It’s enough to make you drop your chips – official figures show that over the past five years the price of a takeaway fish supper has risen by more than 50%.
A portion of fish and chips isn’t the only British summer break staple that has become far more expensive since then: hotel, restaurant and bar bills have also all shot up.
The soaring costs come as more and more Britons choose to take trips within the UK. Results from the latest VisitBritain poll, released late last month, indicate that the boom in domestic holidays that began at the height of the Covid crisis has not subsided: 75% of Britons said they planned an overnight UK trip in the next year, up five percentage points on last summer.
According to the Travel Association’s Holiday Habits travel survey, Britons took an average 2.3 holidays in the UK last year, up from an average of 1.8 in 2018. Here’s how much the essentials of a classic British getaway have risen in price over that period:
While the biggest individual cost of any stay is a hotel room, restaurant prices have also shot up. Fish and chips by the seaside is often described as a national treasure but for some the dish may feel as if it now costs a king’s ransom, coming in at £9.29 in June, up more than a pound in a year.
If you are planning on holidaying with friends, the cost of your round will have jumped considerably. The combined bill for a premium lager, vodka tonic, whisky and a mineral water cost almost £16 in June, well over a pound a round more than last year.
Bringing the same group bowling will cost considerably less: a game in a tenpin bowling alley would have set you back £7.41 in June, a 1.9% year-on-year increase and well under overall inflation.
Prefer sitting on the hotel balcony with a good paperback? You’re better off: this year’s bestseller is one of the few items on our list that has increased in price by less than annual rate inflation (7.9% in the year to June).
And maybe you should choose to sit in the shade: suncream is rising at a higher rate than inflation at 17%, a full 99p higher than a year ago.