KEEN to get that winter sun break locked in? Holidaymakers on a budget should set their sights on Africa.
A new report released today by the Winter Sun Holidays Costs Barometer from The Post Office Travel Money reveals that Cape Town in South Africa, and Mombasa in Kenya, offer the best value for money for people seeking a sun-drenched winter break.
To calculate which destination gives travellers more bang for their buck, the research considered the average costs of eight essential holiday items in 24 popular long-haul and short-haul destinations.
Items included a cup of filter coffee, a bottle of beer or lager, a can or bottle of cola, a glass of wine, a 1.5l bottle of water, suncream, insect repellent and a three-course evening meal for two with house wine.
The overall cost for all of the above came to just £58.24 in Cape Town, making it the most affordable destination on the list.
According to the Post Office, prices in the South African hotspot have fallen by 9.7 per cent in the last six months, which will have a hugely beneficial impact on tourists.
A three-course dinner with wine was shown to be cheaper here than anywhere else on the list, totalling £39.26 on average.
Despite its reputation for excellent wineries, Tokyo pipped Cape Town to the post for budget vino with a glass costing just £2.53 in Japan’s capital, on average, compared with £3.24 in Cape Town.
Tokyo came in third place overall on the affordability scale with a total barometer cost of £66.76, beaten by Mombasa, in second place, with an overall price tag of £63.66.
Prices haven’t dropped dramatically in this Kenyan city, but the rise of sterling against the Kenyan shilling does mean that you will now pay slightly less than when the country was last surveyed by the Post Office in March this year.
Coming in fourth place on the winter sun budget chart is Colombo in Sri Lanka, where a basket of all eight holiday essentials added up to £74.79, getting on for £20 more than the cheapest spot of Cape Town.
And be sure to ditch the wine and opt for beer instead, as a glass of red, white or rose will set you back £6.60 on average — over double the cost of a glass of wine in any of the previously named locations.
A bottle of beer, on the other hand, costs just £2.47.
Phuket in Thailand closely followed Colombo in fifth place with an overall barometer cost of £76.39 and cheap beer at £2.09 a bottle.
Of course, for the top five spots, the trade off for spending little while in the destination is shelling out for pricier flights to get there.
But remember that holidaymakers will be rewarded with better odds of sunshine and higher temperatures in these long-haul locations.
Those looking to stay a little closer to home still have budget-friendly options, however, including Portugal’s Algarve which came in sixth place overall.
While the total cost of all holiday items came to a slightly steeper £82.35, coffee-drinkers won’t be complaining as this is the cheapest destination to grab yourself a cuppa (£1.27 on average).
The holiday location fared similarly to Spain’s Costa del Sol in seventh place and the Canary Island of Tenerife in eighth place, with overall costs of £83.58 and £87.46 respectively.
Prices for holiday items in all three short-haul destinations were on par with one another, although it was a bit pricier to eat out in Tenerife with a three-course meal for two with wine costing around £61.10.
Penang in Malaysia and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic complete the top ten with Penang’s cost totalling £89.72, while Punta Cana’s was 7p more than that.
At the opposite end of the scale, Scarborough was the priciest destination for winter sun — not the resort town on England’s North Sea, but the capital of the island of Tobago.
Holiday item costs here rocketed to a whopping £144.15 in total — which is over double that of Cape Town.
A three-course meal here costs more than anywhere else on the list, at an eye-watering £119.26 for two people.
St. Georges in Grenada, Funchal in Madeira and Cancun in Mexico were also shown to be pricey, with total bills totting up to over £125.
Comparatively, the much-loved Sun reader resort of Orlando in the US came roughly in the middle, in 15th place overall.
Wine and beer was shown to be mean on the wallet in the Florida sunshine spot — at £6.81 and £5.30 respectively — but other items like suncream and insect repellent were more reasonable.
That’s worth raising a glass to.