Caribbean town Gustavia named as the most expensive holiday destination in the world

With the summer holiday season in full motion now, many around the world will be enjoying their summer break or perhaps even making last-minute plans for an immediate vacation.

Travel brand and tourism promoter, Florida Panhandle, set out to conduct a travel survey looking at the average costs of holiday spots around the world, including the 10 most expensive holiday destinations.

The results were based on findings from more than 100 recognised vacation spots around the world. Data was gathered on each place's accommodation rates, daily transportation costs, daily food costs, flight costs and prices for the three most popular attraction sites.

The findings from Florida Panhandle's travel survey found Gustavia, Saint Barthelemy to be the most expensive holiday destination in the world right now. Gustavia is located on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy as its capital and is known for having lovely beaches plus stunning vacation homes and hotels.

The travel survey found that the average daily cost per person for taking a vacation in Gustavia is in the region of £1,441. What contributes to making Gustavia such a costly trip for travellers is that over time the place has garnered a reputation for accommodating wealthy visitors and the produce needs to get imported onto Saint Barthelemy.

The average daily per person figure of £1,441 does not even take into account the costs of travelling and getting to the island. The nearest airport to Gustavia is the Gustaf III Airport and Los Angeles International Airport is the closest major airport to fly out there, and a round-trip from there will cost roughly £2,157.

When looking to dine out and have something to eat in Gustavia, the average daily cost for a meal amounts to £45. The average cost for daily transportation cost will be £18 whilst the average daily rates for accommodation will put visitors back either £1,323 individually or £2,944 for a family of four.

Where visitors to the island will be able to cut back on spending and save money will be from visiting the attraction spots, as the attractions all revolve around nature. Visiting the beaches in Gustavia is affordable as the most well-known ones such as Shell Beach are free of charge for visiting.

Just behind Gustavia and found to be the second most expensive holiday destination in the world is Gstaad, the resort town in Switzerland. Gstaad is located in the Swiss Alps and is a popular site for skiing, hiking and other exciting outdoor activities, which have made it a popular site for celebrities and reputable boarding schools.

The average daily cost per person amounts to £1,201 and a large factor in that total figure is the cost of accommodation. The average daily rate for a hotel room will likely put visitors back with a rate between £1,024 to £1,841.

Hotels will be difficult to come by during the winter season in Gstaad due to the popularity of the resort. The cost of getting out to the resort from a major state airport will cost visitors roughly £997 for a round-trip visit.

In terms of sorting out plans for eating food in Gstaad, the average daily meal cost amounts to £137, whilst getting around the resort through transport will cost an average of £30 per day. Sightseeing will not be too costly for visitors going to Gstaad as the average cost of visiting attractions will amount to £9.34.

Behind Gstaad and ranked as the third most expensive holiday destination was another ski resort site, Aspen. Colorado. Visitors to Aspen will typically experience the same sort of vacation as those in Gstaad with similar activities that are suited to the winter season such as skiing and white-water rifting.

Despite the area having a relatively cheap average attraction visiting cost of £4.67 and a small average daily transport cost of £5.45, Aspen has an overall average daily cost per person of £1150. Making up most of that figure is the average daily accommodation rate with it costing one person or a couple £1,078 per night whilst a family of four can expect to cough up £1,770 on average each night.

Also, the cost of eating in food spots in Aspen will be slightly costly as the average daily food cost amounts to £62. However, regarding travelling to Aspen, an average round-trip fee of just shy of £600 will be required.

Other destinations that were ranked among the 10 most expensive places around the world for a vacation included Park City, Utah, which is another ski site to make the list, and has an average daily cost per person of £978, partly due to its average attraction visiting cost of £259.

Also, Maui, Hawaii and London, England made the top 10 rankings with average daily costs per person of £842 and £784 respectively. London's place on the list makes it the most expensive destination in Europe to visit for a vacation, with its average daily food cost of £99 one of the reasons for this.

The remaining destinations on Florida Panhandle's rankings include Cocoa Island, based in the Maldives, with an average daily cost per person of £763, whilst Maun Botswana was another location included due to having an average daily cost per person of £738. Grand Cayman, based in the Cayman Islands and Monte Carlo, Monaco were the other places to make the top 10 list with average daily costs per person of £727 and £629 respectively.

Elsewhere in other travel news, the Mexican city of Oaxaca was voted as the best city in the world in 2023, whilst the country itself was voted as the ideal landing spot for expats right now.