The Value for Money Awards 2012

Best of the rest
Riga is officially the cheapest citybreak in Europe for the second year running, according to research by the Post Office – think £56 for a three-star double. Cádiz combines ‘fab beaches, an atmospheric old city and throbbing nightlife at non-tourist prices’. And in Istanbul, ‘if you’re careful, you can eat, drink, sleep and sightsee for £35 a day’.

We love: Bike hire – the smartest, smuggest, cheapest way to get around foreign cities, saving pounds on taxis and public transport. You can zip around London like a local for just £1 a day, as long as you swap bikes every half hour.

We hate: Zürich taxis – the most expensive on Earth, charging up to £8 per 1.5km.

Best-value world city

Winner: Hanoi, Vietnam

Runner-up: Marrakech, Morocco
Runner-up: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Prices in Hanoi appear expensive – half a pint of beer retails at VND3,000 and a night in a good hotel costs upwards of VND1.2 million – but the ludicrous exchange rate (VND33,000 to the pound at time of press) makes that beer a paltry 9p! Small change is big money here, and ‘the wonderful street food costs pennies’. Marrakech, meanwhile, has almost too many gorgeous rooms on offer, with decreasing visitor numbers due to the troubles in other Maghreb nations. The result? Some of the cheapest five-star rooms around: £48 a night at swish Eden Andalou Spa & Resort, for example. Siem Reap, your base for Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, has a ‘posh feel – but food, spas and drinks cost peanuts!’

Best of the rest
Cancún remains the cheapest way to dip your toes in the Caribbean, with four-star rooms easily found for £60 a night. Pokhara is the trekking centre of Nepal, but it’s also the capital of value – £4 for a three-course dinner with drinks, and £25 for a good three-star. Despite its soaring popularity among intrepid travellers, Colombia’s Cartagena remains on the cheap side of trendy.

We love: Buying tech in Tokyo. Comparison website Pricerunner checked the total cost of a MacBook Air, an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4 in 33 cities worldwide – and the winner, at £1,391 for all three pieces of kit, was Tokyo. London was £2,050.

We hate: Pushy bellboys. You’ve just landed and all you have are large notes, which is how the bellboy gets tipped £20 for rolling your bag the short walk to your room.

Best-value European Country

Winner: Spain

Runner-up: Portugal
Runner-up: Romania

Second globally only to Sri Lanka on the Post Office’s Worldwide Holiday Costs Barometer, Spain continues to offer astounding value – especially if you avoid the tourist honeypots of Barcelona and Seville, along with the obvious spots along the Costas. ‘We had an astonishingly good three-course lunch, with a bottle of wine, in a crowded local restaurant in Catalonia for £28. And we were the only foreigners there,’ said one of our panellists. Portugal, meanwhile, offers such excellent value that it’s ‘almost a joy to get your wallet out’. The trick is to get away from the Algarve and follow the Portuguese to the gorgeous Alentejo coast, where ‘a lunch of grilled sardines and a bottle of something chilled costs less than £12’. Romania is ‘really cheap, with beautiful landscapes, and it’s one of the last vestiges of old Europe. The country’s infrastructure favours the intrepid, but a night in a four-star hotel in the Black Sea resort of Constanţa can cost just £40’. We wanted to see Greece in the list. We love it and know how badly it needs our business right now – but prices on the more popular islands have actually gone up this year.

Best of the rest
Latvia is the cheapest country you’re likely to visit in Europe, closely followed by neighbouring Estonia, both of which have ‘fairytale architecture in compact cities, and swathes of pine forests outside them’ for an urban-rural break. Further south, the Czech Republic is reassuringly good value, even in Prague.

We love: The one-click travel-money deal-finder www.travelmoneymax.com. ‘I saved £20 on a €200 exchange.’

We hate: Forgetting to print the boarding card for our Ryanair flight. The solution? They’ll print you one at the airport. For £60.

