£130 just to get to the hotel door: the forgotten cost of European airport transfers revealed

Virgin Media O2 reveals the cheapest and most expensive European destinations for airport transfers.
Gibraltar transfers cheapest at just £16 whilst Lake Garda breaks the bank at a huge £562.
Research unveiled as Virgin Media O2 launches range of holiday offers exclusively for customers courtesy of Priority from O2.
Find offers here

5^th June 2023: Holidaymakers will need to shell out a whopping £562 on top of flights and accommodation if they want to get to the popular holiday destination of Lake Garda this summer, with European transfers averaging a gut wrenching £130.

Whilst over three quarters of Brits worry about the cost of the flights (73%) and accommodation (77%) before jetting off abroad, only a quarter (27%) consider the cost of transfers from the airport, making it an expense that frequently catches holiday-goers offguard¹.

To help those heading on holiday make more informed decisions when choosing destinations this summer, Virgin Media O2 has compiled a definitive list of the most expensive and cheapest destinations for airport transfers.

Based on the top five most popular European destinations for British tourists last year², return taxi costs to the main tourist resorts were analysed to reveal the most expensive and cheapest options this summer³:

Top five cheapest:

Gibraltar, Spain: £16
Costa Del Sol, Spain: £25
Naxos, Greece: £26
Corfu, Greece: £29
Zante, Greece: £31

The five most expensive:

Lake Garda, Italy: £562
Dordogne, France: £432
Sicily, Italy: £328
Cote D’Azur, France: £306
Brittany, France: £285

When looking to the top five nations for the summer Virgin Media O2 has also calculated the average cost per km for transfers so that Brits can make informed decisions on where to kick off their holiday searches if they are still on the look-out:

Spain, £1.78/km
Portugal, £2.96/km
Greece, £4.66/km
France, £4.66/km
Italy, £5.97/km

To help Virgin Media and O2 customers save this holiday season, we’re offering Priority from O2 members the chance to win a lastminute.com gift card (worth £1650) every day, for 50 days. There are two chances to win every day so that’s 100 chances to save, explore, roam and relax.

To help money go further this summer, Virgin Media O2 customers can also access a range of other summer holiday rewards through Priority including:

Save up to £200 on sun and beach holidays with lastminute.com
Free access to airport lounge if flight delayed with SmartDelay
Three months free of Super Duolingo
Plus, super savings with Holiday Extras including:
Up to 35% discount on airport parking
15% discount on airport hotels
15% discount on car hire
15% discount on airport transfers
15% discount on travel insurance

Holiday perks: activated.

This is on top of O2 being the only major mobile network in the UK to still offer inclusive EU roaming as standard. Virgin Media O2 customers can travel to destinations all over Europe and use their data, calls and texts just as they would in the UK saving them up to £100 in potentially unexpected costs over a two-week trip⁴.

Gareth Turpin, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “We know that many people are more aware of their holiday budget when going abroad this year, so we want to help them make the most informed decisions and save cash where they can. From free EU roaming to discounts on almost every touchpoint of the holiday we’ve introduced a range of offers via Priority from O2 to help money go a little further this holiday season.”

All Virgin Media O2 customers can access Priority offers via the Priority App, which can be downloaded from the Apple and Play Stores free of charge.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Research in to cost worries conducted by Strand Partners between 17 and 22 May 2023.
O2 Motion data was captured from the beginning of January to the end of November 2022 inclusive to identify the top EU destinations. The top 5 were:
- Spain

- - France
  - Italy
  - Greece
  - Portugal

Hotel transfer and car hire research carried out between 25 and 31 May 2023, surveying 34 of the most recommended non-city destinations across the top five EU destinations by Club Med and Eurotunnel.
Analysis of daily charge rates from other providers suggests that a family of four going abroad for two weeks could see £100 or more added to their holiday bill when using their phones each day.

Consumer tariffs: inclusive EU roaming up to 25GB where allowance is 25GB or more. See o2.co.uk/terms. Business tariffs: Customers on O2 Unlimited Data business tariffs will be charged if their usage exceeds 35GB in O2’s Europe Zone. For more details please see: https://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/business/o2-business-fair-usage-policy-2018