Want a cheap 5 star break? Head to Warsaw

A night in a top hotel costs £84 a night

While many dream of a no-expense-spared five star trip, few can actually afford one. That is unless you travel to Warsaw, which has recently been revealed as the cheapest European city for a luxury break.

A night in a top hotel in the Polish capital costs on average £84 a night, while London, Florence and Paris, unsurprisingly, are the most expensive, according to travel website kayak.co.uk.

It pays to head east when looking for a bargain as Thessaloniki and Bucharest are two cities where a five star experience will cost an average of £87 and £98 respectively. This is in sharp contrast to staying in Florence, Europe’s second most expensive city for luxury, where a stay in its Belmond Villa San Michele starts at £632.

London is the continent’s priciest city - its famous five star hotels, including the Ritz, the Savoy and Claridges, cost on average £321. A night at The Berkeley costs £750, the equivalent of 11 nights at Domotel Les Lazaristes in Thessaloniki, where prices begin at £67. Elsewhere in the UK, Edinburgh is the second most expensive place to stay - prices for a five star hotel cost £211.

The study found that while Florence, Paris and Madrid where some of the most expensive cities in which to splurge, Budapest, Prague and Madrid are, if anything, reasonable in comparison.

Annie Wilson, Kayak’s UK managing director, said:

“The star rating can be confusing as a universal standard, but the grey area is generally around the two to four star mark.

“When you get into the five star league the playing fields level out and it is expected that the hotel will offer a range of luxury rooms, suites and facilities.”

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