Brits' favourite European city break has £20 flights and pints from £1.80

28 November 2023 , 11:33

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Krakow was found to be excellent value for money (Image: Getty Images)

Krakow and Valencia are Brits joint favourite city break destinations, according to a new study.

In a survey of 1,600 people Krakow scored a full five stars for its cultural sites and attractions, and boasts a wealth of historic gems, from the famous Wawel Royal Castle to its town hall tower. Visitors can spend hours drinking in the atmosphere in the city’s medieval square, the largest of its kind in Europe, or head out to explore the sights in the city’s vibrant Jewish quarter.

Just a few miles outside of the city, the Wieliczka salt mine also proved popular with survey respondents, with one visitor saying they were ‘amazed’ by the scale of the underground attraction. As well as there being loads to do there, it is also cheap.

Flights to Krakow can be bagged regularly for around £20 while accommodation is cheap. The cost of a flight from the UK and two nights in the M29 hotel - which is rated four stars by guests - is just £133 per person. Data from Kayak revealed that on average, it has the cheapest average hotel room rate of any destination in the survey at just £65 per night - £143 less than Paris, the destination with the most expensive average room rates.

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The beautiful city of Valencia came joint top in the poll (Getty Images)

Krakow is also famed for its cheap pints, with domestic beer costing an average of £3 according to Discover Krakow. It wasn't the only city to impress.

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Visitors to Valencia awarded it five stars for attractions in the Which? survey, praising the city’s blend of old and new, with its charming old town sitting in sharp contrast to the ‘spectacular’ and ‘futuristic’ City of Arts and Sciences.

The latter is home to attractions including an open air oceanographic park, opera house, museum of science and planetarium. Valencia also scored five stars for food and drink, with one traveller claiming it to be a ‘foodie's paradise’, and four stars for ease of getting around, with visitors noting that it’s a ‘compact, walkable city’ with the beach and city centre both easily accessible. It also scored four stars for accommodation and value for money, with a hotel room costing £113 a night on average.

Locations included in the survey were rated on seven criteria, including food and drink, accommodation, cultural sights and attractions, shopping, ease of getting around, lack of crowds and value for money. An overall customer score was calculated based on overall satisfaction and likeliness to recommend.

In third place was Stockholm, with a destination score of 91%. The Swedish capital scored five stars for ease of getting around, and four stars for food and drink, accommodation and cultural sites and attractions. Visitors praised the ABBA museum as ‘great fun’ while the Vasa museum also proved popular, offering an ‘unmissable’ opportunity to see a salvaged 17th century warship. The city did fall down on value for money however, receiving just two stars in this category.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel said: "The weak pound has made holidays to most European countries more expensive for British holidaymakers, but our survey shows that looking beyond the most famous destinations for your next city break pays off. Whether you’re after a getaway packed with cultural sights or a foodie escape, the top-rated destinations in our survey this year all have something unique to offer, from the medieval charm of Krakow, to the sun-soaked beaches of Valencia."