Best-value world country

Winner: Sri Lanka

Runner-up: Thailand
Runner-up: Mexico

Sri Lanka takes the title for the second year running – not just for its recession-busting prices, but also for the sheer amount you get for your money. The best deals here, particularly for families, are villas: ‘£744 per week, B&B, for a fully staffed beach house sleeping eight, with a private pool, booked through Holidaylettings.co.uk.’ The downturn in visitor numbers precipitated by 2010’s political protests, combined with a glut of hotel rooms, makes Thailand unbeatable value for a luxury beach break. With deals such as two weeks at the family-friendly Centara Karon Resort in Phuket going for £789, including flights, ‘they’re practically giving it away’. As for Mexico, quite simply, it offers the best combination of quality and value in the Caribbean, especially along the Riviera Maya.

Best of the rest
In Indonesia – Bali in particular – we stayed in gorgeous boutique suites for as little as £25 a night. Panama is gaining ground as the cheaper, hipper alternative to neighbouring Costa Rica. And South Africa is still the best-value safari destination on the continent – especially if you self-drive, travel out of season (July to September) and opt for basic lodges in the national parks.

We love: Megabus (www.megabus.com) and BoltBus (www.boltbus.com) – they’ve revolutionised the US roadtrip, with sleek, modern coaches, free wi-fi and fares from 60p across the northeastern states.

We hate: Rental-car ‘super cover’. Sure, it reduces your insurance excess to zero, but it can cost more than £30 a day – a fact you probably won’t clock when you’re being given the hard sell at the end of a long flight. Buy an annual policy from www.insurance4carhire.com instead.

Best-value UK city hotel

Winner: Tune Hotel, Liverpool Street, London

Runner-up: Benedicts of Belfast
Runner-up: Base2stay, Liverpool

‘The EasyJet of hotels’, bargain-basement Tune (020 7456 0400, www.tunehotels.com; doubles at the Liverpool Street branch from £35, room only) ‘cuts out the extras’ to offer proper hotel rooms at youth-hostel prices. You won’t get toast, toiletries, TV – even a towel. But you will get ‘Spitalfields Market and Shoreditch on your doorstep’. Benedicts of Belfast (above; 028 9059 1999, www.benedictshotel.co.uk; doubles from £65, B&B) is ‘worth twice the price for its location, service and style’; while Base2Stay Liverpool (0151 705 2626, www.base2stay.com; doubles from £59, room only) is ‘within staggering distance of all that’s cool in Merseyside’, and has ‘sleek, spacious rooms with a nifty kitchenette for morning-after breakfasts’. Finally, a reiteration that value isn’t just about price: our panel found Travelodge ‘cheap – in every sense. I would rather sleep on the street’.

Best of the rest
The Sun Inn (0131 663 2456, www.thesuninnedinburgh.co.uk; doubles from £85, B&B), in Edinburgh, has ‘opulent rooms attached to a mouthwatering gastropub’. De Vere Hotels (UK-wide: 0844 980 9950, www.devere-hotels.co.uk) has a ‘room-finder option on the website that can get you four-star doubles from £89’. And Reading’s Forbury Hotel (01189 527770, www.theforburyhotel.co.uk; doubles from £175, B&B) is ‘a designer hotel with cut-price weekend deals’.

We love: The Family & Friends Rail Card (www.familyandfriends-railcard.co.uk; £28 for a year). ‘I travelled all over the country with three kids last summer for less than £100,’ said a panellist.

We hate: Big-name British hotels that publish their rates minus VAT, leading to a check-out shock of 20 per cent extra slapped on your final bill.

Gone shopping: A street trader carries her wares in Hanoi (Robert Harding)

