THE strong pound is making top winter sun destinations more affordable for UK holidaymakers, according to a Post Office Travel Money survey.
Those visiting resorts such as Tenerife, Lanzarote and Paphos in Cyprus are now getting five per cent more for their money than a year ago.
In some long-haul destinations, the local currency has dipped even more against sterling. Britons going to Cancun in Mexico will get 8.2 per cent more for their money than last year, while visitors to Tokyo will see their money stretching 9.1 per cent further.
In terms of a seven-night package holiday plus seven evening meals, Lanzarote offers the best-value for money for a winter-sun destination, with such a package costing £278 per person.
The next-best resort is Paphos (£283), followed by Tenerife (£309) and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt where the package costs £408 despite a 1.2 per cent dip in the pound's value in Egypt since last year.
The pound has also dipped against the US dollar in the last 12 months - so visitors to Orlando in Florida, for example, will get 4.3 per cent less for their money.
But Caribbean destinations are more affordable than a year ago, while the pound is 4.8 per cent stronger against the South African rand.
Andrew Brown of Post Office Travel Money said: "Although European winter sun holidays are unbeatable on price, the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh is also great value with packages pegged at 2013 levels to make them a compelling proposition for bargain hunters.
"Further afield, the continuing strength of sterling against currencies for some of the most popular long haul beach destinations will make these attractive to wallet watchers as well -particularly in Mexico and Jamaica where the pound has risen in value recently."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article