• Prices plunge in 24 of 27 ski resorts surveyed for the annual Post Office® Travel Money Ski Resort Report (www.postoffice.co.uk/skireport2014) • Biggest fall of 23 per cent in Soldeu, Andorra • Bansko, Bulgaria remains cheapest but eurozone favourites are closing the gap • Growing popularity of winter sports extras could add hundreds of pounds to a ski trip
- Prague is bargain choice for a two-night Christmas Markets break this winter - Riga is lowest-priced in the eurozone and cheaper for Christmas gifts than London
- Designer labels cost up to 73 per cent less in New York - Seventh annual Post Office® Travel Money Christmas Shopping Guide reveals almost one-in-five items surveyed cost over 50 per cent more in London - Sister brands Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister offer richest pickings in New York (www.postoffice.co.uk/christmasshopping2014)
But Employees Can Make Sterling Work Harder For Leftover Holiday By Avoiding Christmas Getaways • Post Office Travel Money research shows £5.37bn of paid leave is unclaimed annually • Around half of UK employees lose an average of six days paid holiday a year
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Twice as many children under five (52 per cent) have travelled abroad compared to their parents (26 per cent) when they were that age - Over a quarter (26 per cent) of children had travelled abroad three times or more by the age of five – yet seven in ten (69 per cent) of their parents hadn’t even left the country by this age
- Powerful pound helps prices plunge in most top European family resorts - Sunny Beach, Bulgaria and Costa del Sol are again cheapest for families - Biggest falls of over 26 per cent come where restaurants have cut meal costs says new Family Holiday Report (www.postoffice.co.uk/familyholidays2014) - Resort spending rises 16.5 per cent and two-in-five bust the budget by £242