Best-value UK rural hotels

Winner: Yew Tree Farm, Cumbria

Runner-up: The Rectory, Cotswolds
Runner-up: The Beckford Arms, Wiltshire

Great value is even more satisfying when you find it somewhere unexpected: enduring popularity has given the Lake District a complacency that’s left many of its hotels overpriced and underwhelming. Our advice is to check in to a B&B instead. Yew Tree Farm (pictured; 01539 441433, www.yewtree-farm.com; doubles from £104, B&B) has an ‘enchanting location’ that captivated Beatrix Potter; the author lived here in the 1930s and the house starred in the 2006 biopic. Inside you’ll find ‘cute-as-a-button decor, with creaking floorboards and dream-inducing beds’; outside, ‘fluffy sheep and jaw-dropping views’. In the Cotswolds, The Rectory (01666 577194, www.therectoryhotel.com; doubles from £105, B&B), near Malmesbury, is in ‘devastatingly expensive country-house-hotel country’, yet defies convention through its ‘eminent affordability’. For just over £100 a night, you get ‘all the comforts of pricier properties, without that Cotswolds stuffiness’. Wiltshire’s Beckford Arms (01747 870385, www.beckfordarms.com; doubles from £95, B&B) is ‘the perfect English country inn, combining gorgeous rooms, a stylish bar, great food, and a lovely location’.

Best of the rest
The Elephant’s Nest Inn (01822 810273, www.elephantsnest.co.uk; doubles from £88, B&B), in Tavistock, Devon, has ‘three bright guestrooms attached to a proper West Country pub’. Fishmore Hall, Ludlow (01584 875148, www.fishmorehall.co.uk; doubles from £150, B&B), is in a ‘stunning setting’, with ‘lots of little touches that just make it feel special’. St Curig’s Church (01690 720469, www.stcurigschurch.com; doubles from £70, B&B), in Capel Curig, Snowdonia, is ‘not fancy, but you’ve got a pulpit in your room. Owner Alice Douglas is an unusual character – and really lovely’.

We love: ‘Little Chef’s cooked-to-order full English – £7.49 for a national treasure.’

We hate: ‘Uncivilised breakfast hours. Stopping service before 11am at weekends should be against the law.’

Best-value European city hotel

Winner: The House Hotel Galatasaray, Istanbul

Runner-up: Arte Luise Kunsthotel, Berlin
Runner-up: Hôtel Montmorency, Carcassonne

Istanbul has emerged as the most exciting city weekendable from the UK, and The House Hotel Galatasaray (pictured; 00 90 212 244 3400, www.thehousehotel.com; doubles from £98, B&B), ‘on a winding back street in the city’s hippest quarter’, is the place to stay. ‘It’s an elegant old townhouse with high-ceilinged rooms and urban-trendy furnishings’, with ‘spectacular views of old Istanbul’ from the rooftop lounge. Berlin’s Arte Luise (00 49 30 284480, www.luise-berlin.com; doubles from £57, room only) is ‘less a hotel, more an art gallery’, its 49 rooms each styled by a different artist. We love room 301, with its ‘scruffily evocative Cold War theme’. In Carcassonne, Hôtel Montmorency (00 33 4 6811 9670, www.lemontmorency.com; doubles from £86, room only) is ‘an incongruously funky jewel just outside the old city fortress’. Rooms are either contemporary (‘lots of black’) or country (‘lots of wood’), and ‘guests can use the pool and facilities of its more expensive sister hotel next door’.

Best of the rest
De Waterzooi B&B, Ghent (00 32 4 7543 6111, www.dewaterzooi.be; doubles from £133, B&B), is ‘a decidedly sexy weekend escape’, while Paris has Caron de Beaumarchais (00 33 1 4272 3412, www.carondebeaumarchais.com; doubles from £108, room only), ‘a sumptuous three-star hideaway in the heart of the Marais for under £120’. In Biarritz, try Hôtel du Palais (00 33 5 5941 6400, www.hotel-du-palais.com; doubles from £330, room only): ‘It’s worth every penny to live like a crowned head amid a luxury seaside setting.’

We love: Hotels.com: ‘Although they messed up my Seville booking and put me in a box, within 10 minutes the call centre had arranged a double upgrade to a suite.’

We hate: Weighted minibars: pick up a drink from the in-room fridge, and it automatically sends a charge to your bill, even if you put it back.

