# Buying glasses-UK or Spain



## Cathycl

Good Morning
does anyone have experience of buying glasses in Spain and uk as to cost comparison? If Spain is cheaper how would I go about buying a pair of prescription glasses whilst on holiday? I come to Spain a couple of times per year but would I be able to use a uk prescription or would I need to have an eye test in Spain before purchasing glasses
Many thanks


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## Horlics

You can easily make a comparison because Specsavers are in Spain and stock the frames they do in the UK. They're cheaper in Spain and yes, they'll use your UK prescription. I bought some new ones last week using a prescription I got in the UK in December.


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## Gazeebo

I recently bought a pair of reading glasses in Spain. The eye test was free and thorough, the same as it is in England. The glasses were cheaper because they were on special offer and the exchange rate was good! You need to have a look at the deals and weigh up the differences between your usual optician in England and then your chosen one in Spain. I was very happy with the service I got here in Spain.


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## Alcalaina

I've found that glasses are more expensive in Spain, especially varifocals. What I do now is get a free prescription in Spain and then order the glasses online from Glasses2you. They are amazingly good value and have a no-quibble returns policy, but I've never had to return any. They will also put new lenses into old frames and vice versa.


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## snikpoh

Spectacles are very expensive in Spain.

However, I tried Specsavers in Javea and will never go there again (I've heard similar complaints from other forum members). 

I now use Direkt Optik | Special offers where I get 3 pairs for the price of 1 (not 2 for 1 like specsavers). Three pairs cost me 350€ for photochromatic, coated lenses, a pair of varifocals for my wife plus reading glasses for my son.


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## GallineraGirl

We have always had excellent service from Specsavers in Javea. We have used them for several years.


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## baldilocks

I never used a dispensing optician in UK. Got my eyes checked and a prescription issued from a private ophthalmologist and took it to an optical technician - he's the one who makes the spectacles for most independent opticians. Similarly for dentures - go to a dental technician who would have been the one to make them anyway, you just cut out the middle-man.

I would tend to avoid those places where they claim to have you in and out in an hour or so. Their priority is to meet their boast, irrespective of the quality of the workmanship.


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## Horlics

I went Specsavers in Javea and they were fine. 

I've just checked the Specsavers site in the UK to see what it would have cost for the same things I bought from them in Spain a couple of weeks ago.

Spain: 240 Euros
UK: 188 Pounds

I was wrong to say it was cheaper, there's nothing in it.


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## xabiaxica

snikpoh said:


> Spectacles are very expensive in Spain.
> 
> However, I tried Specsavers in Javea and will never go there again (I've heard similar complaints from other forum members).
> 
> I now use Direkt Optik | Special offers where I get 3 pairs for the price of 1 (not 2 for 1 like specsavers). Three pairs cost me 350€ for photochromatic, coated lenses, a pair of varifocals for my wife plus reading glasses for my son.


I only went once, not long after they opened, out of curiosity. I had a recent prescription for contact lenses from my usual optician & wondered if Specsavers might sell them cheaper. 

They wanted to charge me for an eye test - and for a contact lens trial even though I had been wearing lenses for over 20 years - & their lenses were more expensive for the same brand. 

They wouldn't simply fill the prescription for me 

So I walked out & have never returned. I stayed with the tried & tested Spanish optician we've used ever since we moved here.


As i say, that was when they first opened so they might have changed now


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## Gazeebo

Gazeebo said:


> I recently bought a pair of reading glasses in Spain. The eye test was free and thorough, the same as it is in England. The glasses were cheaper because they were on special offer and the exchange rate was good! You need to have a look at the deals and weigh up the differences between your usual optician in England and then your chosen one in Spain. I was very happy with the service I got here in Spain.


Forgot to say, I went to Specsavers in Javea. However, in England I go to an independent optician.


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## xabiaxica

Gazeebo said:


> Forgot to say, I went to Specsavers in Javea. However, in England I go to an independent optician.


I'm now curious as to why you didn't choose an independent optician in Jávea?


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## The Skipper

I had awful experiences with two different branches of Specsavers in the UK and vowed never to use them again. However, after discovering how much the Spanish opticians in my part of Spain were quoting for new glasses I was tempted to make the long journey to Javea after seeing Press advertisements for the Specsavers branch there. That was seven years ago and I have been going back ever since. Excellent and highly professional service and always a competitive price. I am surprised to hear myself saying this, but I would thoroughly recommend them!


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## Elyles

I agree that prices for glasses are ridiculous here. I just want a simple pair of no line bifocals with photochromic lenses and here they cost around 500€. I talked with a friend of mine, an optician in the US and he said that the Spanish use three types of ranges on bifocals that are no more than sales tricks. Where might I go in Zaragoza, a large city to get eyeglasses?


