Discover the cheapest places to visit in Europe in 2024/2025

Kirsten Henton

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Discover the cheapest places in Europe to visit in 2024/2025 and start planning your next European holiday today. Find out how popular holiday destinations rate based on a typical seven-night stay.

• Top 60 cheapest places in Europe
• Why book a European holiday?
• Cheapest 'popular' places in Europe
• How we've rated places
• Research data sources
• Cheapest cities in Europe

Why book a cheap European holiday?

If the pandemic taught us anything, it's that taking time to relax with loved ones is precious. What's more, even though we're in the midst of a cost of living crisis, statistics show that people are still booking breaks, proving the value and importance of a holiday.

We want to make sure that everyone can escape on an affordable, well-earned getaway this year. So, we did our research and came up with the top 60 cheapest holiday destinations in Europe to help you decide where your money will go furthest.

Thankfully, located as we are in the UK, continental Europe, home to many beloved holiday favourites such as Spain and France, is easily reached by plane, train (from London, anyway) and ferry.

When planning a budget-friendly holiday, however, the trick is to choose a destination that's not only cheap and easy to get to but where day-to-day items, transfers and accommodation won't catch you out and break the bank in an unwelcome surprise.

While everyone needs (and deserves!) time off from reality, it's vital to make it financially feasible.

So, whether that's exploring bucket-list destinations, culture-crammed European cities, national parks or just beautiful places along the coast or up in the mountains, we want to help you find that dream Europe holiday for less.

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Cheapest European holiday destinations

Compiling this list of the cheapest holiday destinations in Europe has revealed various curiosities. For instance, while the landlocked Balkan nation of North Macedonia, a fabulous and still relatively under-developed destination, is great value when it comes to eating, drinking and getting around, accommodation is on the pricey side.

This sits in stark contrast with Dalaman & Marmaris in southwest Turkey, which have long welcomed tourists and are considerably more affordable when it comes to accommodation, but not if you're looking at public transport.

In this case, this could simply be down to capacity, as North Macedonia is new in the world of mass tourism, and there are fewer available rooms than in established resorts across the coast of southwest Turkey. This could also explain why accommodation in third-place Moldova seems disproportionately higher.

Moving on down the list, the top 10 generally features places in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, such as other places in Turkey and increasingly popular Albania, where you'll find soaring peaks, UNESCO World Heritage sites and beautiful beaches for far less than neighbouring Greece.

The first time we see Portugal in the top 60 is in the shape of the Azores, a luscious Atlantic archipelago where everything from dolphin-watching and hiking to dining on the freshest fish makes it a one great value catch.

Eternally popular Spain shows itself from 21 onwards, with places throughout the mainland, Canaries and Balearic popping up between the Costa Brava at number 21 and the slightly more expensive Majorca in 58.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the likes of Italy, Greece (apart from Crete, where accommodation remains good value) and Cyprus, much-loved destinations for all types of holidaymakers and budgets, appear further down.

Interestingly, in the Baltic nation of Latvia, accommodation seems to be the big ticket item, although eating, drinking and getting around aren't cheap either. It's a similar picture in Estonia, which, overall, is more expensive than Sicily.

Meanwhile, Zante (aka Zakynthos), known for its white beaches and iconic shipwreck, takes the final spot. This doesn't mean it's the most expensive holiday destination in Europe, just the least affordable out of the top 60 cheapest places to go on holiday.

Naturally, where you choose to go will depend on what matters the most to you. Not fussed about where you stay? Determined to save on dining out? Plan to stay put and avoid public transport? There'll be a cheap place to go on holiday in Europe for you.

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Top 60 cheapest places to visit in Europe

Thinking of booking a European holiday? Below is our list of the 60 cheapest places in Europe you should consider visiting in 2024/2025.

Ratings are based on combined costs of accommodation, food, drink and in-destination transport. Each element has a rating from 1 (the cheapest) to 6 (most expensive).

The overall rating combines all the elements placing equal weighting on each. Learn more about the rating system and the data sources below.

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€ = local currency is euros (EUR)

Algarve, Portugal

Place ratings from 1 (the cheapest) to 6 (most expensive).