Best-value European rural hotel

Winner: Hostal Sa Rascassa, Begur, Spain

Runner-up: Château de la Volonière, Loire Valley, France
Runner-up: Old Phoenix, Finikas, Crete

Spain’s Hostal Sa Rascassa (00 34 972 622845, www.hostalsarascassa.com; doubles from £75, B&B) ‘hides in a pine grove on a tiny cove in the most beautiful corner of the Costa Brava’; with its open-air restaurant, it’s ‘a stylish secret treasure’. In France, Château de la Volonière (00 33 2 4379 6816, http://chateaudelavoloniere.free.fr; doubles from £58, B&B) is ‘a Medieval abbey in the Loire Valley run by the charming Claude Becquelin, who welcomes each guest like an old friend’. It’s ‘a mythical and magical place, ideal for families’. Speaking of myths, remember when you could stay in a seaside taverna for under £30 a night? Crete’s Old Phoenix (above; 00 30 282 509 1257, www.old-phoenix.com; doubles from £29, room only) is that place – ‘with its own beach just steps from your room, a lovely restaurant and starry skies at night’. (A general hotel swipe: beware the great European breakfast-buffet trap – all you want is toast and coffee, but when you ask the waiter, he tells you to help yourself to it at the buffet. At check-out, you discover you were being charged £20pp per day for £2 worth of food.)

Best of the rest
At Germany’s Schlosshotel Münchhausen (00 49 5 154 70600, www.schlosshotel-muenchhausen.com; doubles from £116, room only), you can ‘live like a deluded baron at bourgeois prices’. Ibiza’s Can Gall (00 34 971 337031, www.agrocangall.com; doubles from £157, B&B) ‘isn’t cheap, but it’s so much better value than the island’s über-trendy hotels’, and features ‘random servings of tapas delivered by owner Santi’. For an Asian-style retreat at Euro-break prices, Dionysos Estate (020 8605 3500, www.exclusiveescapes.co.uk; doubles from £600pp a week, B&B, including flights) on Turkey’s Bozburun Peninsula is, quite simply, a steal. Expect an ‘Aman resorts-worthy location’, a private beach and organic cuisine.

We love: ‘The Polish coast from Kolobzreg east towards Leba: it’s astonishingly beautiful, with white sands, a buzzy beach culture and superb-value hotels.’

We hate: ‘Hotels that still charge for wi-fi. They should be ashamed of themselves. It’s like charging for hot water.’

Best-value hotel in the Americas & Caribbean

Winner: La Sagesse, St Davids, Grenada

Runner-up: Alizées Moreré, Bahia, Brazil
Runner-up: Avalon, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Think back 30 years, to the Caribbean before mass tourism. Tiny, slightly haphazard hotels on isolated beaches specialised in rum, fish and blissful indolence. La Sagesse (00 1 473 444 6458, www.lasagesse.com; doubles from £95, room only) still fits that mould, a converted mansion with ‘a sultry house-party vibe’ and just 12 rooms – located 10m from ‘one of the most romantic beaches on the planet’. Alizées Moreré (00 55 75 3653 6180, www.hotelalizeesmorere.com; doubles from £100, B&B), in Brazil, lies on Ilha de Boipeba, 150km south of Bahia, overlooking ‘a completely deserted, paradise beach’, and has ‘cheap rooms to rival a design hotel’. Meanwhile, in LA, it’s essential to ‘forget the sightseeing and spend at least a day drinking cocktails by the pool’. That pool, a funky figure-of-eight affair, is at the Avalon (00 1 310 277 5221, www.avalonbeverlyhills.com; doubles from £107, room only), which combines ‘a faux-trashy motel feel’ with a posh rooftop restaurant and the chance of ‘C-list star-spotting at the bar’.

Best of the rest
The Clifton (00 1 305 455 1630, www.cliftonsouthbeach.com; doubles from £60, room only), in Miami’s South Beach, is ‘Art Deco, eco and really friendly’. The Red Victorian Bed & Breakfast (00 1 415 864 1978, www.redvic.com; doubles from £65, B&B), in San Francisco’s hippy-tastic Haight-Ashbury, has a veggie cafe and is run by 90-year-old Sami Sunchild. Hotel El Convento (00 1 787 723 9020, www.elconvento.com; doubles from £147, room only) in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, is ‘a beautiful historic hotel haunted by the ghost of its erstwhile Mother Superior’. Looking for a bargain in New York? There are few to be found anywhere remotely central: consider hotels in Brooklyn and Harlem for affordability, or opt for an apartment rental.

