Cheap booze, but expensive buses: how York prices compare to other cities

York is a cheap night out – but on the pricey side for transport.

Those are a couple of findings from a value for money survey of UK city break destinations.

The survey from Sainsbury’s Bank ranked average prices in 17 cities including London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester and Plymouth, for a variety of activities.

Food and drink

York turns out to be good value for food and drink. It offers the cheapest bottle of wine – at £5 it is nearly £4 cheaper than the most expensive cities (Oxford and Cambridge at £8.90) and 40p cheaper than the next best value city (Liverpool at £5.40).

York also sells the third joint cheapest pint of beer, £3, alongside seven other cities. The cheapest pint was sold in Plymouth (£2.40), the most expensive in London at £3.80.

And it does well on non-alcoholic drinks too, with the third cheapest cappuccino at £2.18 (cheapest – Liverpool at £2.06, most expensive – Brighton at £2.50).

According to the Sainsbury’s Bank analysis, York offers the seventh cheapest three course meal, coming in at £40 (cheapest Plymouth at £27.50, most expensive Truro at £57.50).

Transport and entertainment

Transport is where York drops down the value for money league.

In the survey York’s adult day bus ticket was the most expensive of all 17 cities at £4.50. The cheapest, Edinburgh, was fully £1 less at £3.50.

Children get a better deal, the £2 child day ticket coming in about half way between Dublin (£5.50) and Truro (£1).

York’s taxis are on the costly side too. We have the third most expensive taxi fare for the first 1km – £1.75. London tops this league at £2.49, while Plymouth is cheapest at 62p.

The same pattern is repeated for the 5km taxi ride. York is the third most expensive with a £8.75 fare, with only London and Brighton pricier.

Finally, the analysis looked at the cost of a cinema ticket. And here York was the fifth cheapest at an average of £7.74. The cheapest was Belfast at £6.25, and the most expensive London at a whopping £12.

There are more travel guides from Sainsbury’s Bank here.