Spain has regained the crown as the cheapest European holiday destination for Brits, with the cost of eating out down 50% compared with five years ago, according to a survey.
It shares first place with Sri Lanka in the annual Post Office Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer – which compares in-resort prices for a shopping basket of eight items including drinks, suncream and a meal for two – as the best value places to stay out of 42 surveyed.
But if you're heading to Australia, the survey makes grim reading. Holiday essentials cost a remarkable four times the amount holidaymakers pay in Spain. The Post Office found that a typical meal out for two, with a bottle of wine, will set you back £106 in Australia compared with £22 on the Costa del Sol.
The good news for travellers on a budget is that prices are down in around a third of the destinations surveyed, with widespread cost-cutting by restaurants and bars. In Europe, for example, the basket of goods tested has fallen 18% in Greece (Corfu) to £57.50, making prices a third cheaper than Italy (Sorrento) at £87.06, the most expensive of six eurozone destinations surveyed.
Winter sun is now perhaps most affordable in Egypt, after a fall in prices of around 20% in resorts such as Sharm el Sheikh, where the basket of goods cost £56.02. Egypt is struggling to regain ground after the scenes of protests and revolution in Cairo's Tahrir Square deterred tourists. It is now 45% cheaper than mid-haul competitor Dubai, at £101.69.
In the Caribbean, resort costs have fallen sharply in Barbados, accounting for a 26% drop in the barometer basket to £84.24. By contrast, higher meal prices have made Jamaica 18% more expensive than last year, at £97.59.
Sri Lanka registered a 27% increase but remains cheapest of the 42 destinations, because a weaker currency helped to cushion the blow of significant price rises in the country's beach resorts.
The Czech Republic (£39.17) is in third place for the third consecutive year, followed by Bali (£40.47), which has leapt up from 12th place last year through a combination of lower resort prices and a weaker Indonesian rupiah. At number five, Vietnam (£43.20) is up five places on the back of lower meal prices.
Good news for bargain hunters is that prices have tumbled in Turkey, where meal prices are down 22%, probably because of fierce competition between restaurants after cuts in flight capacity brought fewer visitors during 2012. This took Turkey (£52.89) back into the top 10 for the first time since 2008.
Rising resort prices in Thailand (£58.31) mean that holidaymakers can expect to pay 22% more than 12 months ago and the destination has fallen from the top 10 to 16th place.
For city breaks, Eastern European cities sweep the board as best value destinations when compared with eurozone cities, according to the Post Office.
Low costs for meals, drinks, transport, sightseeing and accommodation, together with the pound's stronger buying power, give Prague, Budapest, Riga, Tallinn and Warsaw a clear price advantage over rivals in the west.
Prague and Budapest were less than half the price of Paris and Bruges, the most expensive. Accommodation was more than twice as expensive in five eurozone cities – Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and Bruges – than in Budapest, while meal costs in Prague were less than half the price of Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and Bruges.
The Post Office is tipping Lithuanian capital Vilnius as the next city break hotspot. It heads the Post Office list of emerging destinations based on the back of a 42% surge in sales of its currency (Lithuanian litas) during 2012, and Vilnius looks set to emulate the success of Estonia's Tallinn and the Latvian capital, Riga.
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