Turkey and Bulgaria have been named the cheapest holiday destination for Brits.
Even though the cost of living is rising, holidays abroad can still be done on a budget. The cost of a typical holiday in Sunny Beach in Bulgaria has risen since 2019 but it remains one the cheapest hotspots for UK travellers — the most expensive being Ibiza.
A holiday in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, and Marmaris, Turkey, will cost an estimated £86, according to Post Office Travel Money’s annual Family Holiday Report, the cheapest amongst 16 European holiday resorts.
The report’s Beach Barometer, produced with travel company TUI, calculated 12 common holiday expenses in the two resorts. In the costs, they included a family meal, drinks, sun cream, insect repellent and beach items — ranging from buckets and spades to lilos, ice-creams, and pedalo rides.
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Despite prices doubling in Marmaris since summer 2019, the collapse of the Turkish lira since has helped to reduce the impact. But in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria, Brits can expect to pay almost 11 per cent more than three years ago, as PA reporters found.
In comparison with the rest of Europe's popular resorts, the costs at Sunny Beach and Marmaris are still 20 per cent lower than the cheapest Eurozone hotspot, Portugal’s Algarve — which came in at £108 for the 12 items.
Funchal, Madeira, was next cheapest at £125, followed by the Costa Del Sol, Spain, at £127 and Corfu, Greece, at £133. With a cost of roughly £186 on the barometer came Ibiza, followed by Puglia, Italy, at around £185.
However, prices have fallen in both Ibiza and Puglia since 2019, by 4.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively, while the biggest price increase was seen in Crete — with a 37.7 per cent rise in prices — now costing around around £161.
The value of GBP has fallen, and is currently trading at 1.17 euros. This means that charges for meals and drinks will be higher and prices have now risen in three quarters of the 16 destinations included in the report. The average rise across those which saw increases was 13.3 per cent.
Nick Boden, Head of Post Office Travel Money, which accounts for one-in-four UK foreign exchange transactions, said: “Sterling’s recent fall against European currencies and ongoing uncertainty about how it will perform in the coming weeks means that keeping a tight rein on resort spending will be crucial for families this summer to avoid busting the holiday budget.
“We found big price variations in the 16 destinations surveyed, particularly across 13 Eurozone resorts. This makes it doubly important for holidaymakers to do their homework and budget carefully to cover costs in the holiday resort they are visiting. We also found that prices can vary dramatically between resorts in the same country. In Greece, for example, barometer costs were 17 per cent lower in Corfu than in Crete.”
The report also revealed that almost three-in-five families are planning trips abroad this year but over three-quarters of them bust their budget by almost 38 per cent on their last holiday, spending £243 extra on the average budget of £644 they had set.
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