Strong £ boosts holiday budgets

POST OFFICE Travel Money reports that thanks to the strong £, people planning holidays abroad could have more than  £100 extra to spend when changing £500 into foreign currency … if  they pick their destination carefully.

Sterling has risen year-on-year against all of the Post Office’s top 40 holiday currencies and by at least 10 percent against most of them.  As a result holidaymakers will be quids-in in all the most popular overseas destinations – including transatlantic hotspots and Far Eastern favourites.

Transatlantic travellers visiting the Caribbean will have most to gain in Jamaica where the powerful pound will buy 28 percent more Jamaican dollars than a year ago.  Plummeting prices in island restaurants mean local costs are down as well.

Closer to home, the best deals will be for city break holidaymakers planning trips to Russian cities or to Prague and Budapest, the cheapest cities in the Post Office City Costs Barometer. The Russian ruble has dropped in value by over nine percent since the beginning of 2014 and is currently worth 29 percent less against the pound than last February, giving visitors £113 extra cash when they change £500.  People planning trips to Prague will have just under £62 extra cash from a £500 currency exchange.

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