We love: Mustique: ‘Live like a rock star in a villa hideaway for less than the cost of a dull Tuscan pile. Bryan Adam’s gaff, Point Lookout, sleeps 12 for around £990pp a week.’

We hate: ‘The sneaky £15 a day non-optional “resort fee” added on to many Caribbean hotel bills.’

Best-value hotel in Asia & Australia

Winner: The Atlanta Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand

Runner-up: Bopha Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Runner-up: The Andaman, Langkawi, Malaysia

Bangkok’s Atlanta Hotel (above; 00 66 2 252 6069, www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com; mini suites from £21, room only) is ‘an Art Deco secret that shouldn’t be shared’. Oops. The property is one of the oldest hotels in the city and undoubtedly the quirkiest – ‘an oasis of old-world charm and gentility’, with a ‘club-like atmosphere’. Cambodia’s Bopha Angkor (00 855 6396 4928, www.bopha-angkor.com; doubles from £35, B&B), in Siem Reap, is ‘a tiny inn, but every bit as stunning as the five-star hotels surrounding it. It’s set in glorious gardens, with posh rooms and the most peaceful pool in town’. On the island of Langkawi in Malaysia, you could pay £400 a night for a room at the mega-luxe Datai hotel overlooking Datai Bay. Or you could try The Andaman (00800 325 45454, www.theandaman.com; doubles from £175) next door – ‘just as luxurious and more family-friendly’ – for at least 50 per cent cheaper. Good luck finding bargain sleeps in Oz, though, where a shortage of rooms means that hotels enjoy 85 per cent occupancy.

Best of the rest
The Alila chain (www.alilahotels.com; doubles from £80, B&B) has eight properties across India and Indonesia. As well as offering ‘affordable luxury in some gorgeous locations’, it also likes to keep you entertained, with cookery lessons and guided bike rides. Hanoi’s Essence hotel (00 844 392 3451, www.hanoielegancehotel.com; doubles from £38, B&B) ‘offers all the boutiquey frills – free wi-fi, juices and breakfasts – at rates that stay true to Vietnam’s cheap-as-chips reputation’. In Sydney, we searched high and low and found a place that’s punching above its weight: The Castlereagh Boutique Hotel (00 61 2 9284 1000, www.thecastlereagh.com.au), in the Central Business District, has heritage detailing and doubles from £104, room only.

We love: Appzilla: ‘A fab travel app that costs just 69p from iTunes and comes with 120 different functions, including a reading lamp, currency converter, translator and tip calculator.’

We hate: ‘Car-parking prices in Sydney. They’re absurd. ‘Expect to pay around 50 per cent of your room rate for overnight parking in the city centre.’

Making a splash: The Bohinj Park Hotel Aquapark is our best-value non-uk spa (PR)

Best-value hotel in Africa & the Middle East

Winner: Robertson Small Hotel, South Africa

Runner-up: Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea, Jordan
Runner-up: Tuli Safari Lodge, Botswana

Pirates and revolutionaries have walloped the tourist trade in Africa and the Middle East, sending hotel prices tumbling from Cairo to Cape Town, even in areas far from any problems. Room rates on the Red Sea Riviera have dropped by 26 per cent, and even Cape Town is down by 11 per cent. If you’re heading to the latter, detour to the winelands for the Robertson Small Hotel (00 27 23 626 7200, www.therobertsonsmallhotel.com; doubles from £119, B&B), which has a ‘corking wine cellar’, a gourmet restaurant overseen by celeb-chef Reuben Riffel, as well as ‘lovely bijou guestrooms in the historic house, and honeymoon-worthy poolside suites in a new extension’. In Jordan, the Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea (00 962 5 356 1111, www.moevenpick-hotels.com; doubles from £113, B&B) is ‘a stunning new eco-luxury hotel built in traditional style’, perfect for ‘romantic beach-and-spa getaways or year-round sun’. Tuli Safari Lodge (00 267 264 5303, www.tulilodge.com; doubles from £210, all-inclusive with game drives) is on Botswana’s wildlife-rich Limpopo River. The simple lodges have ‘Out of Africa-style touches, prices are perfect for safari first-timers, and elephant sightings are almost guaranteed’.