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## baldilocks

Elyles said:


> I agree that prices for glasses are ridiculous here. I just want a simple pair of no line bifocals with photochromic lenses and here they cost around 500€. I talked with a friend of mine, an optician in the US and he said that the Spanish use* three types of ranges on bifocals* that are no more than sales tricks. Where might I go in Zaragoza, a large city to get eyeglasses?


Sounds like he was talking through his fundamental orifice. What he is describing is a Tri-focal lens and it has nothing to do with sales tricks. Here I have found that Varifocal lenses - they are ones that go from close through middle to long distance as you lift your eyes from the natural reading position (down) through middle distance to long distance (straight ahead) with no definite boundary between the zones are cheaper than UK. The last pair I bought (Varifocal, photochromic, anti reflective coating) were about 330€ (excluding frames - I had a pair of old frames reglazed) from the village opticians.


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## Alcalaina

baldilocks said:


> The last pair I bought (Varifocal, photochromic, anti reflective coating) were about 330€ (excluding frames - I had a pair of old frames reglazed) from the village opticians.


That's why I use the online service. I was quoted €420 for varifocals at a Spanish chain, including frames, so I asked for the prescription (which they legally have to give you) ad got them made at Glasses2You for £130 including postage. I sent them an old pair so they could check the "fit", which were returned to me along with the new ones within a fortnight.


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## Elyles

Alcalaina said:


> That's why I use the online service. I was quoted 420 for varifocals at a Spanish chain, including frames, so I asked for the prescription (which they legally have to give you) ad got them made at Glasses2You for £130 including postage. I sent them an old pair so they could check the "fit", which were returned to me along with the new ones within a fortnight.


Did you have them shipped here? Was it costly? I downloaded the contact. Thanks.


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## Alcalaina

Elyles said:


> Did you have them shipped here? Was it costly? I downloaded the contact. Thanks.


Yes, as I said the price included postage from the UK which was about €6.


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## The Skipper

baldilocks said:


> Sounds like he was talking through his fundamental orifice. What he is describing is a Tri-focal lens and it has nothing to do with sales tricks. Here I have found that Varifocal lenses - they are ones that go from close through middle to long distance as you lift your eyes from the natural reading position (down) through middle distance to long distance (straight ahead) with no definite boundary between the zones are cheaper than UK. The last pair I bought (Varifocal, photochromic, anti reflective coating) were about 330€ (excluding frames - I had a pair of old frames reglazed) from the village opticians.


Should have gone to Specsavers - two pairs of new glasses with that spec, including frames, for that price!


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## country boy

My wife uses Specsavers in Fuengirola and is very happy with them....very competent, professional and the price is right!


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## Elyles

country boy said:


> My wife uses Specsavers in Fuengirola and is very happy with them....very competent, professional and the price is right!


Unfortunately, there is none in Zaragoza nor Huesca


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## snikpoh

The Skipper said:


> Should have gone to Specsavers - two pairs of new glasses with that spec, including frames, for that price!


... or Direkt Optik and get three pairs ...


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## Cathycl

*Thank you*

Hi many thanks to everyone who replied. I am staying in Los bolliches later this year so will have a look at spec savers in the uk and glasses cost, and then compare with the spec savers in fuengerola. Can someone let me know where the spec savers is in fuengerola? 
Thanks all


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## Rabbitcat

Don't get me started about eye tests!

I wanted to be an air traffic controller but heard that their eyesight test was very tough. From their recruitment office, they have you look out the window and see if you can spot small items quite a distance away.

As my sight isn't great-I had an idea - the night before my interview / eye test I stuck a pin in a tree across a field from the office. I thought when they came to test my sight I could claim , hey I can even see a pin in that tree over there.

Next day at the test the examiner asked me to look out the window. " No need to test my sight" I told him " I can even see a pin stuck in that tree out there"

He told me in order to prove my claim, to go out to the tree and bring him the pin . 

On the way across the field I fell over a cow......


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## country boy

Cathycl said:


> Hi many thanks to everyone who replied. I am staying in Los bolliches later this year so will have a look at spec savers in the uk and glasses cost, and then compare with the spec savers in fuengerola. Can someone let me know where the spec savers is in fuengerola?
> Thanks all


Calle Ramon y Cajal, very close to the bus station. If you look down that road from the bus station you'll see their sign about 50 yards down on the right. Los Boliches Train Station is shut at the present time incidentally, this might affect your travel plans.


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## Cathycl

country boy said:


> Calle Ramon y Cajal, very close to the bus station. If you look down that road from the bus station you'll see their sign about 50 yards down on the right. Los Boliches Train Station is shut at the present time incidentally, this might affect your travel plans.


Hi thanks for the reply. I know the street so will find them when I am over. Noticed the train station was getting a make over when I was there in Jan- coming over again June so hope that it may be complete by then....


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