubljana. This is also why drinks, restaurants or cocktails are significantly more expensive in Split and Dubrovnik than, for example, in Prague, Warsaw, or Bratislava.
On August 29, 2017, Slobodna Dalmacija decided to take a look at Expatistan, an international portal that offers guests the opportunity to compare prices from all over the world for a whole range of services, purchases or consumption. The site is used by millions of travelers before they hit the road.
Expatisan displays prices for up to 516 different items and services, the local cost of living, local transportation and much more, and includes 2,189 cities in 215 countries. Every city listed can be compared to another.
Prices in Prague were taken as the reference value for the cost of living index because they ranked 70th on the list with a price index of 100, meaning all other cities can be compared to it. Although some services in the most developed tourist locations are considerably more expensive than listed on this page, Expatistan uses the average values.
Here is a look at Dubrovnik and Split, the most famous and most visited tourist towns along the Croatian coast this season, compared with the some of the most popular European tourist destinations.
Split and Dubrovnik are at least 20% cheaper than about ten European cities that are considered city-break destinations. This data was found when comparing typical tourist services like quick lunches, fast food, beer in a cafe and beer in a market, carbonated beverages at a cafe and a market, cocktail prices, dinner at a middle-class restaurant, and an unavoidable cappuccino on a terrace.
According to Expatistan, these services in Barcelona are 23% more expensive than in Split and 26% higher than in Dubrovnik. These services are also more costly in Venice (26%), Lisbon (13%), Nice (29%) Berlin (26%), and Budva (10%).
In Barcelona and Ljubljana, you will pay €13 for a quick tourist lunch, just as you would in Split, while in Dubrovnik it is a bit cheaper (€ 9) and in Lisbon, it is €12. Cocktails in Barcelona and Budva are more expensive by 30% when compared to Split – in Split, guests expect to pay around €6, while in Barcelona and Budva guests pay around €9.
In Venice, all hospitality services are 26% more expensive than in Split, but Dubrovnik’s cappuccino (€1.85) is higher on Expatistan than in Venice (€1.5). It is important to note that the price of a cappuccino in Venice will vary depending on whether you are drinking from a plastic or porcelain cup, sitting at a bar or table and the like.
Hospitality prices in Nice (Cote d’Azur), however, are 32% more than in Dubrovnik and 29% more than in Split.
Split and Dubrovnik are about 13% cheaper in hospitality when compared to Lisbon, 46% cheaper when compared to Dublin, and around 57% cheaper for all services when compared to Geneva.
The news is not so good, however, for guests arriving from Prague, where hospitality services are 11% cheaper than in Split and Dubrovnik. That said, lunch in Split is 23% more expensive than in Prague, a cocktail is 20% more expensive, and the biggest difference for Czechs is the price of beer, which is 70% higher in Dalmatian pubs. The prices are similar in Warsaw, which is 18% cheaper for these services than in Split and Dubrovnik, while Bratislava is 10% cheaper.
All in all, tourists coming from Western and Northern Europe can still enjoy more affordable services in Croatia, unlike those coming from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland who pay much more on the Adriatic coast than they do in their own countries.
Translated from Slobodna Dalmacija