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Maximum daytime temperature °F	59	61	64	66	72	77	82	84	81	73	66	61
Hours of sunshine (daily)	5	6	7	8	10	11	12	11	9	7	6	5
Days with some rainfall	9	11	8	9	5	3	1	1	2	8	10	12
Sea temperature °F	61	59	61	61	63	66	70	70	70	68	66	63

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Cheapest 'popular' places in Europe 2024/2025

As well as considering cheap places in Europe overall, we wanted to compare costs in some of the most popular holiday destinations, even if they are a little bit more expensive.

After all, there are reasons holidaymakers flock to the likes of Bodrum, Dubrovnik and Mykonos despite their not-so-cheap status.

Big-name destinations across the Black Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic can be enjoyed on a budget, however. For example, in the Algarve and Tenerife, eating and drinking out is more affordable than in, say, Corfu or Malta.

However, accommodation in Malta is noticeably cheaper than in Paphos or Ibiza. The trick to finding a good value holiday to a popular destination is, yet again, to see where you can make savings.

Eating out looking expensive? Book a self-catering apartment on Airbnb. Getting around seems pricey? Walk, hire a bike or even a car for a few days only. Where there's a will for some budget travel, there's a way, and we hope our collection of the cheapest destinations in Europe will help you get there.

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€ = local currency is euros (EUR)

How we've rated the cheapest places

We've identified the top 60 cheapest places in Europe to visit in 2024/2025 by comparing the costs for three different elements to give us an overall rating: accommodation, food and drink and transport.

Find out more about each element and how the ratings are calculated. We have made some assumptions to allow us to compare the most affordable destinations in Europe.

• Overall rating
• Hotel accommodation
• Food & drink
• Transport

Overall rating

The overall rating for each destination gives an indication of the combined costs of visiting for a seven-night stay. The rating is on a scale from 1 (the cheapest) to 6 (most expensive).

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Hotel accommodation

Where you are staying can be one of the most expensive parts of a holiday. Popular destinations can have very high hotel prices at busy times of the year.

Our accommodation rating is based on real hotel prices extracted from Booking.com^* based on the typical cheapest hotel accommodation (3* or higher) for a seven-night stay including breakfast for two adults in the middle of the month (over the next 12 months).

Note: other accommodation types are available in places including villas, hostels, private rentals and holiday parks, however, for the purpose of the research we have focused on hotel accommodation with breakfast included.

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Food & drink

Eating out is a major part of the experience when enjoying a European holiday. Soaking up the café culture, local cuisine and nightlife are what drive many of us to travel to destinations across Europe.

We've split our ratings into two elements: food and drink. Travellers will have their own requirements, however, our ratings take into account the different options available in each place to allow us to compare.

Food

Our food ratings are based on a mix of three-course meals, inexpensive meals and cheaper food options for two adults for a seven-night stay in the place, but exclude breakfast as this is covered by the hotel accommodation rating.

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Drink

Our drink rating is based on a mix of hot drinks, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks for two adults for a seven-night stay in the holiday destination.

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Transport

Transport is often an afterthought when booking holidays, whether it's how you travel from the airport to the final destination or simply getting about an unfamiliar destination.

We've split our transport ratings into two elements: getting about and airport transfers. Travellers will have their own requirements, however, our ratings take into account the different options available in each destination to allow us to compare.

Getting about

Our getting about rating is based on a combination of journeys on public transport and by taxi for two adults for a seven-night stay around the destination.

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Airport transfers

Our airport transfers rating is based on transfers for two adults, either by taxi or train depending on the size of the destination and typical transfer distance.

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Research data sources

Our cheapest places in Europe are rated based on multiple data sources and calculations to find comparable costs of visiting each destination for a seven-night stay.

Hotel accommodation prices have been extracted from Booking.com^* in April 2023 for stays over the next 12 months.

Costs for food, drink, public transport and private taxis have been extracted from Numbeo.com.

We have researched typical mileage figures from airports and combined our findings with cost data from Numbeo.com to calculate airport transfer costs. In some cases, this is by public transport instead of a taxi.

The following destinations are currently excluded from the research: Belarus, Russian Federation and Ukraine.

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Ready to book your next holiday? Check out the latest offers on holidays to budget-friendly travel destinations across Europe and beyond plus travel tips on some of world's best places.

Kirsten Henton

Kirsten Henton is Weather2Travel.com's editor. Kirsten writes, commissions and edits our travel features, liaising with our contributors and ensuring copy is spick-and-span. A member of the British Guild of Travel Writers, Kirsten also freelances writing articles on travel, history and the outdoors for titles such as Scotland Magazine and BBC Travel.

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