Laura Whitcombe

Why I welcome the soaring costs of a holiday tipple

I thought I’d be a pretty cheap date on holiday abroad this summer. I’ve abstained from all alcohol for the past eight months, including my beloved Siglo rioja, as I get ready to become a mum. So I expected the savings we’d make by only one of us drinking while on our road trip through France and Italy to offset the crazily expensive road tolls we clocked up as we travelled through the Mont Blanc tunnel, passing over the top of Milan to get to Venice. Boy, was I wrong.

In most of the restaurants and cafes we visited it was actually cheaper to order a glass of wine than a soft drink. An Orangina was easily €3.50 in Annecy, Strasbourg and Lake Garda. But in Lake Como and Venice, things got silly. A can of Coca-Light (that’s continental for Diet Coke) while eating often cost €5. In St Mark’s Square one evening, we were stupid enough to pay €20 for a small bottle of water and an Amaretto. Of course, we knew we were paying over the odds to soak up the atmosphere of this particular tourist hotspot on our last holiday as non-parents but it seems the price we’ve paid for drinks abroad has soared in the 11 years we’ve been away together.

In fact, it’s now possible for a family of four to travel to Europe for less than the cost of the drinks – alcoholic and soft – they will consume during a week’s hotel stay. Direct Line Travel Insurance found EasyJet flights for this month available through Skyscanner for two adults and two children under 12 between London Southend airport and Paris’s Charles de Gaulle for a total of £209. However, Direct Line also discovered that a family visiting France this summer will spend 50 per cent more than these flight costs.

Its number crunching of hotel prices revealed an average bar bill of £307 per week for a family of four, including two children.

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