Holiday planning is super exciting. From choosing your ideal destinations, to lining up what restaurants and bars you want to experience, there’s always plenty of organising to do. However, there is one factor that has a massive influence on your next adventure, the cost.
Luckily for you, we’ve researched which countries are the cheapest and most expensive to travel to. We uncovered which countries have the cheapest pint of beer or the cheapest cups of coffee, along with the average hotel prices per night, taxi fares and meals for two. We’ve rounded up the most expensive (and the cheapest) countries to visit!
By looking at the average costs of: a pint of beer, a cup of coffee, a meal for two, a bottle of wine, a hotel room for one night and taxi costs per 3km, we have been able to rank countries from the most expensive countries to the cheapest and everything in-between. Looking at the 46 countries below you can see that Dubai takes the number one spot for most expensive, with all included costs rounding up to £278.92. Budapest on the other hand ranks number one for being the cheapest with all costs coming to an extremely low total of £40.34.
[ Click images to zoom in for greater detail ]
Next up are the costs of a hotel room per person per night. The most expensive being Dubai with hotel rooms costing upwards of £214.81 per night! Surprisingly, Botswana follows close behind with an average price of £210.30. Budapest, on average has the cheapest hotel room rates, only £23.23 per night. Bangkok, Faro and Tenerife follow closely behind. For affordable hotels, Budapest still can’t be beat!
We took a look at different drinks around the world from, pints of beer and a bottles of wine to cups of coffee. We also looked at the average meal prices for two people. What we found was this. Marrakesh is the place to go for a money saving meal! And as for a bottle of wine or cup of coffee? Faro is the place to be for cheap drinks. Dubai once again holds the title for being the most expensive in the food and drink category. See image below for more results:
Getting out and about on can become expensive on your holiday, If you’re looking to explore and be adventurous, taking taxis everywhere can really rack up a bill, depending on where you are of course. Our study, which shows taxi prices per 3km, displays Botswana as the cheapest place to take a taxi at only £0.73 per 3km. Dublin however, charges £10.26 per 3km! Perhaps it’s best to explore Ireland by foot instead of paying a steep fare!
Our research gives us a lot of useful information for travellers who are looking for a fantastic holiday within their budget. Some results didn’t come as a surprise, Dubai is renown for its ultra luxurious accommodation and atmosphere so it’s not shocking that it was our most expensive destination. Also no surprise was New York taking the top position for most expensive place to have a meal for 2, costing on average £54.93. New York is famous for its amazing culinary culture, so that price might be worth trying its many tasty treats; creamy cheesecakes, authentic New York pizza and bagels and of course, the classic American burger!
There were however some surprising results. Botswana had the second most expensive hotel room prices per night, but managed to take the top spot for the cheapest taxi charges at £0.73 per 3km! Marrakesh which placed fourth for the most expensive destination overall, surprisingly placed first for the cheapest meals for two with an average £10.18.
Antalya and Gran Canaria were among the places that retained their ground as mid-level holiday options across all boards. Their average costs make them great holiday destinations for families, couples and solos! For sun and value, we’d look no further than the likes of Faro or Bangkok, but flights to the latter may put you off.
Ideally, we would never have to worry about the cost of a holiday and could go wherever we please budget-free. However, for most of us, sticking to a realistic budget is not only necessary, it’s vital to planning and enjoying our much anticipated annual holidays. So whether you want to go big on holiday or keep it low-key, choosing the right destination to suit your can be the most important step in planning your amazing trip.
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We live in Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, Mexico, and was surprised not to see more on Mexico on your comparisons. We took a taxi from Mexico City to a wedding, 2 hours away, and paid $42 usd. We can enjoy a beer in a restaurant on the beach in Zihua for 20 pesos ($1.20).
Hi Richard! Thanks for the tip – we could look to drill down and produce some more in=depth data for more select area – for example, South America. This would be perfect for that!
I agree with Richard, but realise that it wouldn’t have been practical for your article to take in every, style of travel lifestyle, in every locality of every destination country! I have been lucky enough to travel around the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, several times and can easily, and without exception, find a beer in a pleasant location for $25 peso (£1 GBP), $20 peso if you look a little harder. Eating in local cocinas, in my opinion, a much more authentic experience than choosing a more touristic option in any case, can offer you a single taco for $15 peso, eggs for breakfast for $50 peso (£2GBP). Steak might be $200 peso. Go Mexico!
Thanks Clarita, that sounds amazing! Certainly would be interesting to take a deeper dive at maybe a continent level to get some more detailed stats. Looking forward to it!
Hi! Is it possible to get full data with breakdown for all 46 countries?
Hi Tony, we could release the full breakdown in a follow-up post – we’ll look into getting that up. Will let you know as and when!
Hi, is it possible to get more information on how you collected the data? are they averages, samples etc? obviously the prices can vary significantly throughout a city, depending on where you purchase the goods. Thanks.
Hi Louise,
Sure! The hotel prices are an average price. We looked at a handful of hotel prices per night and averaged the costs. The Taxi/Food/Drinks prices were also an average, however they were from different sources that you can find at the bottom of the infographic. The prices can definitely vary however the trend of cheap/expensive cities stayed the same with the different types of research we did. Hope this helps!
having had a family holiday recently in Gran Canaria, i’d like to disagree. It was not cheap.. in fact I found it more expensive than the prices you stated in the article. We stayed on the south of the island and we were shocked by how expensive it had become compared to a few years ago!
Sorry William, we know! There are cheap and expensive places everywhere if you know where to look (someone mentioned they could stay in Dubai for under £100 per day)! For the purposes of this article however, we had to average out prices across a range of results.
Maintain the outstanding work!! Lovin’ it!