Which? reveals the UK’s favourite European city break destinations
The consumer champion asked more than 1,600 members to rate their experiences of cities across Europe to create a list of the best destinations for a cultural city break.
Locations 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.
Heading the list of 31 popular destinations were Krakow in Poland and Valencia in Spain, with impressive scores of 92 per cent.
Krakow has proven enduringly popular in the survey, marking its fourth time in the top spot, while Valencia was previously named the UK’s favourite European coastal destination in a separate Which? survey earlier this year.
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 while away the 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.The city also scored five stars for food and drink, and was among the three highest scoring destinations for value for money, receiving four stars. 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.
Visitors to Valencia awarded it five stars for attractions, lauding the city’s intriguing 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.
Close behind was Stockholm, with a destination score of 91 per cent. 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.
Tied in third place with a score of 89 per cent were Berlin, Funchal and Seville.
Germany’s capital city scored five stars for ease of getting around, with one respondent noting that there is ‘so much to see and visit and all within a relatively compact area’. It also received five stars for its cultural sites and attractions, which include the Berlin Wall memorial, Brandenburg Gate and Pergamonmuseum. It scored four stars both for accommodation and for quality of food and drink.
Funchal, the largest city on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, scored five stars for accommodation and for food and drink, with visitors praising the array of restaurants to choose from in the old town district. It scored highly for ease of getting around, and was also one of just three destinations in the survey to score four stars for value for money, with a hotel room costing £108 a night on average.
Seville, capital of Spain’s sunny Andalusia region, scored five stars for food and drink, as well as for its cultural sites and attractions. Visitors remarked on their enjoyment of the quaint tapas bars, and heaped praise on the city's many spectacular sights, including the ‘infinite beauty’ of both the famous Plaza de Espana and Royal Alcazar. The city was also rated four stars for accommodation and ease of getting around, but scored less highly for value for money and lack of crowds, scoring three and two stars respectively.
Split was the lowest scoring destination, but still achieved a respectable score of 72 per cent. Milan and Brussels were just ahead, tied on 73 per cent,. With a score of 72 per cent, Split was the final city to make it into the best destinations list, with Milan and Brussels, tied on 73 per cent, just ahead. Respondents found plenty to enjoy in Split, praising it as a ‘vibrant city, full of history’ and recommending numerous local attractions, including Diocletian’s Palace and the Archaeological Museum. Being a popular destination however meant it scored slightly lower for lack of crowds, receiving two stars.
Visitors to Milan rated the city four stars for food and drink, though it received lower star ratings in other categories, including just two stars for value for money, and three stars for ease of getting around, cultural sites, and accommodation.
Brussels also scored just two stars in the value for money category, with visitors warning of some ‘overpriced and poor quality’ eateries in the area around the main square, and scored two stars for cultural sites and attractions. Nonetheless, visitors thoroughly enjoyed the city's wider food and drink offering, rating it five stars, with visitors singling out the great beers and chocolate shops on offer.
Geneva, Hamburg, Istanbul, Monte Carlo and Naples were among the cities that did not make the list of most popular destinations as they did not have enough responses.
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.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
-Which? surveyed 1,637 members of its online panel in October 2023 about their experiences visiting European cities in the past year. Results are based on 2,458 experiences.
- Only cities with more than 30 responses are included in the results. Other cities rated include Alicante, Antwerp, Bergen, Bologna, Bratislava, Carcassonne, Cologne, Cork, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Gdansk, Geneva, Ghent, Granada, Hamburg, Helsinki, Istanbul, Lille, Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, Naples, Oslo, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Reykjavík, Riga, Rotterdam, Salzburg, Tallinn, Verona, Warsaw and Zurich.
- Customer scores are based on a combination of overall satisfaction and how likely people are to recommend the city as a holiday destination.Average hotel prices based on hotel searches made on Kayak.co.uk for travel between 01/11/22-31/10/23. All prices are average for 1 night in a double room in 3-4 star hotels.
About Which?
Which? is the UK’s consumer champion, here to make life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone. Our research gets to the heart of consumer issues, our advice is impartial, and our rigorous product tests lead to expert recommendations. We’re the independent consumer voice that influences politicians and lawmakers, investigates, holds businesses to account and makes change happen. As an organisation we’re not for profit and all for making consumers more powerful.
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