What your summer holiday really costs
Strip the surprise out of your next trip. Pick a destination, party size, how long you're staying and when — and get an itemised budget in seconds, from flights and hotel to parking, transfers, insurance and eSIM, with live booking links on every line.
Build your holiday budget
All costs are indicative UK-package estimates and move with dates and demand — treat the line items as a planning ballpark, then click through to lock in live prices.
All prices are indicative estimates for planning and are not a quote or guarantee. Live rates move with dates, airport and demand.
How it works
Choose your resort
Any of 10 destinations we price-check regularly, from Turkish and Spanish coasts to the Cornish seaside.
Set your group & dates
Slide to your party size, pick your nights and the season you're travelling in.
See the honest breakdown
Every cost line is shown separately — no bundled surprise. The total updates instantly.
Book the winners
Hit the link on any line to grab a live price, or compare two resorts side by side.
Cost index by destination
Every figure below is an index against the EU average of 100. Lower is cheaper. A country at 90 costs roughly 10% less than the EU average for the same basket, before you factor in the exchange rate. Eurostat price level indices for 2024, EU27 = 100, sorted cheapest first on overall cost of living.
Türkiye — 53% below the EU average.
Italy — alcohol 16% below average.
Türkiye — 103% above average despite being cheap in most other respects.
| Destination | Overall cost of living | Restaurants & hotels | Alcoholic beverages | Food & soft drinks | Local transport |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Türkiye | 46.8 | 68.9 | 202.6 | 76.7 | 63.5 |
| Bulgaria | 56.9 | 53.2 | 107.4 | 88.8 | 57.2 |
| Croatia | 73.3 | 95.4 | 125.6 | 103.7 | 87.0 |
| Greece | 83.0 | 86.4 | 154.0 | 105.8 | 89.5 |
| Portugal | 85.0 | 75.5 | 109.1 | 101.5 | 80.6 |
| Spain | 90.7 | 83.9 | 90.5 | 95.2 | 81.5 |
| Malta | 93.1 | 88.7 | 125.3 | 112.2 | 89.8 |
| Cyprus | 95.1 | 89.0 | 119.2 | 104.7 | 97.3 |
| Italy | 98.1 | 106.9 | 83.9 | 101.7 | 84.8 |
| France | 107.9 | 110.0 | 102.3 | 110.1 | 116.3 |
What the pound is worth today
European Central Bank reference rates for 24 July 2026. These move daily, and a few percent either way changes a family's spending money by more than most people expect.
| Currency | Per £1 | Where you will use it |
|---|---|---|
| EUR | 1.1711 | Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, France |
| PLN | 5.0540 | Poland |
| TRY | 63.0830 | Türkiye |
| USD | 1.3324 | United States and USD-priced resorts |
Common questions
Which European holiday destination is cheapest overall?
Where is a beer cheapest on holiday?
How much spending money do I need for a week abroad?
What is the pound worth right now?
Use this data
Free to reuse with attribution. The full dataset is machine-readable at /data/costs.json.
Cite as: Compare the Heat, "Holiday Cost Index", updated 24 July 2026. Available at https://comparetheheat.com/cost-of-a-holiday/
Method and sources. Price levels are Eurostat price level indices (prc_ppp_ind, 2024, EU27 = 100), which measure what a comparable basket costs in each country. Exchange rates are European Central Bank reference rates, republished via Frankfurter, for 24 July 2026. Index figures are official; any cash figures shown are estimates derived by applying a country's index to a single observed reference price, and are rounded. Prices vary within a country, and a beachfront bar is not a back-street one.
Calculator figures are indicative UK-package estimates for planning: flight fares are typical return economy fares from UK regional airports; hotel rates are per-room tourist-class averages; parking is per car per day; transfers are return private transfers; insurance and eSIM are per-trip, per-traveller averages. All are ballpark and vary by dates, airport and supplier.