Costa cutting

If your family needs to count the pennies, or euros, on holiday in Europe this summer, the best place to go is the Costa Blanca coastline of Spain.

This is according to Self Catering on a Shoestring, a survey from Post Office Travel Money, which found shopping costs cheaper on this stretch of Spain than on Portugal’s Algarve. Spanish destinations surveyed – Costa Blanca, Lanzarote, Menorca and Majorca – all cost far less than Corfu, Crete, Dalaman (Turkey) and Limassol (Cyprus).

Some Eastern Med supermarkets in Greece and Turkey were found to have prices practically double those currently available in Spain.

The report, conducted by holiday operator Cosmos, also found 49 per cent of parents go self-catering to cut holiday costs – with mixed results.

More than one in five households
 bust budgets by over £100. They could slash costs by up to 36 per cent by using big supermarkets rather than resort shops.

“Staycation” holidaymakers who stay in Britain can also bust the budget on day-to-day living costs: The Post Office checked supermarket prices in Bournemouth and, at £87.73 for a basket of 20 food and drink staples, found prices on the South Coast resort far ahead of most of Europe.

At £48.70 for the basket of goods, the Costa Blanca pips the Algarve (£48.93) as the lowest-priced, while Lanzarote (£53.86), Menorca (£57.97) and Majorca (£68.36) emerge as great value.

Prices researched in Eastern Med destinations were much higher. Corfu came in cheapest at £74.74, with Crete (£86.04), Dalaman (£87.60) and Limassol (£97.28) a bit more. The shopping basket in Limassol was almost twice as the Costa Blanca’s.

While sterling this summer is worth around five per cent less against the euro and Turkish lira than last year, the Post Office says Brits will get value because prices have fallen at tills in most resorts, except in Majorca.

On the Costa Blanca, and in Corfu and Lanzarote, shopping baskets cost around 20 per cent less than a year ago.

The survey says it is vital to use larger supermarkets in Spain and Portugal, rather than resort mini-marts.

In both countries, supermarket shopping trims costs by up to 36.1 per cent, with the biggest saving in the Costa Blanca where the bill totalled £76.18 in a local shop and £48.70 – saving £27.48 – in a supermarket. In the Algarve, the Post Office found families could pay £21.74 more to shop in mini-marts – £70.67 against £48.93 in supermarkets.

The report found that while more than three-quarters of parents (78 per cent) had chosen a self-catering holiday in recent years and many do so to save money, more than half (52 per cent) bust their budget. One in five (21 per cent) overspent by more than £100 and almost one in 10 (nine per cent) by more than £200.