Why it still pays to holiday abroad - rather than at home
There are only three countries in Europe that are more expensive than the UK for an Airbnb or similar holiday let.
Millionaire's playground Monaco, pricey Switzerland and trendy Iceland are all more expensive - but most of Europe is much cheaper than England, Wales or Scotland.
It’s a similar story for UK hotels, where you’ll struggle to find a decent room for less than £150 a night in some popular destinations.
Choose a week’s package holiday to Spain, Portugal or Greece and - despite all the stories about airfares soaring - you can still find deals that won’t be much more than seven nights in an unexceptional British hotel.
South Devon vs southern Spain
Salcombe, in one of the most beautiful parts of the South West, is a lovely place, with upmarket boutiques and hotels to match. But seven nights there - for the hotel alone - would cost you around £1,505. That’s an average for the whole year. In the height of the summer it would be much more.
A week in a hotel in Fowey, Cornwall, is £1,169 on average, and in St Andrews, Scotland, it’s £1,085 - again across the whole year.
When we checked package holidays for Spain (hotel stays with flights included), we found prices started at £349pp - less than £700 for a couple sharing, with bed and breakfast. That’s at peak time - the first week in August. Average prices were £906pp - £1,812 for a couple.
The cheapest all-inclusive packages we found for Spain were £1,614 for a couple, so again, not much more expensive than seven nights in a hotel in South Devon.
If you don’t mind the intense heat, a week’s package in Seville in August is £1,000 for two people sharing. That’s much cheaper than a small (up to two rooms) Airbnb in Devon as a whole, which would set you back £1,253 on average.
If you want a UK holiday that can compete on cost with flying abroad, Northern Ireland or Lancashire might be your best bet.
Seven popular destinations where a week’s Airbnb costs more than £1,200
Destination | Average price per night Airbnb / Vrbo (up to two rooms) |
Average small Airbnb / Vrbo in the UK | £131 |
Edinburgh | £228 |
Lake District | £197 |
Cornwall | £183 |
Devon | £179 |
Gwynedd | £175 |
Dorset | £175 |
Isle of Wight | £173 |
Data comes from analysts AirDNA and is for holiday lets of up to two rooms in 2025.
Foreign holidays for less
The cheapest package holidays we found on easyJet Holidays, Tui and Jet2 for this summer were to Hungary (£1,088 in total for a couple in a double room), the Czech Republic (£1,226 for a couple) and Poland (£1,270 for a couple).
But even the most popular resorts have package deals that look pretty reasonable compared with a week in the UK.
The average all-inclusive week in Spain for the first week in August costs £2,328 for a couple. That includes flights, food and drinks as well as your hotel.
A week’s package in Kefalonia - the top-rated Greek island in our last survey - is £1,912 per couple. In Barcelona, it’s £1,690 per couple. The Costa Blanca is £1,838 per couple for the first week in August. The Costa del Sol £2,100 per couple.
Package holidays in the sun this summer
Destination | Average package (per couple, sharing) | All-inclusive (per couple, sharing) |
Spain (mainland) | £1,812 | £2,328 |
Canary Islands | £1,948 | £2,224 |
Portugal | £1,962 | n/a |
Balearics (Mallorca, Ibiza etc) | £2,282 | £2,422 |
Greece | £2,328 | £2,706 |
Turkey | £2,394 | £2,570 |
Data for the first week in August 2026, collected in the first week of May 2026. Package holidays include flights, double or twin rooms in a hotel and transfers. All-inclusive also includes three meals a day and most drinks. n/a means we didn’t have enough data. See below for more details.
Watch out for UK holiday price rises
A new law to allow mayors in England to introduce tourist taxes was announced in this year’s King’s Speech.
If passed, it would give local authorities similar powers to their Welsh and Scottish counterparts to impose a levy on hotel stays.
Edinburgh’s overnight stay charge will start in July this year, and in Wales, there’ll be additional charges from 2027.
Despite the lack of a similar law in England, Manchester and Liverpool have already been able to introduce small fees in some areas, by designating them as ‘Accommodation Business Improvement Districts’.
How to save on your next holiday
Not all UK holidays are so expensive. There are bargains to be had in Northern Ireland, Lancashire, Cumbria (outside the Lake District), Lincolnshire and Herefordshire.
Some UK city breaks are also a bargain.
Wherever you plan to travel, here are 30 ways to save on your next trip.
Our research
Our data on hotel prices comes from Kayak and is for 3 to 4-star hotels and searches from April 2025 to March 2026.
For our package holiday data, we collected prices for 1,608 holidays in the first week of August 2026, double / twin rooms only, from TUI, easyjet and Jet2. Prices were collected on 1 May 2026.
