The price of accommodation might be less than last year as fewer visitors are coming and the tour operators need to shift the rooms.

However I can assure you that the price of beer is certainly not half what it was last year - VAT has gone up twice here in the past six months, so prices of food and drink are starting to creep up. VAT is applied to food in the shops unlike in UK. Gas, water and electricity are all up so that has a knock-on effect across the board.

One factor is the rate of exchange between £ and €. It's currently around 1.15 Euro to £ but if that falls to say 1.10 it would appear that everything is 4% more expensive so far as UK visitors are concerned.

I don't know if this is the report you read:-

ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/ctf/pw/holidaycostsbarometer.pdf

When I saw it, I couldn't believe it. It has Spain as one of the cheapest destinations. Their "shopping basket" items strike me as strange indicators but looking at their cost of a 3-course meal for 2 with wine at £25.56, I'd like to know the name and address of the restaurant they went to. Last September, in a non-tourist village in Spain, at a local corner cafe, a 2 course meal for 2 plus wine came to nearly €60.

Where did they get that drivel from!? What is the point in comparing the prices of branded goods in different countries as an example of cost of living - take the Heineken, how do they know they aren't pay extra for it being rare in some countires, why didn't use local beer as a standard. And since they've included the wine in the cost of the meal how do you compare the cost of the food - it could all be tax on the wine. The problem is that this stuff then gets picked up by lazy hacks who need to fill a column in a newspaper and all of a sudden it's true because it was in the paper!

Couldn't agree more. In Albufeira you can easily get a two course 'prato do dia' including a glass of wine of beer for €10, outside town for €6 or 7. Obviously you pay a lot more if you go to places with tablecloths with a view looking over the sea.

The bars I have been known to visit from time to time charge €2,50 for a 50cl (almost a pint) glass of San Miguel or similar. That's a lot cheaper than much of the UK. A vodka or gin and tonic (vodka/gin measure is double UK measure) is €3,50.

The other night I was serving a bloke who insisted on drinking bottles of Budweiser at €3,50!

Consider that these prices may appear cheap to an English tourist but to the average Portuguese, who earns half as much, they are expensive.

The other glaring weakness in the list is that it is based on exchange rates at 4th January.

So hands up all of you who can remember what they were? Well the euro rate was around 1.175 to the pound - three days earlier it had been below 1.16 and 5 days later it was over 1.20, on Tuesday this week it was back under 1.16 and now it's back to where we were on the 4th. So even an accurate list is completely useless if it shows pound conversions on one day on the past unless you have the historic rate chart and a calculator.

Exchange rate for cash today is 1.105.

and if they were using wholesale rates that would add more confusion!