- 25% of Brits don’t take ANY sun lotion away with them
- Almost half of holidaymakers only take one bottle – the NHS recommends four
- Sun cream much more expensive to buy once abroad
- Save a packet – stock up on sunscreen in the UK
When British holidaymakers jet off to the sunshine, they often neglect to pack one of the real essentials – that all-important sun cream. And when they do get around to picking some up, they end up paying way more than they need to – up to £100 more for a family of four. Yikes, that stings more than the sunburn.
Online travel retailer Holiday Hypermarket surveyed 2,000 people, and 44% packed just one bottle per adult, while only 2% took the four bottles the NHS recommends*.
Taking into account how much more lotion costs on the continent, that’s a lot of travel money being unnecessarily wasted.
How much sun lotion is enough?
In the Holiday Hypermarket survey, almost 90% of people said they take two or fewer 200ml bottles of sun lotion per adult for a week away, even though the NHS recommends taking four – which is still only two tablespoons of lotion applied five times a day during the trip.
Is buying abroad that much more expensive?
The UK is one of the cheapest places to buy suncream, with a 200ml bottle of branded factor-15 sun lotion costing just £4.50 on average.
In many popular spots on the continent, the price rockets – up to £17.45 in Ibiza! And still £13.15 in Halkidiki, Greece, and £12.28 in Alicante.
That would mean a family of four (two adults, two kids) taking four bottles of sun cream for a week in Ibiza, will need to spend an extra £103 to pick up the eight further bottles required to hit the 12 bottles recommended by the NHS. Even in Alicante, that’s an extra £62.24. There are a lot more fun ways to use that holiday spending money.
The table below shows the average cost of sun lotion in package holiday destinations across Europe, plus the extra cost of buying eight bottles in that destination compared to the UK.
| Location | One bottle: average cost for 200ml SPF15 branded sunscreen | Eight bottles: total cost of buying at holiday destination | Eight bottles: difference in cost compared to buying in UK |
| UK | £4.50 | £36 | n/a |
| IBIZA, Spain | £17.45 | £139.60 | £103.60 |
| HALKIDIKI, Greece | £13.15 | £105.20 | £69.20 |
| MAJORCA, Spain | £13.15 | £105.20 | £69.20 |
| LIMASSOL, Cyprus | £12.71 | £101.68 | £65.68 |
| ALICANTE, Spain | £12.28 | £98.24 | £62.24 |
| BENIDORM, Spain | £11.93 | £95.44 | £59.44 |
| SLIEMA, Malta | £11.51 | £92.08 | £56.08 |
| ZADAR, Croatia | £9.23 | £73.84 | £37.84 |
| POREC, Croatia | £7.29 | £58.32 | £22.32 |
| LISBON COAST, Portugal | £7.02 | £56.16 | £20.16 |
| MARMARIS, Turkey | £6.67 | £53.36 | £17.36 |
| CORFU, Greece | £6.31 | £50.48 | £14.48 |
| PAPHOS, Cyprus | £6.25 | £50.00 | £14.00 |
| CRETE, Greece | £6.14 | £49.12 | £13.12 |
| TORREMOLINOS, Spain | £4.82 | £38.56 | £2.56 |
| ALGARVE, Portugal | £3.94 | £31.52 | -£4.48 |
| SUNNY BEACH, Bulgaria | £2.34 | £18.72 | -£17.28 |
Craig Duncan of Holiday Hypermarket says: ‘Cost is one of the most important considerations for any holiday, yet Brits are underestimating the amount of sun cream they need and then wasting hundreds by stocking up abroad.
‘A British family can spend an eye-watering £200 to buy extra lotion for a two week holiday in Ibiza. That could easily cover a few delicious family meals, a room upgrade or new holiday clothes.
‘Buying enough sun cream at a supermarket in the UK is one of the most effective money-saving holiday hacks there is!’
See the infographic by Holiday Hypermarket below:
