On average, if you're prepared to buy your own picnic lunch, stay in inexpensive pensiones and hotels, and stick to local restaurants and bars, you could get by on £15-20/US$20-27 a day. If you intend to upgrade your accommodation, experience the city nightlife and eat fancier meals, then you'll need more like £40/$55 a day. On £50-60/$68-80 a day and upwards you'll be limited only by your energy reserves - though of course if you're planning to stay in four- and five-star hotels or Spain's magnificent paradores , this figure often won't even cover your room.

Room prices vary considerably according to season. In the summer you'll find little below ¬12 (£8/$11) single, ¬15 (£9.50/$12.50) double, and ¬15 single, ¬21 double (£13.50/$18) might be a more realistic average. Campsites start at around ¬2.40 (£1.50/$2) a night per person (more like ¬3-4.20 in some of the major resorts), plus a similar charge for a tent and a car respectively.

The cost of eating can vary wildly, but in most towns there'll be restaurants offering a basic three-course meal for somewhere between ¬4.50-9 (£3-5.50/$4-7.50). As often as not, though, you'll end up wandering from one bar to the next sampling tapas without getting round to a real sit-down meal - this is certainly tastier though rarely any cheaper. Drink, and wine in particular, costs ridiculously little: ¬6 (£3.80/$5) will see you through a night's very substantial intake of the local vintage.

Long-distance transport , if used extensively, may prove a major expense; although prices compare well with the rest of Europe, Spain is a very large country. Madrid to Sevilla, for example - a journey of over 500km - costs around ¬18 (£10/$15.30) by bus or train. Urban transport almost always operates on a flat fare of ¬0.75-1.50 (50p-£1/$0.65-1.30).

All of the above, inevitably, are affected by where you are and when. The big cities and tourist resorts are invariably more expensive than remoter areas, and certain regions tend also to have higher prices - notably the industrialized north, Euskal Herria, Catalunya and Aragón, and the Balearic Islands. Prices are hiked up, too, to take advantage of special events. Despite official controls, you'd be lucky to find a room in Sevilla during its April feria , or in Pamplona for the running of the bulls, at less than double the usual rate. As always, if you're travelling alone you'll end up spending much more than you would in a group of two or more - sharing rooms saves greatly. An ISIC student card is worth having - it'll get you free or reduced entry to many museums and sites as well as occasional other discounts - and an FIYTO youth card (available to anyone under 26) is almost as good.

One thing to look out for on prices generally is the addition of sales tax - IVA (usually pronounced "iba") - which may come as an unexpected extra (currently seven percent for hotels and restaurants, sixteen percent for other goods and services) when you pay the bill for food or accommodation, especially in more expensive establishments.