Mates its not me alone who has seen turkeys prices rising loads of folk have moaned about it, even the locals they have to pay higher rents and with the all ins ruining the trade prices have gone up all over the resorts.

as some of you keep saying turkey is as cheap or dear as you want it to be so that applys to every other country inclufding spain

turkey was cheap years ago but its not now whatever peeps like to say. yeh you will find a cheap watery beer or cheap meal in some places but them places arent what folk wanna spend time in on holiday. these cheapo brekkies and roast sunday dinners
are spratts to catch mackerals.
gb

I agree it may be dear compared to what it was years ago but the fact that Turkey is so popular with so many tourists means that it must still be very good value for money.We love Spain but take our main holidays to Turkey, you may ask why, Turkey has so much more to offer and prices are still so much better ,we can do so much more and still spend a lot less.
Bulgaria is supposed to be cheap at the moment but when the locals realise that we ,as tourist have greater spending power than they have ,they too, will raise their prices.
Spain,in turn, may have to lower their prices in order to get a share of our money.We only go there to visit friends now ,as they live miles from the tourist area prices are pretty good but there is very little to do except enjoy their company and go out for nice meals.

Sadly the days of getting a large Efes for 25p are indeed long gone. Also the joy of watching the exchange rate and prices race each other throughout your holiday, with menus being regularly amended with layers of stickers!

I've recently been looking at a variety of possible holiday destinations and it's interesting when you read the reviews. Many people include complaints about how expensive food and drink is now in locations including Turkey, Greece and Spain. The usual rule seems to work that (where possible) it's best to head for the back streets and eat with the locals to get good value. Or head away from the Med/Eurozone completely.

I went to Crete last year (as well as Turkey) and found some things cheaper and some dearer. For example meals were more expensive but they were generally much bigger portions then some of our experiences in Turkey and and often with a free drink thrown in.

I saw some of the coverage about how Spain is supposed to be the bargain destination this year and after looking at a lot of holidays and weighing things up (both the cost and whether we really want a fortnight in some of these places?) it looks as though we're heading back to Turkey

Friends have just returned from goa they loved it and found it very very good value for money,so much so they have already booked to go back for three weeks next February , however they paid around 200 pounds more per person for the holiday than they would have for the Turkish equivalent .It is well known the president /prime minister (whatever) recep thingie me bob has taxed alcohol and fags so prices are naturally going to spiral, as he allegedly said if you don't like it stop drinking ,smoking and drive a fiat (as he put a tax on prestige cars) so the days of a cheap pint/spirit and mixer are well gone and unless we are willing to pay extra and sit ona plane for 8/10 hours hard to come by anywhere in Europe although Bulgaria is still reasonable I'm told but personally I would rather stand on the town hall naked than return there !!!!!

I went to Rhodes last May for a change as we normally go to Turkey.
We found it a lot more expensive especially the taxi fares.The hotel was even charging 4euro for books that guests leave for others to read.
We went to Turkey in October and stayed in the old village area of Icmeler and found the prices very reasonable.
There was a bar in the main resort where Efes was 53p,a few pence more for shandy!
I am off to Spain,well Fuerteventura,on Wednesday and it will be interesting to compare prices as we are back to Turkey in May.

We have been pricing up holiday to various places as we wanted to try somewhere other than Turkey this year but I have just found that accomodation is so much more expensive anywhere else. For the same price we could get a not too brilliant 2 bed apartment in Italy or Greece or we could have a gorgeous 3 bed private villa with a pool in Turkey.

Looks like it will probably be Turkey again for us

I say it's horses for courses. So much can depend on a holiday. You can't really compare like for like within one country let alone compare two countries fairly. As we all know you can find cheap watering holes and more expensive ones, cheap eateries and more expensive ones etc, etc, and that's within a resort as well as within the country. So whether it be Turkey, Spain or anywhere else you spend what you can afford.

I've been to both Turkey and Spain and found Turkey more expensive. That is to say, I found Olu Deniz more expensive than La carihuela in the CDS. I'm basing my comparison on the price of food and drink which is what i spent most of my money on. There were far more places selling cheap alcohol and food in La Carihuela than what there were in Olu Deniz. However, the trips may have worked out cheaper in Olu It all depends on what you're after.

All you can do is to compare two resorts and to say that one country is cheaper than another is imo daft.