Best of the rest
Dolomite Camp (00 264 61 285 7200, www.nwr.com.na; doubles from £120, B&B) is the first camp on the western side of Namibia’s Etosha National Park, providing privileged game-viewing from a staggeringly beautiful location. Marrakech’s Riad Tizwa (07973 115471, www.holidaymarrakech.com; doubles from £60, B&B) is ‘sleek, sexy and on the edge of the souks’. The XVA Art Hotel (00 971 4 353 5383, www.xvahotel.com; doubles from £135, B&B), ‘one of the oldest buildings in Dubai’, is ‘the antidote to Arab bling’.

We love: South Africa’s best township tour – ‘run by local lad Siviwe Mbinda of Langa township (www.townshiptourscapetown.co.za; £16). He offers genuine insight at half the price of the usual tourist schlock’.

We hate: The Kenyan visa. ‘Picture 1,000 passengers waiting for two hours to file past the three desks they’ve bothered to open at Nairobi airport – and then paying £30 for the privilege.’

Best-value short-haul airline

Winner: EasyJet

Runner-up: Thomson Airways
Runner-up: BA

Unexpectedly, EasyJet (pictured; 0843 104 5000, www.easyjet.com) has ‘quietly taken the self-hatred out of flying low-cost’ by offering an efficient, friendly and reliable service. Book ahead and the price/convenience ratio is unbeatable, but it’s the grown-up attitude to hand-luggage (no weight limit) that gives it the edge. It’s easy to forget tour operator-owned airlines such as Thomson Airways (0871 231 4691, www.flights.thomson.co.uk) when looking for cheap flights, but we’ve checked the prices, which are consistently the lowest to the most popular bucket-and-spade destinations in the Med. Just beware its timekeeping. Full-service airline BA (0844 493 0787, www.ba.com) earns kudos for ‘decent fares – luggage included – and civilised service’. But the biggest scam in air travel? If you, or your airline, cancel your flight, you’re usually entitled to a refund of taxes and airport fees – but many airlines charge £25pp each way to claim this, making it all but pointless.

We love: Digiboo (www.digiboo.com), the movie vending machine rolling out through US airports. Pay around £2.50, choose from thousands of films and download to a USB stick, which you can then plug into your laptop.

We hate: Sneaky ‘airport development/facility’ fees, which all departing passengers must pay direct to the airport operator. Often it's only made clear after purchasing a ticket. Currently, it's £10pp at Norwich airport and £6pp at Durham Tees Valley.

Best-value long-haul airline

Winner: Air New Zealand

Runner-up: Hong Kong Airlines
Runner-up: Etihad Airways

Air New Zealand’s (0800 028 4149, www.airnewzealand.co.uk) small fleet size doesn’t stop it being the most innovative carrier in the air, as proved by the hugely popular Skycouch design that ‘turns a trio of seats into a comfy in-air sofa – great for families’. ‘With returns to LA for under £460, wonderful crew and a good in-flight entertainment system, ANZ is the little airline punching way above its weight.’ Hong Kong Airlines (0844 371 8393, www.hongkongairlines.com) has resurrected the all-Business Class flight with a brand new Club Class-only service from Gatwick that costs from £1,950 return. It features a 129cm pitch seat that’s ‘not quite a flat-bed but is still £400 cheaper than Cathay Pacific’s flat-bed seats on the same route’. Etihad Airways (020 3450 7300, www.etihadairways.com) is always worth checking if you need a bargain at short notice: ‘I got a return flight to Kuala Lumpur two weeks in advance for £448 return. The seat was comfortable, the food was à la carte, and the cabin crew were impeccable. Beat that.’

We love: Duty-free shopping in major Asian airports: Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok are the cheapest.

We hate: Charges for checking in one normal-sized piece of hold luggage – it should be illegal, and might be soon. The European Union is considering changing the law so that this cost has to be incorporated into the baseline fare.

