We all love a staycation. But while staycays have a rep for being cheaper than an international getaway, that isn’t always the case. Once you’ve factored in transport, accommodation, food, and drinks, the bill starts to tally up pretty quickly. Luckily, however, there are still a couple of places in this country that won’t charge you £8 for a pint. Yes, they exist! And the Telegraph has compiled 10 of them for your convenience.
Whatever your priorities are, there’s somewhere on this list that will be ideal. For instance, if you’re a foodie looking to get as many great meals for as little as possible, the Telegraph recommends Newcastle. The newspaper says the northeastern city is the ‘last chance for classy urban eats before prices start to rise again in Edinburgh’, and it recommends trying out Grainger Market, as well as wandering along Quayside for brunch. If you’re planning on eating your way around Tyneside’s finest, make sure to check out Time Out’s list of Newcastle’s best restaurants.
If your priorities lie more with the after-dinner drinks, Bradford might be more your style. Named ‘best for nightlife’, the Telegraph does caution that ‘clubbers with delusions of grandeur probably catch the train to Leeds or Manchester’. With that said, the newspaper points out that Bradford is cheap for drinks, cheap for getting around, and has a wealth of kebab shops – all the ingredients for a great night out. Or, as the Telegraph put it, ‘a weekend of hedonism that won’t break the bank’.
You might prefer to be in bed than queuing for a nightclub at 10pm, in which case the Telegraph recommends Plymouth, which is ‘best for hotels’. The paper notes that ‘when compared with the deals in cities of a similar size and with the upmarket options out in tourist-oriented rural and coastal areas’, Plymouth hotels offer excellent bang for your buck. Plus, who doesn’t want to wake up to a view of the sea?
Surprisingly, London actually made it onto the list. Despite being famous specifically for not being budget-friendly, the Telegraph named the capital ‘best for public transport’. It can’t be denied that London has excellent trains, buses, and a world-class underground system, and as the Telegraph points out: ‘London’s museums and galleries are free …you can easily do the capital on a budget and use the double-deckers as your free-ish tour ride’.
If you are planning a (hopefully affordable) trip to the Big Smoke, we can recommend some excellent cheap eats, and some of the best things to do in the city for free.
Preston won perhaps the most coveted title of all: ‘best value for a pint’. A Preston pint will only set you back, on average, £3.04. In the year 2025, you’re unlikely to find that pretty much anywhere else. According to the Telegraph, there’s some good quality pubs in the city too, so you’re not swapping out quality for those 1990s prices.
Overall, Liverpool came top. So if you want affordable shopping, parking, hotels, restaurants, pints, public transport, parks and green spaces and nightlife, the Mersey is the place to be.
The 10 best value places to visit in the UK in 2025
- Bristol – best value for independent shops
- Nottingham – best value for parking
- Plymouth – best value for hotel rooms
- Newcastle – best value for a meal out
- Preston – best value for a pint
- London – best value for public transport
- Exeter – best value for parks and green spaces:
- Liverpool – best value for galleries and museums
- Bradford – best value for nightlife
- Liverpool – best value overall
You can read the Telegraph’s full article here. Or, if you’d like a second opinion, check out Time Out’s lists of the best places to visit in the UK here.
Planning your 2025 staycations
If you’re currently on the hunt for a perfect 2025 getaway and none of the above tickle your fancy, here’s our favourite family friendly holiday digs. But you deserve to have fun too – here’s some tree houses you can rent out for something a little different. We’ve also got guides to the country’s cosiest cabins, and the coolest castles you can stay overnight in.
Have you seen the 10 best cheap UK holiday destinations right now?
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