Kitchen Monkey

11 April 2008

Euro eats away our holiday funds:

This week saw the pound fall to its lowest against the Euro falling to 120 to the pound, if you are lucky.

What has this got to do with me you might well ask? It’s one of those hidden costs again that affect all of us in our daily lives.

If you export from the UK, it is good news. As your goods become slightly cheaper abroad. If you are a holiday maker however, things are not so good, put bluntly your 10% worse off.

If you holiday within the euro currency zone like France, Spain, Italy etc you are going to notice the weakness of the pound in the amount you spend during your holiday.

Here are some examples of the difference to you from just last year 2007 to this year’s holiday 2008 abroad within the EU:
-In Spain a round of drinks is now a whole £1 more
-In France a round of drinks is now a whole £2 more
-In Cyprus a cup of coffee has gone up by £1.50 per cup
I know it doesn’t sound much but add the above costs up over a week or 2 week stay and then times this by the number of persons in your party and then it means alot more.

Before you have even gone on holiday, exchanging your sterling to Euros means £500 sterling will be worth only £415 abroad, then add in the cost increases above and you can suddenly see how you’re hard earned holiday money which you have saved for, has diminished in value.

Although this change will not affect the costs of package holidays for 2008 as these prices were set back in September of the previous year, however should it stay like this it could effect next year’s 2009 package holiday prices which would be set in September of 2008.

What can we do about this to make our money go further while away on holiday?
Well, we can look where the local people are eating and eat where they eat; tourist restaurants are always going to charge you more. Plus you can drink local drinks when out and about rather than the branded ones which are cheaper too.

Time of travel is another one. Although the tour operators state they do not put prices up during school holidays, we know the prices go up around this time. We are told this is because these are the very busiest periods of the year in general like Christmas, Easter, Bank Holidays, plus for example Spain go on holiday for the whole of July, while France have the whole of the month of August on holiday. Therefore, we are competing with them during these very busy times which is why the price is more during these times of the year, according to Shaun Tipton, of the ABTA.
However, like myself we all know how impossible it is if you have children at school, college or university to go away on holiday at any other times but these so called busy periods.

The other thing of course you can do is choose an alternative destination outside of the EU or even stay in Britain.

For example, alternatives might be Turkey with their Turkish Lira ( however, having recently visited Turkey the Lira I took with me on advise of our agent was not accepted anywhere they didn’t want to know and would only let you pay in Euros, so be careful).
Try Gibraltar where you can simply take you sterling with you and use it there as this is their currency. Dubai with their currency the dirham and the cheapest place to holiday is apparently South Africa with the rand but the flight is 12 hours.
Or why not escape from all the delayed flights, hours in the airport and then further hours travelling to accommodation at both ends of your flight and holiday in Britain instead.

On my recent visits to Turkey and Italy I was charged 9 Euros for example for a small soft drink. I must admit in certain places it felt as if because we were British it was assumed we were very wealthy and our meals prices etc were reflected in this. So my own personal tip would be, no matter where you are, check the price of everything, meals, drink, taxi etc before you go in so to speak, and if you have too then barter on the price. We British hate to barter but it is something we will all have to get use to doing.

Send me your recent holiday news and views; I would love to hear from you. Email me at jacqui@kitchenmonkey.co.uk.