The cheapest holiday resorts

Study names Bulgaria as best value-for-money holiday resort, but is it best overall?

Bulgaria currently offers the best value for money for holidaymakers, according to the latest Holiday Costs Barometer from the Post Office.

It highlighted that prices at the country's top resort, Sunny Beach, have plunged for the second year in a row.

The basket of tourist staples that Post Office uses to compare the cost of top resorts has now dropped 28% in Bulgaria over the last two years thanks in part to the strength of sterling.

Here are the ten purchases that the Post Office tracks the price of:

a cup of coffee;
a bottle of local beer;
a bottle/can of Coca Cola;
a glass of wine;
a 1.5l bottle of mineral water;
a 200ml bottle of suncream;
insect repellent;
an English tabloid newspaper;
a two-course lunch for two;
a three-course evening meal for two with a bottle of wine.

The cheapest destinations

Let’s take a look at the how the different resorts performed according to the Post Office study.

Resort	Cost of holiday basket	Price change year-on-year
Sunny Beach, Bulgaria	£37.39	-13.6%
Algarve, Portugal	£44.02	-22%
Costa Del Sol, Spain	£47.90	-12.7%
Paphos, Cyprus	£54.81	-12.1%
Crete, Greece	£57.09	-14.1%
Corfu, Greece	£62.14	-19.7%
Palma, Majorca	£65.38	-15.6%
Marmaris, Turkey	£65.70	+21.4%
Various, Menorca	£67.02	-16.1%
Zadar, Croatia	£67.28	-16.5%
Sliema, Malta	£72.30	-12.5%
Nice, France	£85.81	-10.9%
Various, Ibiza	£95.65	-1.6%
Sorrento, Italy	£101.60	-0.4%

As you can see, while Bulgaria takes top spot, it’s the Algarve which has seen the most drastic change in local prices, with them dropping 22% in the last 12 months.

According to the Post Office, this is mainly due to a significant reduction in the cost of eating out. A two-course lunch in the Algarve will now set you back £12, while an evening meal will cost around £16 – less than half the price of some popular resorts like Ibiza and Sorrento.

Marmaris in Turkey is the only resort in the top ten where the cost of tourist staples has increased over the last year, jumping by more than 21%. That is despite the pound strengthening against the Turkish lira – a year ago £1 got you 3.59 lira, but today it will buy you 4.08 lira.

Both Corfu and Crete have seen big drops since 2014. Again this is mostly down to the cost of eating out, with an evening meal for two dropping 25% in Crete.

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What about flights?

The Post Office study is a good guide for how much you may spend once you’re on holiday, but what about the cost of getting there? I put together the table below using the travel search engine Skyscanner, based on a return flight from London in June, based on the nearest airport. All of the prices below are for direct flights only, except for Zadar.

Resort	Cost of flight
Sunny Beach, Bulgaria	£174 (Wizz Air)
Algarve, Portugal	£125 (Ryanair + Monarch)
Costa Del Sol, Spain	£95 (Ryanair)
Paphos, Cyprus	£95 (Ryanair)
Crete, Greece	£232 (EasyJet)
Corfu, Greece	£171 (EasyJet + Ryanair)
Palma, Majorca	£130 (Ryanair + EasyJet)
Marmaris, Turkey	£125 (Monarch)
Various, Menorca	£196 (EasyJet)
Zadar, Croatia	£194 (Lufthansa)
Sliema, Malta	£106 (Ryanair + EasyJet)
Nice, France	£83 (EasyJet + Norwegian)
Various, Ibiza	£120 (EasyJet + Monarch)
Sorrento, Italy	£140 (EasyJet + Meridiana)

So while Sunny Beach is the cheapest resort, getting there will cost you quite a bit. In contrast, flights to the Costa Del Sol, Paphos and Nice will cost less than £100.

There are plenty of ways to cut the cost of your journey though. Check out our How to get a cheap flight guide for some top tips.

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