We went to Tunisia last December about a week before the troubles,it was very cheap and we thoroughly enjoyed the holiday ,however if you do like a tipple then it isn't the place to go.a coffee and a croissant was 60 pence in Sousse centre a beer and a tea 1.75 (also in Sousse)port el kantoui was more expensive but a lovely little place to visit,a meal out was typically around 5/10 quid depending on what you had, we were all in so we didn't really eat out but if you fancy a change try the kathargo el ksar in Sousse friendly staff nice beach not far from Sousse or kantoui and cheap too but not for you if you like a good drink

The way I look at it, I love Turkey and would hate not to visit it many times a year - I would hate to go anywhere else just because it was cheaper for drinks and food (if that is the case). I know I can eat and drink cheaper in Turkey than I can in the UK - and that's good enough for me

Jak xx

Reflecting on the original post, we are, after all, talking about the DAILY MAIL here, who would not be staying in the places that normal Joe Public do. The people who read this particular newspaper wouldn't be the slightest bit worried about what this years holiday is going to cost them. National newspapers are renowned for scaremongering, no matter what the subject is and so it is best to ignore them. Spain has got the Euro which has caused countries with it, major problems. Turkey has the Lira, we changed some sterling on Thursday and got a rate of 2.75. When you go back three years, you were perhaps only getting 2.15 which is a big difference when you are on a tight budget.

Les

First time I've heard the Mail being referred to as the newspaper for the wealthy reader who isn't worried about what their holiday will cost. The Mail is after all just a tabloid newspaper that appeals to the masses and wouldn't be running such a story if they didn't think that it would be of interest to their core readers who I suspect are just as interested in saving money as anyone else. But like many newspaper reports take what you read with a pinch of salt. Just do your own research before booking a holiday, starting here on HT is one way to go, there are members living or visiting the various countries on a regular basis who can give up to date information on prices etc.

Cruisecontroller wrote:

The people who read this particular newspaper wouldn't be the slightest bit worried about what this years holiday is going to cost them.

lol - I read the Daily Mail and I am not so wealthy I don't have to worry about the price of my holiday. If only

lol cruisecontroller i totally get where you are coming from ,i think the daily mail travel section would probally consider center parks reasonable value for a short family break !!!!!!

I wouldn't believe anything the Daily Mail says. Lazy journalists working for newspaper that loves to 'stick one on Johnny Foreigner.' In the course of one week they must have dozens of anti European 'stories' that don't stand up to scrutiny. Buy a proper newspaper rather than this tripe.

You're shooting the messenger (the Daily Mail) which has published an article based on the figures provided by the Post Office Travel Barometer.
The prices are based on putting the same items into a shopping basket in ONE resort in ONE country and comparing one with the other.
The article is quite correct saying that the prices in Spain have come down or you could say they have been stagnant for the last couple of years, and to give just one example, a cup of coffee is still the same price as it was 3 years ago, despite the prices of electricity, bottled Gas, fuel and a bottle of milk having incurred substantial increases.

The barometer is just a rough guide and it doesn't take into consideration a number of factors, for example, which supermarket they bought the items from or the resort.
Shopping in supermarkets such as Maxi Dia or Lidl and buying local produce and brands will always be cheaper than shopping in Mercadona and putting British imported brands into your shopping basket.
The Costa del Sol is a large area of Spain and that's where the barometer has based the prices of eating out in a local restaurant and it hasn't specified one resort.
What do they call a local restaurant? Have they taken a survey of the prices in all the average local restaurants, because the cost of eating out will differ greatly between eating with the Spanish locals in Torremolinos and dining in a local restaurant on the quayside in Marbella.
Benidorm on the Costa Blanca is cheaper than anywhere on the Costa del Sol and I can base that statement on the fact that I have visited both regions at the same time of the year and I do the same things, but I've always had to take more money to the CDS.

So, you could go on forever 'nit picking' the article, but if you take the article and the results of the survey as a rough guide, Spain is cheaper than Turkey"¦.Spain lost out 'big time' when the prices of everyday commodities took a price hike, combined with the abysmal exchange rate and the tourist industry pushing Turkey, so they have responded and adjusted their prices to take back their share of the tourism market.
There are a lot of people who go to Spain who still try and live in the past comparing the Euro with the peseta prices, and IMO that's what will happen with the tourists who have been visiting Turkey for many years, as Turkey focusses on joining the EU, because the workers will want the same rights and pay structure as their fellow European workers, which will only mean one thing"¦.a price hike passed down to the customer to cover the wages increase.

It really boils down to this, I love Spain and don't like Turkey, Some of you will love Turkey and not like Spain, so the prices will never alter my opinion and neither will they alter yours, so while ever you can afford to go, you'll go.

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/sites/default/files/Holiday_Costs_Barometer_2012.pdf

Sanji

sanji wrote:

You're shooting the messenger (the Daily Mail) which has published an article based on the figures provided by the Post Office Travel Barometer.

That's my point. Lazy journalism churning out an article based on the vaguest of surveys and passing it off as fact.

I wouldn't hold your breath on the europe issue , the current president is very focused on Islam and the village whispers are if he remains in power then there is a strong possibility that turkey will become more like Iran in that religion will play a big part in the running of the country, however I have also heard in "village gossip " that if you have piles a hose from a Hoover will sucsessfully remove them or if you digest a dog hair there is a possibility you may become more hairy and dog like (yes really?!!)