- European winter sunspots outperform most long haul rivals to grab best value rating - Costa del Sol is cheapest but Bali squeezes in front of the Algarve to take second place - Sri Lanka and Tobago boast biggest barometer falls for families on a half term break
- Tourists can get travel cash ‘on the go’ and calculate holiday prices with new Mobile App - Prices for Holiday Costs Barometer tourist staples available for 20 top destinations
- Parents expect to spend £2291 on keeping their children amused over half term - Week of woe: Nearly two thirds of parents (62 per cent) are worried about covering the costs - A third (31 per cent) will dip into their savings and 22 per cent plan to work overtime to make up the shortfall
- New Drop Off points used to return home shopping via Royal Mail Pre-Paid Returns service - This is in addition to the 11,500 branches already operating this service offering new customers access to the growing need for the service - Almost three quarters (71 per cent¹) of online shoppers say Post Office branches are their preferred returns point
- One in eight homes in the UK now use streaming services to watch television - Tablets and smart phones are now the go-to browsing devices in a third of UK homes - One in ten 18-24 year olds do not currently own a PC or laptop
- Bali and Cape Town remain best value of 34 destinations surveyed for the Post Office Long Haul Report (www.postoffice.co.uk/longhaul2014) - See-sawing local prices mean big gains for tourists visiting Tamarindo, Costa Rica; Tokyo and Mauritius but sharp resort rises in Dubai, Antigua and Hoi An, Vietnam - Local prices rise in 63 per cent of resorts but sterling cushions the impact
- Pre-paid funeral plans provide customers aged over 50 with certainty over funeral costs - Plans allow customers to pay a minimum of £150 a month towards the cost of their funeral
- Forty seven per cent travelled without the vaccinations required - One in five (20 per cent) fell ill whilst abroad, with a further ten per cent suffering injury - One in seven (15 per cent) did not have travel insurance - Recent gap year claims include £100,000 Air Ambulance from USA
- Attractive products include Online Saver, Reward Saver and Cash ISA - Products are available online, in-branch, by phone or by post
- Strong World Cup appeal has made the Brazilian real Post Office® Travel Money’s Fastest Growing Currency for summer 2014 - Vietnam comes of age as holiday destination: summer currency sales have quadrupled within three years - Powerful pound drives demand for Eastern Europe: Hungarian forint registers Europe’s top summer growth while Croatian kuna is a Post Office bestseller
- Latest range includes market-leading branch exclusive
- Almost half of UK holidaymakers call themselves culture vultures - Warsaw is Europe’s cheapest city for culture with prices under a third of those in Vienna, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Paris - Eurozone culture comes with lowest price tag in Dublin and Rome - London is the most expensive cultural capital despite price falls of over 20 per cent in the past five years
