Europe’s cheapest holiday destination? The answer might surprise you
New research by Which? on the cost of summer holidays has thrown up a few surprises. In its search for the best-value packages this summer, it found that the Greek island of Kalymnos was the cheapest place to book, with an average price of £847 per person for a week’s stay, including flights and transfers, in early August. Two more Greek destinations – the island of Thassos at £862 and Lefkada at £935 – filled the next two spots, followed by the Costa Brava in Spain (£952).
Even more surprisingly, not a single resort in either Turkey or Portugal made the top 10. This is despite the fact that both countries have been flagged in other surveys recently as having the lowest local prices in holiday resorts.
So what do these results really tell us about finding the best-value holiday this summer? I have to say that they are genuinely surprising. It is not only counter-intuitive that “low-cost” countries like Turkey and Portugal don’t feature highly in the league table. I would also have expected, for example, some of the major destinations on Mallorca or the Costa del Sol to do well. After all, there is a massive range of accommodation and a huge number of flights available and you would expect that competition to pay dividends for the consumer.
But they have been outflanked by much smaller, quieter and much more attractive destinations. Kalymnos is a tiny island of quiet beaches and small resorts that you can only get to by ferry from its much busier, more developed neighbour, Kos. Thassos and Lefkada fall into a similar category of Greek islands (I know Lefkada isn’t quite an island, but it effectively counts as one).
Meanwhile, the string of resorts on Costa Brava is, in my book, comfortably the most attractive of all the Spanish mainstream destinations. What is more, Which? points out that even some of the best of these are cheaper than the more developed examples. Holidays in Malgrat de Mar, for example, is a cut above its more popular neighbour Lloret de Mar, yet Which? found it was Malgrat that offered the lower prices.
What the survey seems to reflect overall is the power that tour operators have when it comes to negotiating hotel rates and scheduling flights to other lesser-known destinations. For those who prefer to avoid the big popular names that attract high volumes of British tourists every year, that’s an attractive discovery. It is also a useful tip for bargain hunters.
But, as ever, we need to strike a cautionary note. It is not as simple as saying that smaller, lesser-known destinations always offer the best deals. The Venetian Riviera and the Amalfi Coast also did well on the Which? list. Perhaps the explanation for this is that the former, a British favourite in the 1970s, has perhaps fallen out of fashion, while the steep hills and small beaches of Amalfi are not great for families and less popular with British travellers in high summer.
We also have to be wary about the limitations of the research. Which? approached the subject with a very broad brush, analysing lots of data (some 4,500 holidays in 15 countries), but selecting those from only the two biggest tour operators – Jet2holidays and Tui. It was also a snapshot – only the prices in March for booking departures on or around August 3 2024 were considered. Price comparisons outside high season might well be different.
And, most importantly, it didn’t necessarily compare like with like. It included accommodation of all standards and didn’t distinguish between whether the price included room only, breakfast or half-board. So the results might be swayed by the fact that somewhere like Kalymnos might have much more basic accommodation than somewhere else or a tendency to offer room-only or B&B prices.
Finally, the old cheap and cheerful cliché does seem to have been borne out in one respect. A separate league table compiled by Which? that looks at the cost of all-inclusive holidays (which include all food and drink in the price) found much less variation between destinations. It was dominated by traditional budget destinations like Tenerife, the Costa Blanca and Bulgaria’s Black Sea Coast. For that type of classic sun-and-sand package it seems, high volumes and big hotels do seem to keep costs down.
Which? gathered the prices of 4,558 package holidays from the UK’s biggest tour operators – Jet2holidays and Tui – in March 2024. Analysis included Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal, Spain (including the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands), Turkey and the Channel Islands.
The average price is based on a seven-night holiday including flights and transfers, departing on or around August 3, based on two people sharing a standard double or twin room. Which? only included destinations with a minimum availability of holidays, and those in resort areas (rather than cities). Not all destinations were on sale with both Jet2 and Tui.
