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Cheapest UK cities for a weekend break
In this article
- The best-value UK city breaks
- Wells 86%, Airbnb / Vrbo £118, hotel £93
- Liverpool 84%, Airbnb / Vrbo £115, hotel £109
- York 83%, Airbnb / Vrbo £121, hotel £116
- Chester 80%, Airbnb / Vrbo £112, hotel £107
- UK city Airbnbs for under £100 a night
- The best-value city breaks in the UK
- Best and worst seaside towns
Hotel rooms in the best city in the country for a short break, according to our latest survey, cost just £93 a night.
That’s over £50 a night less than those in London or Edinburgh.
Visitors to top-rated Wells in Somerset rated it four stars for value for money, but they also loved its historic sights and very reasonable accommodation.
We’ve taken a look at the best -value destinations in our annual city break survey - and crunched data on average hotel or Airbnb (and Vrbo) prices to see which are the cheapest.
The best-value UK city breaks
23 cities in our most recent survey of the best and worst UK city breaks got four stars for value for money. Four of these got an overall score of over 80% - with excellent ratings for things such as cultural sites, food and drink or accommodation - as well as reasonable rates for hotels or Airbnbs.
The highest rated was tiny Wells.
Wells 86%, Airbnb / Vrbo £118, hotel £93
Despite having a population of just over 12,000 Wells is officially a city - thanks to its 850-year-old cathedral - the seat of the Bishops of Bath and Wells.
It topped our small cities table with an excellent score of 86% and gets four stars for lack of crowds and value for money. This (relative) lack of visitors may explain why hotel prices are still below £100 - even if a one-room Airbnb is a bit more expensive.
Wells also received four stars for cultural sites, tourist attractions and accommodation. Vicar’s Close, just round the corner from the cathedral, is described as the only complete medieval street in England.
Liverpool 84%, Airbnb / Vrbo £115, hotel £109
You’ll struggle to find anywhere decent to stay in central Liverpool for less than £100 a night but visitors still thought it was more than worth it.
It topped our large cities table with a score of 84%. Visitors loved cultural sights such as the museums at Albert Dock, the Walker Gallery, its two cathedrals and the Beatles museum.
It got five stars for cultural sights and four stars for accommodation, shopping and lack of crowds.
York 83%, Airbnb / Vrbo £121, hotel £116
York is one of the UK’s most beautiful cities, with its ancient walls and medieval streets such as the famous Shambles.
Unsurprisingly, it’s not cheap for a night’s stay, but its city score was second only to Liverpool in our survey (and level with Edinburgh). Be warned that it got just two stars for lack of crowds and one star for parking. If you want a bit more space, try Chester, Lincoln or Durham.
However, five stars for cultural sites and four stars for almost everything else means it’s still worth a visit.
Chester 80%, Airbnb / Vrbo £112, hotel £107
Just south of Liverpool, Cheshire’s cathedral city is a pleasure to walk around.
It gets four stars for lack of crowds, cultural sights and food and drink. In the cobbled centre, shops squat on top of each other in half-timbered, double-decker arcades known as the Rows. Although most are Victorian replicas, some original 13th-century buildings remain.
UK city Airbnbs for under £100 a night
Hull, Sheffield, Norwich, Shrewsbury, Worcester and Portsmouth all got four stars for value for money in our survey and all have one-bedroom Airbnbs or Vrbo apartments available for under £100. Hotel rooms are even cheaper, with a room in Hull just £76 - half the price of Edinburgh.
The highest-rated city with Airbnb or Vrbo accommodation for less than £100 a night on average was Portsmouth, which got a score of 74% and four-star ratings for accommodation and cultural sights.
The best-value city breaks in the UK
The cities and towns that got four stars for value for money in our latest survey
City | Average hotel price | Average Airbnb or Vrbo price (one-bedroom flat) | City score |
Hull | £76 | £84 | 66% |
Sheffield | £83 | £90 | 63% |
Plymouth | £89 | £103 | 66% |
Lincoln | £89 | £105 | 78% |
Worcester | £90 | £96 | 77% |
Newcastle-upon-Tyne | £90 | £108 | 75% |
Wells, Somerset | £93 | £118 | 86% |
Averages for a one-bedroom flat on Airbnb or Vrbo provided by analysts Airdna. Hotel prices are averages for a double room in three or four-star hotels, provided by online accommodation booking site Kayak. Prices for both are averages from May 2023 to April 2024. N/A means there was no data available for St David’s hotel prices. City score In April 2024, we asked 3,967 Which? members to rate UK cities and towns they’d visited for leisure purposes and stayed in for at least one night in the past two years (since April 2022). We received reports of 7,187 experiences.
Best and worst seaside towns
Many of the UK’s best-loved towns and cities are along the coast. However, some of the most famous seaside towns appear near the bottom of our list of 120 towns - while the top-rated destinations are not so wellknown.
Take a look at our guide to the best and worst seaside towns before booking your next trip.
Or, if you prefer something tucked away inland, try our survey of the best and worst towns and villages.