Algarve rated best-value eurozone holiday destination

The Algarve in Portugal — the only EU country on the UK’s “green list” — has emerged as the best-value eurozone location in a survey of global tourist destinations. 

Annual research by Post Office Travel Money, the foreign exchange provider, found a 16.5 per cent fall in costs put Portugal in third position on a list of the cheapest resort destinations, behind Sunny Beach in Bulgaria and Marmaris in Turkey. 

The Post Office assesses a resort’s value by totalling the cost of items in a basket of typical tourist goods, such as an evening meal for two with wine, a cup of coffee and a beer.

The green list announced last week denotes countries that people will be able to visit without having to quarantine on their return to the UK. Popular holiday destinations such as France, Italy and Spain are on the “amber list”, requiring Covid testing and quarantine on return. 

Madeira, another green list destination, squeezes into the top 10 cheapest holiday spots in the research.

Prices have fallen in more than three-quarters of the 37 destinations surveyed in 2020, which Post Office Travel Money ascribed to currency volatility and the falling local costs of meals and drinks.

The biggest decline of 46 per cent was in Costa Rica. Other places where prices dropped were Malaysia, Jamaica, Dubai and the Seychelles. In Europe, the fall in prices was highest in the Puglia region of Italy, at 18 per cent.