Travel price index: How expensive is traveling in various European countries?

Not sure if basing the comparison on purchasing power parities determined by Eurostat is the way to go if the intent is directed at German citizens and their actual cost on holiday; if that is the intent. But okay, that aside, the other issue relative to tourism is are you visiting Austria or are you visiting Vienna, because the cost difference in Vienna might be quite a bit different than the cost averaged across Austria. Then I assume leaving out Hungary was a political act, fine, not that they (the government) don’t bring it on themselves. But at least have the hmmmmm to state it in the report. I would expect to see it just below Tschechische.

All that having been said, I enjoy these for some reason. So, Mark, I appreciate you posting it. More stuff for consideration when planning. Always good if kept in context.

Interesting that it lists Ireland as one of the more expensive countries, I wouldn’t have expected that

I thought it was interesting that they treated Austria and Germany as unified (again).

the other issue relative to tourism is are you visiting Austria or are
you visiting Vienna, because the cost difference in Vienna might be
quite a bit different than the cost averaged across Austria.

Quite correct. Reports like this raise lots of qustions. Higher "demand v. supply" ratios will have you paying higher-than-average prices within a given country. Who cares what hotel prices might be in the Czech Republic if Prague is the only city you will visit? And within a given city like Prague, who cares what the average price of a hotel room is if you are set on choosing only from guidebook-listed hotels (which by their nature drive tourist demand upward)? I assume the alternatives that so many of us use - apartments, private rooms, pensions, agriturismos, hostels, etc. - have not been included in the data samples. Price is also driven by season, of course, and seasonal demand varies heavily from place to place. Perhaps an abundance of places with multiple high seasons (like mountain resorts) skews the average price upward?? And how were included meals handled?

I thought it was interesting that they treated Austria and Germany as unified (again).

Not sure the point, they are two different lines on the graph, though they rank the same in cost, which seems right.

Per the article, the costs are from March 2025. I wonder what the selection of that time of year did to the hotel-cost component of the calculation.

I'm also curious about the omissions: United Kingdom, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina (and perhaps others I'm not thinking of).

Costs in Ireland increased greatly after the North Sea oil boom, more or less as in Norway, I believe. Those used to be inexpensive countries to visit.

I was surprised to see Denmark shown as a bit more costly than Norway. Rats; I may finally get to Denmark next year, and I wasn't expecting Norway-level prices.

Costs in Ireland increased greatly after the North Sea oil boom

I think you're getting confused with somewhere else...

The increase in costs in Ireland is more because of the so called 'Tiger Celtic' effect.

Then I assume leaving out Hungary was a political act

I think it is just because Hungary is not under the top 20 non-domestic vacation travel destinations of Germans, so are Finland, Ireland, Great Britain, the three Baltic countries and a few others. No conspiracy, just statistic specialists doing their job.

comparison on purchasing power parities determined by Eurostat

Link to the mentioned statistics table "Price levels for personal transport equipment, transport services, communication, restaurants and hotels", update expected in December.

Mark, I buy that. So Hungary will show up on the Spanish version of this. As the largest tourist group appears to be Spanish.

Not true about Denmark being more expensive than Norway. I typically go to Denmark in July and already have a trip booked this July.
I've had several conversations with people who were recently in Norway.
An interesting conversation with a couple from the UK who described how expensive it was compared to other destinations. Being British, they used the cost of a pint of beer, $30 per pint as an example.
A local woman who has a son living there is working with a environmental research group, his accommodation is paid and he is paid on a Norway salary scale, but going to the grocery store is shockinly expensive.
I do well in Denmark, accommodation is about the same as places I have have been in the last 2 years, Austria, and Sweden for example. Food is not too expensive, grocery stores are about the same or less than here in the US.
Italy, Spain,Slovenia are not anywhere close to Norway costs. I have decided not to go to Norway but I am going to spend 5 days in Finland on the return from Denmark.

The other outlier for expensive countries in Europe is Switzerland, I limit my time there to 2 days or so if flying to Zurich or Geneva as part of my trip.

