Post Office Travel Money has launched its annual Christmas Markets Barometer to coincide with the festive period. This year, researchers surveyed 14 European cities to find the best value for money.
The team determined the results by examining several factors, including a two-night package and the cost of food and drink.
They found Bratislava, Slovakia’s capital city, to be the bargain choice in the report. Bratislava’s barometer total of £510 for two people was calculated by combining the costs of return flights, two nights’ three—or four-star accommodation, airport transfers, and two evening meals with wine, coffee, festive drinks, and snacks at the Christmas Market.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, Copenhagen visitors can expect to pay almost twice as much, £989, for the same items.
Eastern European cities offer the best value for bargain hunters, taking nine of the top ten places in the cost comparison of 14 cities.
Vilnius, another newcomer to the Post Office barometer, was only marginally behind Bratislava in second place.
At £511, the Lithuanian capital was just 78p more expensive, and it emerges as the cheapest for meals, drinks and airport transfers. After five years as the best-value city, Riga has dropped to third place. Prices rose eight per cent to £546.
Gdansk completes the Eastern European top three, another introduction to the barometer. At £596, prices are 12 percent lower than in Krakow, another Polish city.
Its barometer total of £678 is 20 percent lower than a year ago, thanks to a combination of lower meal prices and better availability bringing down the cost of flights.
Last year, the Post Office reported a big increase in package costs due to flight scarcity, and the latest research brings prices back to their lower levels in 2022.
Despite the strength of sterling, which has made the UK pound better value than a year ago against all the currencies for cities featured in the 2024 report, prices for a two-night Christmas Market break have fallen in only three of the 11 cities also surveyed in 2023.
Apart from Krakow, barometer costs have dropped 5.3 percent in Prague to £606 and 10.4 percent in Budapest to £639, helping these cities rise to fifth and sixth in this year’s chart.
Prague also boasts the lowest meal prices, with two three-course meals for two with wine costing £131.75 compared with £133.82 in Vilnius and £134.07 in Budapest, or twice as much, £263.16, in Copenhagen.
Laura Plunkett, head of travel money at Post Office, said: “Sterling has risen in value against European currencies, which means that holidaymakers visiting a Christmas Market will have more cash to spend.
“However, the price variations revealed by the latest barometer show how important it is for people planning trips to check prices and factor in all the costs they are likely to incur.
“While emerging cities like Bratislava and Vilnius offer outstanding value, Prague and Budapest are also great options for bargain hunters because of the price falls we found in these more established favourites.”