Sarajevo rates as Europe’s best value city for a short break, leading a clean sweep by five emerging city destinations at the top of Post Office Travel Money’s latest cost comparison report. In its 2026 City Costs Barometer1, this year featuring a record 50 cities, Eastern Europe again dominates the best value chart, taking eight of the top 10 places. However, French cities Lille (7th) and Strasbourg (9th) have broken the eastern stranglehold and offer Britons the option to travel by train rather than plane.
At £248 for 12 tourist items including accommodation, meals and drinks, city transport and entry to cultural attractions, Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia & Hercegovina, tops the best value rankings and is one of 12 cities added to the City Costs Barometer this year2. Four more of these – Bucharest (£258, Romania), Tirana (£263, Albania), Belgrade (£265, Serbia) and Trenĉin (£272, Slovakia) – complete the top five. All five now offer direct flights from the UK3 and are being tipped by travel experts as ‘next generation’ city break options.
In sixth position, Latvian capital Riga (£278) is the highest placed of the more established cities and continues to benefit from competitively priced hotels. Two nights’ three-star accommodation costs £140, second cheapest in the survey behind Tirana (£128). Vilnius, Lithuania (7th, £289) and Podgorica, Montenegro (10th, £332) complete the top 10 cities. However, prices have risen by over 10 per cent in all three capitals.
With uncertainty about jet fuel availability this summer, Britons preferring to travel by train or ferry and car to their destination have 10 destinations to choose from, including long time city break favourites Paris (£575) and Amsterdam (£609)4. Two of these cities feature in the best value top 10 priced by Post Office. At £289, barometer costs have fallen by 1.3 per cent year-on-year in seventh-placed Lille, a Eurostar favourite. New introduction Strasbourg (£319) is in ninth place.
Laura Plunkett, Head of Travel Money at Post Office, the UK’s largest provider of foreign currency, said: “The low prices we found in Lille and Strasbourg make them compelling choices for British holidaymakers who want to take a short break in Europe but prefer the idea of surface rather than air travel this year. There are excellent direct Eurostar options to Lille, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, while several other cities can be reached by a combination of Eurostar and high-speed local services. Interestingly, our research found that Lille and Strasbourg are now less expensive than past champions Athens and Lisbon.”
Prices have risen by 22 per cent to £358 in Lisbon and by over 12 per cent in Athens to £373. As a result, the Portuguese capital has dropped from fifth last year to 16th place now. Similarly, the Greek capital has fallen six places to 19th in this year’s City Costs Barometer table.
Post Office research found that costs for tourist items have risen by over 20 per cent in seven of the 38 cities that were also surveyed last year (Gdansk, Helsinki, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Porto, Prague and Warsaw)5. Higher prices for hotel stays – most likely the result of demand outstripping supply – account for the increased costs6. For the same reason there have been year-on-year price falls in seven cities (Florence, Lille, Nice, Rome, Salzburg, Stockholm and Venice). The largest overall price fall of 11.2 per cent has been in Stockholm, where accommodation has plummeted by 25 per cent.
Turning to the four UK capitals, Cardiff is easily the best value with a barometer cost of £378 – on par with last year’s result. Prices for meals, drinks and transport are among the cheapest in Europe but higher accommodation costs than in many continental competitors means the Welsh capital takes 21st place in the table. Prices in Belfast (33rd, £509) and London (34th, £528) are significantly higher but like Cardiff have remained at 2025 levels. By comparison, Edinburgh (48th, £668) is again one of Europe’s most expensive cities, with barometer costs up 10 per cent on the back of high hotel prices.
Echoing last year’s results, Oslo (£734) and Copenhagen (£671) are the most expensive of the 50 cities surveyed. Barometer totals in the two Scandinavian cities are more than twice those in the 10 best value cities.
Meal prices continue to vary quite dramatically across Europe. A three-course meal with wine costs less than £66 in the five cities rated cheapest for eating out but over £180 in the most expensive – Oslo and Geneva7. Interestingly, meal costs in Portugal continue to be competitively priced despite the overall price rises in these cities this year. Lisbon is second cheapest (£59), while Porto (£66) has the fifth cheapest meal prices of the 50 cities surveyed.
Post Office Travel Money’s Laura Plunkett said: “Despite concerns about rising prices abroad, there are many European cities offering great value for money. Sterling has remained fairly strong but, in these challenging times, it will pay holidaymakers to do their homework before booking to see where their pounds are likely to stretch furthest, even for short breaks.”
The Post Office is the UK’s leading foreign currency provider, offering over 60 currencies for pre-order at around 7,000 Post Office branches or online at www.postoffice.co.uk/travel-money for next day branch or home delivery. 3,600 larger Post Office branches stock the leading currencies and over 7,000 offer euros over the counter without pre-order. These can also be ordered online for same day ‘click and collect’ at selected branches, next day collection at any branch or home delivery.
The full results of the 2026 Post Office Travel Money City Costs Barometer can be found in the attached tables or viewed online at: postoffice.co.uk/citycosts.