I was surprised to see Denmark shown as a bit more costly than Norway. Rats; I may finally get to Denmark next year, and I wasn't expecting Norway-level prices.

acraven, I cannot believe that is accurate. I was in Denmark a few years ago and found the prices quite reasonable there; not cheap but not as pricey as those I'm finding in Norway as I plan my upcoming trip. Granted, I was only in Copenhagen but generally the cities are more expensive so I can't imagine that the rest of it would be different.

That said I don't think it's as cheap as Stockholm or the rest of Sweden but it's nowhere near Norway's high prices. An article I read in the Guardian a couple of years ago (and I just looked it up again) suggested that when traveling to Copenhagen, you stay in Malmö instead. It's right across the water and the prices are much less expensive.

Maybe the breakdown is in city vs country. Its like the comment above that Germany and Austria are the same cost. Maybe nationwide costs, but tourism in Vienna vs Munich? I suspect real differences for similar experiences.

I kept a detailed spending of our trip to Norway in September of 2022.

Here are the totals for the categories for 18 days. Included in the incidentals is $255 for airport parking near MSP.

Hotels 2834.04
Flights for 2 1790.5
Trip ins 477.8
Food 1338.04
Incidentals 567.81
Car 1603.42 (included full coverage, gas, ferries, parking in Norway)
Total 8611.61

You can go to Norway without breaking the bank:)

I too wonder about the Denmark/Norway comparison.

Granted, it was 10 years ago, but when our son was on his study abroad in Denmark he said the students from Norway were thrilled to be there as it was significantly cheaper than in Norway.

We were in Norway again in August 2024 and did not find it terribly expensive. However, we are so used to Iceland prices so most places don't seem outlandish to us anymore. That said, Iceland was listed just behind Switzerland and while yes Iceland is overall expensive, you can definitely do it for cheaper than what most people realize.

Travelers, travel price index.
It is NOT Denmark getting more expensive but Norway is getting cheaper - only from tourist perspective paying in EUR which is the scope frame of this index. Compare currency exchange rates DKK/EUR (nearly stability) versus NOK/EUR for the last 10 years.

In other words: only for reasons of currency exchange rates a traveler gets now roughly +20% more services in Norway for his 100 EUR than 5-10 years ago - not so in Denmark.

Statements like "not true" seem to show lack of knowledge about this? The people doing such statistics know their job.

mikliz97, the report is undeniably correct and accurate because it was conducted by Germans and it is on the internet. So, there is no room for doubt. Well of course not. These things are great to open your mind and make you think or give some direction for further exploration. I stop at that point.

This study compares restaurants costs and hotel costs per country. How in the world do you do that? For example, if you were to take the average cost of all hotels in Prague it might be about the same as in Budapest. But if you were to compare those in comparable locations for tourism, Budapest may come out a lot less expensive. And even that is incredibly subjective, how do you quantify the similarity of the location? Well, you can’t. But to compound the problem, this study speaks to countries, not cities. Take a country like the Czech Republic. The overwhelming majority of tourists only see Prague. Prague is probably significantly more expensive than the rest of the country so the country average may have limited validity.

The Norway vs Denmark debate is interesting. A different study, one of cost of living not tourism, says that Cost of living in Denmark is, on average, 17.9% higher than in United Kingdom while the cost of living in Norway is, on average, 25.1% higher than in United Kingdom. (for a similar baseline, the study also says the cost of living in Germany is, on average, 2.4% higher than in United Kingdom). For the numbers to flip, and get so close to each other, for tourism something pretty substantially different would need to exist in the tourism market; and it may. Don’t know.

So, as a tool to get started, maybe the report is okay. For “fact” probably not. The only fact will be once you plan your trip in location A and then in location B and you compare. Socrates: "The man who asks a question is a ...."

I am primarily interested in comparing prices in Austria, France and Germany as they all use the Euro and comparing like vs like, such as the rate for a 2 star hotel or a 3 star hotel, a Schnitzel dinner, (or the French equivalent as listed in French menu), an espresso, and above all, a train ticket bought at the last minute say for a 2 hour regional direct train ride., etc. vis-a-vis what you get for the price (Preis-Leistung Verhältnis)

Other countries on the Euro I am much less interested in such as that of Belgium, Holland , Italy, etc because I don't go to them very often. Countries not using the Euro, such as Poland , Sweden , Czechia, Hungary, etc I compare these prices there relative to the Euro in terms of buying power.