The Most and Least Affordable Places to Spend Your Holiday Vacation

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Sure, there are plenty of hidden expenses in Mexico that creep up during vacations. But Playa del Carmen is the No. 1 the best affordable place to spend your holiday vacation. With the sixth-best hotel score, hotels in Playa del Carmen beat the per night rate in Cabo San Lucas, as does airfare during the holidays.
Similar to Cabo, taxis, restaurants and alcohol are quite cheaper compared to other destinations. But you could potentially save even more money by identifying cheap vacation packages. According to data from Expedia, people traveling internationally who book travel as a package can expect to save the most in Mexico. Destination packages, including Cancun and Playa del Carmen, are providing savings of more than 25 percent.

Methodology: This study ranked 32 popular holiday tourist destinations and examined five factors — hotels, flights, taxi fare, food and drink — divided up into three categories:

1. Hotel Score, based on hotel prices using the three lowest nightly rates and calculating the average cost for Thanksgiving week (Nov. 20 to Nov. 26, 2016) and Christmas week (Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, 2016); hotel costs were sourced from Hotels.com on 9/21/2016. 2)
2. Flight Score, based on flight prices sourced from Google Flights on 9/21/16. For each city, the cheapest round-trip fare for each destination was calculated based on flight prices for both Thanksgiving week (Nov. 20 to Nov. 26, 2016) and Christmas week (Dec. 22 to Dec. 28, 2016) from the two largest airports in the U.S., ATL and LAX.
3.  Food, Drink and Cab Score, based on the average cost of taxi fare, a meal at an inexpensive restaurant, a meal for two at a mid-range restaurant, soft drinks and domestic beer, sourced from Numbeo on 9/21/2016.

Each factor was given a score of 0-1 (with 0 being the cheapest) and weighted equally against each other for a total combined score.
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Las Vegas

Out of the U.S. destinations on our list, Las Vegas has the best holiday hotel score. Thanksgiving and Christmas airfare to Las Vegas is affordable too, as the city boasts the best flight score as well.
There is a very notable drawback to a holiday vacation in Las Vegas: cab fare. Costing $4 per mile, on average, taxi fares in Las Vegas are the second-most expensive of all the American cities on our list, behind Honolulu.



 

 Bangkok

Traveling to Bangkok for the holidays can be cheap in some areas — and expensive in other. Costing an average of $6 a night over the holidays, Bangkok hotels offer the cheapest cost per night for accommodations on our list.

However, the money you save on hotels might have to go into airfare, considering Bangkok has the fifth-worst holiday flight score. Once you’re there, however, take advantage of cheap daily expenses — the city posts the second-best food, drink and cab score.


 

London

Like Paris, London isn't easy on your wallet when it comes to sustenance. London posted the worst food, drink and cab score thanks largely to the most expensive average taxi fare and the priciest low-range restaurant cost.

Because taxi fare is expensive, try saving money on transportation in London by grabbing an Oyster Card to get cheaper fares on the subway. "Use public transportation as much as possible," said Bryan Tighe, co-founder of BudgetYourTrip. "Hiring taxis is very expensive when you can take the bus, subway, etc. Walk whenever possible."

This travel tip doesn't only apply to London, however — oftentimes, public transportation will be your cheapest option in any city you visit during the holidays.



 

How much are you planning to spend on your Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation? With many people likely to travel this year, demand for hotels and flights might increase during the holiday season.

To help you get a better picture of how much money you should save for holiday travel,

GOBankingRates.com ranked 32 popular vacation destinations — inside and outside the U.S. — based on airfare, lodging costs and daily expenses during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
 Click through to see the best affordable holiday vacation destinations — and the worst.


 

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Hotels in Cabo San Lucas are cheaper than most places on our list, but not as cheap as the No. 1 best affordable place to spend your holiday vacation. Cabo is also a bit more expensive to fly to Cabo versus the No. 1 vacation spot.
What is great for your wallet is the low cost of daily expenses and necessities. Boasting the best food, drink and cab score, Cabo offers the third-cheapest taxi fares, the cheapest mid-range restaurant price and cheapest price of domestic beer on our list.