Most expensive cities in Europe

Kirsten Henton

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Discover the most expensive cities in Europe to visit in 2024/2025 and splash out on your next city break today. Find out how popular cities rate based on a typical two-night stay.

• Top 30 most expensive cities in Europe
• Top 60 cheapest cities in Europe
• How we've rated cities
• Research data sources

Top 30 most expensive cities in Europe

Thinking of booking a European city break? Below is our list of the 30 most expensive cities in Europe you should consider visiting in 2024/2025.

Ratings are based on combined costs of accommodation, food, drink and in-destination transport. Each element has a rating from 1 (the cheapest) to 6 (most expensive).

The overall rating combines all the elements placing equal weighting on each. Learn more about the rating system and the data sources below.

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€ = local currency is euros (EUR)

How we've rated the most expensive cities

We've identified the top 30 most expensive cities in Europe to visit in 2024/2025 by comparing the costs for three different elements to give us an overall rating: accommodation, food and drink and transport.

Find out more about each element and how the ratings are calculated. We have made some assumptions to allow us to compare European cities.

• Overall rating
• Hotel accommodation
• Food & drink
• Transport

Overall rating

The overall rating for each city gives an indication of the combined costs of visiting for a two-night stay. The rating is on a scale from 1 (the cheapest) to 6 (most expensive).

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Hotel accommodation

Where you are staying can be one of the most expensive parts of a city break. Popular cities can have very high hotel prices especially if you want something located centrally.

Our accommodation rating is based on real hotel prices extracted from Booking.com^* based on the typical cheapest hotel accommodation (3* or higher) within 2 km of the city centre for a two-night weekend stay including breakfast for two adults in the middle of the month (over the next 12 months).

Note: other accommodation types are available in cities including hostels, private rentals and couchsurfing, however, for the purpose of the research we have focused on hotel accommodation with breakfast included.

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Food & drink

Eating out is a major part of the experience when enjoying a European city break. Soaking up the café culture, local cuisine and nightlife are what drive many of us to travel to cities across Europe.

We've split our ratings into two elements: food and drink. Travellers will have their own requirements, however, our ratings take into account the different options available in each city to allow us to compare.

Food

Our food ratings are based on a mix of three-course meals, inexpensive meals and cheaper food options for two adults for a two-night stay in the city, but exclude breakfast as this is covered by the hotel accommodation rating.

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Drink

Our drink rating is based on a mix of hot drinks, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks for two adults for a two-night stay in the city.

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Transport

Transport is often an afterthought when booking city breaks, whether it's how you travel from the airport into the city centre or simply getting about an unfamiliar destination.

We've split our transport ratings into two elements: getting about and airport transfers. Travellers will have their own requirements, however, our ratings take into account the different options available in each city to allow us to compare.

Getting about

Our getting about rating is based on a combination of journeys on public transport and by taxi for two adults for a two-night stay within the city.

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Airport transfers

Our airport transfers rating is based on transfers for two adults between the city and the airport, either by taxi or train depending on the size of the city and distance from the airport to the city centre.

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Research data sources

Our most expensive cities are rated based on multiple data sources and calculations to find comparable costs of visiting each city for a two-night weekend stay.

Hotel accommodation prices have been extracted from Booking.com^* in February 2023 for stays over the next 12 months.

Costs for food, drink, public transport and private taxis have been extracted from Numbeo.com.

We have researched mileage between airports and city centres and combined our findings with cost data from Numbeo.com to calculate airport transfer costs. In some cases, this is by public transport instead of a taxi.

The following destinations are currently excluded from the research: Belarus, Russian Federation and Ukraine.

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Ready to book your next urban escape? Check out the latest offers on city breaks to destinations across Europe and beyond.

Kirsten Henton

Kirsten Henton is Weather2Travel.com's editor. Kirsten writes, commissions and edits our travel features, liaising with our contributors and ensuring copy is spick-and-span. A member of the British Guild of Travel Writers, Kirsten also freelances writing articles on travel, history and the outdoors for titles such as Scotland Magazine and BBC Travel.

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