As the summer holiday market moves up a gear, Post Office Travel Money has unveiled its latest holiday barometer report, which looks at Self Catering on a Shoestring.
The key points of the report are:
o Families pick self-catering to save money on meal prices but could find themselves busting their budget by shopping in local mini-marts rather than in supermarkets. Although Algarve is cheapest of the destinations surveyed by the Post Office and holiday operator Cosmo for self-catering provisions, this applies only to the supermarket cost. The same items cost 48 per cent more in resort shops – making it a bit like doing the weekly shopping in a corner shop in the UK and expecting the bill to be the same as in Tesco or Sainsbury’s
o The position is even worse in Majorca – once the cheapest place to buy food and now second most expensive for holiday self-caterers behind Cyprus. You would pay £86.43 in a Majorca supermarket but 53 per cent more in a resort shot in Palma Nova – £132.58
o Cost-cutters will do better in the Costa Blanca or Corfu, where the resort shops are actually cheaper than supermarkets – making these good choices for holidaymakers without easy access to a supermarket
o Self-catering prices are down in Corfu and also in Crete – so Greece is looking a better bet than a year ago for bargain hunters
o However, consumer research shows that only 3-in-10 families stick to the budget they had set for their spending overseas (an average of £634) and over half spend £253 (average) more than they intended
o The research found that buying groceries for a self-catering stay is the second biggest item of expenditure after eating out and over 1-in-4 families notch up bills over more than £100 at the corner shop
o 81 per cent also overestimated what food they might need and bought more than they could consume. 1-in-10 said they wasted food worth over £50.