SA: world's 2nd cheapest holiday

South Africa is one of the most affordable holiday destinations in the world. This emerged from the latest annual American Express Foreign Exchange Holiday Cost of Living Index, which compares prices in the world's top 12 holiday resort areas.

Even with the current strength of the rand, South Africa offered significant value for British holidaymakers, finishing second overall to Thailand.

South Africa was ranked the cheapest on five of the 14 shopping items surveyed - comparing prices of items such as drinks, meals, camera film, sunscreen, postcards and car hire - making it the country with the highest number of cheapest items.

SA was the cheapest country for a lager (65p), a bottle of Coca-Cola (46p), suncream factor 15 (£1.16), 24-shot camera film (74p), and a three-course dinner for two including wine (£26.03).

Italy, previously thought to be one of Europe's more expensive resort areas, proved cheapest of the six euro zone countries surveyed and the only one where costs fell compared with 2004.

Using information researched by national tourist boards for each of the 12 countries surveyed, American Express found that prices varied by around £90 for the same items.

The cheapest, with a combined shopping bill for all 14 items of just £65.70 (R795), was Thailand, 6% down on 2004. South Africa was next cheapest with a shopping bill of £67.68 (R820).

The study also showed that the cost of holidaying in both Australia and America had dropped by about 20% in the past 12 months, assisted by a strong exchange rate for sterling. Prices in Australia dropped by around 20%, while in the US costs were down by 9% in addition to the previous year's drop of 24%.

Italy's shopping basket total dropped by 9% to £73.96 (R895), while costs rose in Spain, Portugal, Greece, France and Ireland - most noticeably in Spain and Ireland, where the bill grew by around 26% each over 2004.

The survey also looked at the cost of hiring a car for three days as part of the holiday experience, asking car-hire firm Hertz to quote rates for all 12 countries. At just under £37 for three days' hire, Spain proved the cheapest, while Norway cost £139.62 - almost four times as much.

"As was the case last year, the 2005 cost of living chart demonstrates clearly that one currency does not mean one price," said American Express' Brandon Welsh.

"The costs vary significantly for every item that we surveyed - by £2.03 for a bottle of Coke bought in a café and £1.41 for a large bottle of supermarket mineral water, for example," Welsh said. "Overall, the cost in Italy was virtually half that in Ireland for the same 13 items."

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African Holiday Destinations and Safari Tours