At just over £110 for 10 typical holiday essentials or costs, including lunch and evening meals, snacks, drinks, sunscreen and insect repellent, Sunny Beach topped the annual Post Office Travel Money Family Report, for which it partnered with Tui.
Even after a 9.8% increase in costs, Sunny Beach beat Marmaris into second, with prices for the 10 items in the Turkish hotspot soaring by 17.6% over the past year to £116 owing to inflation.
Portugal’s Algarve region, meanwhile, was third (£124) even after a 18.4% year-on-year increase in prices – the biggest of all 16 destinations surveyed by the Post Office – with Paphos fourth (£144, +4%).
By contrast, Lanzarote in seventh (£155, -7.2%) saw the biggest fall in prices. Other destinations to experience price drops including Majorca (£166, -1.2%), Spain’s Costa del Sol (£138, -0.7%) and Crete (£180, -0.2%).
Crete, though, was the outlier among the four Greek destinations surveyed, being the only one where prices for the 10 essentials fell. In Corfu, the basket came to £167 (+11.3%); in Kos, it was £150 (+9.8%); and in Rhodes, the total came to £157 (+5.8%).
The most expensive of the 16 destinations studied was Ibiza where the 10 items came to £229 after a 14.7% increase in prices – more than double Sunny Beach, which claimed the best value title in 2019.
Phillip Iveson, Tui UK and Ireland’s commercial director, said: “It’s clear it’s not just the UK impacted by the cost of living, but despite this, the report shows there are still plenty of great-value destinations for families to choose from.”
The report was accompanied by a children’s beach barometer featuring six items, including buckets and spades, swimming masks and snorkels, which the Post Office found could set back a family of four between £153 and £279.
This time, Marmaris came in cheapest at £153, followed by Funchal (£169), Puglia (£172), Costa del Sol (£194), the Algarve (£197) and Sunny Beach (£199). The three most expensive destinations for the six items were Crete (£241), Croatia’s Porec (£248) and Ibiza (£279).
Another aspect surveyed by the Post Office and Tui was the cost of activities such as visiting a water park, which at the cheaper end of the spectrum came to £56 in Kos and £59 in Puglia. Ibiza (£118) and Porec (£133) once again came at the pricier end of the scale.
Iveson added Tui’s all-inclusive products continued to be in high demand as customers seek to control costs and budget accordingly for meals, activities and other items.
"Self-catering options continue to remain popular as well, reflecting a budget-conscious approach by British travellers who are opting for different holiday options that work for their personal circumstances."
