If Britons have the patience to wait, they can save hundreds on their holiday this summer – whether they’re after a trip to the sun or a UK cottage break, Which? has revealed.
The consumer watchdog found that the most expensive weeks for booking a package holiday are from 27 July – 3 August and from 3 Aug – 10 August. They are the first two weeks after most English schools break up.
The cheapest week in the summer holidays for a package holiday is the final one, when most children are still off – 24 to 31 August.
Which? also looked at changes in costs for booking a cottage across different parts of the UK, which they found variable dependent on region. However, it was never cheapest to book during the first week of the English and Welsh school holidays.
WHEN AND WHERE ARE THE CHEAPEST SUMMER PACKAGE HOLIDAYS
If Britons have the patience to wait, they can save hundreds on their holiday this summer, whether they’re after a trip to the sun, or a UK cottage break, Which? has revealed. The consumer watchdog found that the most expensive weeks for taking a package holiday are from 27 July – 3 August and from 3 Aug – 10 August
AVERAGE COST OF A SEVEN-NIGHT PACKAGE HOLIDAY DURING BRITISH SUMMER, PER PERSON, BASED ON TWO PEOPLE SHARING 13 July 20 July 27 July 3 August 10 August 17 August 24 August £1,139 £1,238 £1,256 £1,262 £1,241 £1,230 £1,133 Source: Which?
Looking deeper at the package holiday data, the consumer group found it is £123 cheaper per person to book a package break during the last week of the summer holiday compared to the first week, and £129 cheaper than the second, on average.
The last two weeks of the summer holidays were cheaper for all the major holiday destinations Which? looked at: Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria, Malta and Morocco.
The cheapest package holidays on average were in Morocco, with a week’s all-inclusive trip costing £962 per person on average.
The second-cheapest were in Malta (£1,080 per person), with Bulgaria the third most affordable (£1,087 per person).
The cheapest package holidays on average were in Morocco (above), with a week’s all-inclusive trip costing £962 per person on average
AVERAGE COST OF ONE WEEK PACKAGE HOLIDAY, ALL-INCLUSIVE, PER PERSON DURING BRITISH SUMMER 2024Destination Morocco £962 Malta £1,080 Bulgaria £1,087 Balearics (Ibiza, Mallorca, Minorca) £1,127 Canaries £1,141 Spain (Mainland) £1,163 Croatia £1,213 Italy £1,223 Turkey £1,228 Cyprus £1,253 Greece £1,258 Portugal £1,344 Source: Which?
In this list, the priciest country was Portugal, with a seven-night all-inclusive package setting consumers back £1,344.
Second-most expensive was Greece, though notably cheaper at £1,258, closely followed by neighbour Cyprus, the third-most expensive package holiday destination at £1,253.
Which? notes that these figures were impacted by what kind of holidays were available in each location. Countries with a higher concentration of luxury hotels will, logically, have a higher average cost for package holiday deals – but that does not preclude bargains being available in that destination should consumers search for a less decadent hotel.
To conduct the study, in January 2024 Which? collected data on 5,681 TUI and 2,223 Jet2 all-inclusive seven-day holidays, for the period between 13 July 2024 and 31 August 2024. Prices were per person based on two people sharing.
WHEN ARE THE CHEAPEST SUMMER HOLIDAY COTTAGE BREAKS?
Highland robbery: Across all the holiday lets surveyed, from the period of mid-July to early September, the most expensive cottages were in Scotland. Pictured Buachaille Etive Mor mountain in Glen Etive in the Scottish Highlands
AVERAGE COST FOR A WEEK-LONG HOLIDAY COTTAGE, UK SUMMER 2024 COUNTRY 13/07 20/07 27/07 03/08 10/08 17/08 24/08 31/08 Summeraverage England £1,109 1,198 £1,358 £1,267 £1,268 £1,343 £1,290 £988 £1,233 Northern Ireland £908 £911 £1,012 £1,006 £1,033 £895 £834 £736 £912 Scotland £1,255 £1,308 £1,310 £1,328 £1,327 £1,301 £1,285 £1,129 £1,279 Wales £1,121 £1,176 £1,280 £1,304 £1,301 £1,277 £1,219 £980 £1,202 UK overall £1,124 £1,204 £1,341 £1,279 £1,279 £1,328 £1,278 £1,000 £1,231 Source: Which?
Which? also looked at where and when was cheapest for summer holiday cottage breaks across the UK.
Again, the first week of the English school holidays proved the most expensive time for a getaway.
Which weeks are the least expensive depends on whether Brits holiday in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
In England, cottages were most expensive on the first week of school holidays, week commencing 27 July, with the price of a week’s cottage rental averaging £1,358. Wait a week to head off on 3 August, and the rate is at its cheapest – £1,267, a £91 saving.
Prices drop considerably when English schools go back – the average price for the week commencing 31 August is £988. That’s £370 cheaper than heading off at the start of the school break.
The fluctuation in prices at Welsh holiday cottages was slightly less pronounced for the holiday period. The most expensive time to book is the week commencing 3 August, when a week’s stay will set holidaymakers back an average of £1,304.
Head off on 24 August and they’ll shave £85 off that. Similar to England, though, the big saving comes when school heads back: it’s £980 on average for a stay week commencing 31 August, £324 less than peak.
Scottish schools break earlier than English, from 1 July to 12 August. If Brits want a holiday home in Scotland the most expensive week of the period surveyed is £1,328, while the least expensive is – as with England and Wales – the week starting 31 August, when a cottage stay can be nabbed for £1,129 a week.
Northern Ireland had the cheapest cottage lets for the summer holiday period across the UK in 2024. Pictured: Families enjoy the Dark Hedges in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland
Across all the holiday lets surveyed, from the period of mid-July to early September, the most expensive cottages were in Scotland.
The least expensive cottages were in Northern Ireland, with properties going for £912 per week on average across the English summer holiday period, as compared to £1,279 on average for the same period in Scotland.
In Northern Ireland school holidays are not standardised and instead set by individual schools. Cottages were at their most expensive on the week commencing 3 August – an average of £1,006 per week (this is £322 cheaper on average than renting on the same week in Scotland).
If Britons can hold out until 31 August, the price for a Northern Ireland cottage stay drops to £736 – the cheapest available across the UK.
To collate its data, in January 2024 Which? gathered 303,914 prices for a week’s stay in UK cottages of all sizes during summer 2024, from Cottages.com and Holidaycottages.co.uk.
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