Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations

Costs for a Day at the Beach: Towel and Sand Bucket Index

A key theme running throughout the books I’ve written is that your destination decisions—and where you stay and eat after you get there—are the key factors determining what you are going to spend when you travel. No matter what you spend on airfare, a trip to Place A can easily cost you two or three times what Place B will cost.

I like this Beach Barometer 2009 report put out by the Royal Mail group (known as just “Post Office”) in the UK. Summary on interesting points below, but here’s the full PDF file. The research shows wild variations in the cost of a day at the beach for a family. With the pound losing value lately, UK tourists are looking closely at what they spend on holiday, so this report aims to show the differences between stretches of sand in different destinations.

The report focused on six key “must have” family items typically bought on holiday: large beach towel, jelly shoes, bucket and spade, lilo, ice-cream, and a one hour pedalo/kayak ride. (I thought I was conversant in British English, but had to look up a “lilo.” Apparently it’s what everyone else calls a “raft” or “inflatable.”)

The differences can be dramatic. In Greece, for example, parents will pay as much as £56.50 for the same six items, whilst in Croatia their total cost would come to just £19.41.

Want to buy a bucket and spade so your kid can build sand castles? It’ll cost you an average of £9.23 in France or Greece. But it’s only £2.60 in Florida, £2.09 in Turkey, and less than a pound in Malaysia.

Here’s another great comparison from the report: a day at a water park. See my post from a few weeks ago on what it costs for a water park in Mexico. (Hint–it’s super cheap.) Once again, the total tab varies from quite affordable, as in £14.85 for the whole family in Malaysia, to the wallet-busting £88.30 in Disney-ruled Florida. When you need a break from the sun, regular sightseeing can vary dramatically as well. The report says  some of the biggest attractions in Bulgaria and Cyprus cost less than £10 for the family.

As I note in The World’s Cheapest Destinations, food costs vary dramatically across Europe:

Sarah Munro, travel specialist at Post Office, commented: “We found that while a family meal costs around £57 in Brighton, it would set UK tourists back much less in Croatia and Bulgaria—and least of all, £31, in Spain. More good news for holidaymakers is that the French government has just slashed VAT on restaurants to 5.5 per cent from 19.6 per cent. This means that a €10 lunchtime menu in France, which would have cost almost £10 earlier this year, is now £7.50 – quite a saving when you have a family to feed.”

[Post Office UK is one of my advertisers on various websites I run. They offer foreign currency exchange, travel insurance, and more. I covered this report from them, however, because I liked it and it's useful.]