Johannesburg – Cape Town has been named one of the top 10 best-valued destinations for those craving winter sun, new research has found.
The study, compiled by Findmycasino.com, discovered that South Africa’s Mother City is the ninth best value winter sun destination.
The research revealed that a trip to Cape Town will cost just R2 058.57 for every hour of sunshine gained, with holidaymakers gaining around eight hours (7.94) of sunshine per day.
In order to compile the research, Findmycasino.com compared sunshine hours in London in the UK for each destination in order to see how many sunshine hours tourists will gain per day.
This was then analysed in comparison to the total cost of a holiday in each destination, to reveal where you can get the most winter sun for your money.
Cape Town reaches the top 10 best-value cities for winter sun
“The average cost of a holiday to Cape Town is R41 324.13, meaning visitors pay R5 203.80 for each hour of sunshine gained and this is 37% cheaper than Mahe, Seychelles, where the price per sunshine hour gained is R8 335.46 – despite the island having 2.29 hours less sun per day,” the researchers explained.
Meanwhile, Marrakesh in Morocco is the city where travellers can get the most sunshine hours for their money.
“The average cost of a holiday to Marrakesh is R13 441.21, the lowest priced destination of all cities analysed,” the researchers said.
They added that holidaymakers in Marrakesh would experience 10.06 hours of winter sun per day, 6.53 hours more than in Greater London.
“The price per hour of sunshine gained is just R2 016.85, making Marrakesh the best-value winter sun destination. This is 26% cheaper than nearby island Madeira, where visitors will pay R2 759.30 per hour of sunshine gained.”
In addition, Cairo in Egypt ranked second, where tourists will pay R2 545.05 for every hour of sunshine gained.
“This is almost half the cost holidaymakers can expect to pay (R4 743.81) per hour of sunshine in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,” the researchers explained.
“Cairo receives 10.65 hours of sunshine, meaning tourists visiting from London will gain over seven hours of winter sun — the third longest in the top 10.”
The third best value destination for winter sun is Madeira, Portugal, where visitors will pay R2 759.30 for each hour of sunshine gained.
“This is almost a fifth of the price (19%) in nearby holiday spot Fuerteventura, Spain, where tourists can expect to pay R3 433.11 per hour of sunshine gained. Visitors in Madeira will gain almost six (5.82) hours of winter sun in comparison to almost seven (6.82) hours in Fuerteventura,” the researchers said.
But despite this, a trip to the Portuguese island (R16 300) is 31% cheaper than Fuerteventura (R23 426.16), with only one hour less sunshine.
Meanwhile Barbados, the Caribbean and San Diego, California are the most expensive winter sun destinations.
“Despite its beautiful location, the average cost for a holiday to Barbados is R63 038.01 for just over five (5.35) hours of sunshine gained each day and as a result, tourists will pay R11 776.29 per hour of sunshine gained — the highest of all destinations analysed,” Findmycasino.com stated.
Holidaymakers in San Diego, California, will gain just 5.12 hours of winter sun per day, despite the typical holiday to California costing a staggering R51 244.83.
“Visitors to the golden state will pay R10 013.32 for each hour of sunshine gained, more than double the cost holidaymakers can expect to pay in Cancun, Mexico (R4 853.75).”
In order to compile the research, Findmycasino.com used net surface solar radiation by hour of day acquired from the ERA-Land reanalysis dataset to compute sunshine hours, and collects cost estimates for flights, hotel stays, restaurant meals, and drinks from a multitude of reliable data sources.
Global gridded net surface solar radiation (J/m2) during the winter months of the Northern Hemisphere between 2016 and 2021 were collected from the Era5-Land monthly averaged reanalysis dataset and were provided by the Copernicus Climate Data Store.
Meanwhile, a spatial join between the solar radiation grids and selected holiday destination locations was then performed together with an aggregation to compute for each destination, the total solar radiation by month. A rate of 1000W/m2 was used to calculate the average sunshine hour duration per winter month.
In addition, return flight prices for two adults together with a three-star hotel stay prices were collected from Google flights and Google hotels respectively and restaurant meals and beer prices were collected from Numbeo. The total estimated holiday cost was then calculated assuming a restaurant two meals and one beer per day, for two adults.
The estimated total cost of the holiday was then divided by total sunshine hours gained for each destination to rank the holiday destinations that provide the most sunshine hours per pound in cost.
Flight and hotel stay costs were collected for January 16 to 23 2023 for two adults. All data was collected on December 5 and is accurate as of then.