Lake District four times more expensive than Lake Garda as UK holiday prices soar

The cost of holiday accommodation in the UK has increased by 41 per cent since 2019

A week at a hotel in Lake Garda, Italy cost a quarter of the equivalent in the UK’s Lake District (iStock/Getty Images/xbrchx)

A week in the Lake District costs four times as much as a week in Italy’s Lake Garda, according to new research by Which?.

Research by the independent consumer champion examined the average cost of private holiday rentals, hotels and taking a holiday in various UK locations – and found that, in almost every case, staycations were pricier than going abroad.

One example was a seven-night holiday in a highly rated hotel in Lake Garda, Italy.

At £631, the accommodation cost was nearly a quarter of the price of a comparable holiday in the Lake District, where seven nights for two people near Lake Windermere cost £2,381.

International trips worked out cheaper than UK breaks, even when airfare or petrol costs were factored into the price.

Based on the fact that the average UK resident travels 310 miles for a UK holiday, Which? set the typical cost of driving to a local destination at £43.

The cost of private accommodation in Brighton has nearly doubled in two years (Which?)

Despite this being considerably cheaper than return flights to Italy for two – £171 on average – the total cost of a holiday in Lake Windermere still worked out £1,600 more expensive than one in Lake Garda.

Prices for private holiday accommodation in the UK have increased by 41 per cent on average since 2019 , found Which?.

The only holiday that worked out cheaper was a seven-night break in the seaside town of Tenby, Wales (£923) compared to Estepona on the Costa del Sol in Spain, which worked out as just £10 more expensive (£933).

Many people are choosing to stay in the UK for their holidays this year, to avoid the pricey Covid testing and complex admin required by most countries open to British travellers.

A Department for Transport (DfT) survey in March found that, of over 2,200 UK adults polled, only 37 per cent felt comfortable going on a leisure trip abroad between June-September 2021.

While the pandemic is partly responsible for driving up the cost of staycations, Which? found that, even before Covid, the UK was already among the most expensive holiday destinations in Europe.

According to data from Kayak, the average nightly rate of three-star and four-star hotels in the UK in 2019 was £109 – 21 per cent more expensive than Spain, 35 per cent more than Portugal and 79 per cent more than Malta, on average.