Emerging city break destinations rated best value in latest Post Office report | News
Sarajevo is rated as Europe’s best value city for a short break and tops the rankings of five emerging city destinations at the top of Post Office Travel Money’s latest cost comparison report. In this year’s City Costs Barometer 20261, with a record 50 cities, Eastern Europe once again dominates the best value chart, taking eight of the top ten places. However, the French cities of Lille (7th) and Strasbourg (9th) have broken the eastern stranglehold and are offering Brits the option of traveling by train instead of plane.
At £248 for 12 tourism items including accommodation, meals and drinks, city transport and entrance to cultural attractions, Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, tops the best value rankings and is one of 12 cities added to this year’s City Costs Barometer2. Four of these – Bucharest (£258, Romania), Tirana (£263, Albania), Belgrade (£265, Serbia) and Trenĉin (£272, Slovakia) – complete the top five. All five now offer direct flights from Britain3 and are tipped by travel experts as ‘next-generation’ city break options.
In sixth place, Latvian capital Riga (£278) is the highest ranked of the more established cities and continues to benefit from competitively priced hotels. Two nights of three-star accommodation costs £140, the second cheapest in the survey after Tirana (£128). Vilnius, Lithuania (7th, £289) and Podgorica, Montenegro (10th, £332) complete the top 10 cities. However, in all three capitals, prices have risen by more than 10 percent.
With uncertainty surrounding the availability of jet fuel this summer, Brits who prefer to travel to their destinations by train, ferry and car can choose from ten destinations, including old city break favorites Paris (£575) and Amsterdam (£609)4. Two of these cities are in the top 10 with the best prices from Post Office. At £289, barometer costs are down 1.3 per cent year-on-year in seventh-placed Lille, a Eurostar favourite. New introduction Strasbourg (£319) is in ninth place.
Laura Plunkett, Head of Travel Money at Post Office, Britain’s largest provider of foreign exchange, said: “The low prices we found in Lille and Strasbourg make them attractive choices for British holidaymakers who want to take a short break in Europe but prefer surface travel rather than flying this year. There are excellent direct Eurostar options to Lille, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, while several other cities can be reached by a combination of Eurostar and local high-speed services. Interestingly Our research has shown that Lille and Strasbourg are now cheaper than former champions Athens and Lisbon.”
Prices have risen by 22 percent to £358 in Lisbon and by more than 12 percent to £373 in Athens. As a result, the Portuguese capital has fallen from fifth place last year to sixteenth place now. Similarly, the Greek capital has fallen six places to 19th in the city cost barometer this year.
Post Office research has shown that the cost of tourist items has risen by more than 20 percent in seven of the 38 cities also surveyed last year (Gdansk, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Porto, Prague and Warsaw)5. Higher prices for hotel stays – most likely the result of demand exceeding supply – are responsible for the higher costs6. For the same reason, there have been year-on-year price declines in seven cities (Florence, Lille, Nice, Rome, Salzburg, Stockholm and Venice). The largest overall price drop of 11.2 percent occurred in Stockholm, where accommodation fell by 25 percent.
Among the four UK capitals, Cardiff is by far the best value with a barometer price of £378 – similar to last year’s result. Prices for meals, drinks and transport are among the cheapest in Europe, but higher accommodation costs than many continental competitors mean the Welsh capital comes 21st in the rankings. Prices in Belfast (33rd, £509) and London (34th, £528) are significantly higher, but like Cardiff have remained at 2025 levels. By comparison, Edinburgh (48th, £668) is again one of the most expensive cities in Europe, with barometer costs rising by 10 percent due to high hotel prices.
Following last year’s results, Oslo (£734) and Copenhagen (£671) are the most expensive of the fifty cities surveyed. The barometer totals in the two Scandinavian cities are more than twice as high as those in the ten best value cities.
Meal prices still vary quite dramatically across Europe. A three-course meal with wine costs less than £66 in the five cities rated as the cheapest for eating out, but more than £180 in the most expensive – Oslo and Geneva7. Interestingly, meal costs in Portugal are still competitively priced, despite general price increases in these cities this year. Lisbon is the second cheapest (£59), while Porto (£66) has the fifth cheapest meal prices of the 50 cities surveyed.
Laura Plunkett of Post Office Travel Money said: “Despite concerns about rising prices abroad, there are many European cities that offer great value for money. Sterling has remained reasonably strong, but in these challenging times it will pay holidaymakers to do their homework before booking to see where their pounds are likely to stretch furthest, even for short breaks.”
The Post Office is Britain’s largest provider of foreign exchange, offering more than 60 currencies which can be pre-ordered from around 7,000 post offices or online at www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-money for next day delivery to a branch or home delivery. 3,600 larger post office branches stock the most important currencies and more than 7,000 offer euros over the counter without pre-order. These can also be ordered online for same-day ‘click and collect’ from selected branches, next day collection from any branch or home delivery.
The full results of the Post Office Travel Money City Costs Barometer 2026 can be found in the accompanying tables or viewed online at: postoffice.co.uk/citycosts.