Best-value non-UK spa

Winner: Bohinj Park Hotel Aquapark, Bohinj, Slovenia

Runner-up: Balneario de Lanjarón, Lanjarón, Spain
Runner-up: Fusion Maia, Da Nang, Vietnam

In Slovenia’s Julian Alps, the Bohinj Park Hotel Aquapark (pictured; 00 386 8 200 4140, www.bohinj-park-hotel.si; doubles from £138, B&B) has ‘water-tunnel slides, swim-into caves and a whirlpool’, topped off with a ‘secret adults-only sanctuary with steam rooms’. It’s free for hotel guests, or £10 for a half-day pass. Spain’s Balneario de Lanjarón (00 34 958 770137, www.balneariodelanjaron.com; doubles from £113, room only; day access £17) ‘can feel clinical’, but not if you stick to the Moorish-tiled thermal rooms. Vietnam’s Fusion Maia (00 84 511 396 7999, www.fusionmaiadanang.com; doubles from £207, B&B) is a ‘spa junkie’s dream, on a fab beach, with two daily treatments included’. And while our panellists aren’t shy, they’re not fans of nudity-required mixed-sex spas. ‘At a hotel in Germany, we were sitting in the sauna in carefully draped towels, when in walked a flabby man, letting it all hang out.’ Eurgh.

Best of the rest
In Budapest, ‘the exchange rate means a full day in the Szechenyi baths (www.szechenyibath.com) is just £9’. Massages at Rosewood (00 1 650 561 1500, www.rosewoodhotels.com), in San Francisco, ‘cost the same as those in nearby hotels – but are among the best in the world’. Gwinganna (00 61 7 5589 5000, www.gwinganna.com), near Australia’s Gold Coast airport, isn’t cheap but is ‘an exceptional retreat spa’. Weekend packages from £637pp, with £160 spa credit.

We love: Wat Po Thai Traditional Medical School (www.watpomassage.com), in Bangkok, for ‘great massages at half the going rate’ (60 mins, £9).

We hate: Paying for an hour-long treatment, then being sent to a ‘relaxation room’ for 20 minutes of it.

Best-value UK spa

Winner: Lifehouse, Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex

Runner-up: Lido Spa, Bristol
Runner-up: Hartwell House & Spa, Aylesbury

We’ve had it with hotels that claim to have a ‘spa’ without specifying the facilities. You arrive, ‘swimsuit and flip-flops in bag, ready for a sauna and steam, to discover it’s just two treatment rooms and a lame relaxation lounge’. That’s so not the case in Essex at Lifehouse Spa & Hotel (left; 01255 860050, www.lifehouse.co.uk; doubles from £99, half board, with a treatment; day access from £39), where ‘fab weekend packages mean you can spa here for half the price of elsewhere’. Bristol’s Lido Spa (0117 933 9530, www.lidobristol.com; day access from £20) is set around the oldest outdoor pool complex in the country, and is more akin to the ‘crisp, clean Icelandic experience’, yet with a ‘laid-back homeliness’.

Buckingham’s Hartwell House & Spa (01296 746500, www.hartwell-house.com; doubles from £290, B&B, day access from £75) has ’lovely staff’ in the stable-block spa, and as you relax by the Palladian pool ‘you can’t help wondering if Mr Darcy might pop by for a pedicure’.

Best of the rest
Ribby Hall (01772 671111, www.ribbyhall.co.uk), near Blackpool, is a stately home, with breaks from £99, B&B, including spa access. The spa at Blythswood Square (0141 248 8888, www.townhousecompany.com; doubles from £120, room only; day access from £65), in Glasgow, was made for ‘glam girly getaways’. The Scarlet (01637 861800, www.scarlethotel.co.uk; doubles from £190, room only; spa days from £100 with treatments), in Cornwall, isn’t cheap, but offers a lot of spa for your sterling.

We love: ‘Well-appointed changing rooms with free essentials – moisturiser, hairspray – in case you forget your own.’

We hate: ‘Being given the hard sell to buy products before we’ve even had a chance to get off the couch.’