Cost of Cheltenham Festival vs Spanish Getaway The 2025 Cheltenham Festival is almost upon us and as the best national hunt horses, trainers and jockeys in both Ireland and Britain are doing their final preparations ahead of the four-day extravaganza in March, the team at irishracing.com have taken a look at the options available to racing fans eager to enjoy the spectacle. A combination of expensive ticket prices to the event and price-gouging on accommodation in the Cheltenham area has led to a fall in attendance over the last two years at the Festival. Many Irish and British fans of the sport, who would have traditionally made the annual pilgrimage to the Cotswolds to experience the unique atmosphere and excitement of the Cheltenham Festival, are instead going to destinations abroad where their money goes further. The festival organizers are aware of this trend and have made a number of tweaks to the race programme at the Festival for 2025, arranged for more official parking spots at the course and also tried to influence the accommodation providers whose prices skyrocket around the time of the festival each year. While nothing comes close to the experience of watching the races live at Cheltenham, we looked into some popular destinations where British and Irish racing fans are increasingly spending their spring break to coincide with the Cheltenham Festival, opting to watch the races on the television in bars and restaurants in the likes of Benidorm and Mallorca. Our team decided to look at how big a financial difference there is between going to Cheltenham and watching the races live, or vacationing in Benidorm/Mallorca and watching the action at a pub in those locations. We collected all the data for travel costs, accommodation costs, the average cost of three meals per day to determine how much of a difference there is between the two options - Cheltenham or Spain. Spain offers better weather and cheaper costs From our analysis, a vacation in Benidorm or Mallorca could set you back just 25% of the cost of watching the action live at Cheltenham Racecourse. This is considering the time period of four days - 11 March to 15 March - when the 2025 festival is scheduled to be held. When traveling from London, the average cost per person to have a vacation in Benidorm is between €785 to €862, to vacation in Mallorca is between €838 to €1,051, whereas to attend Cheltenham is between €2,799 and €3,879. In the case of traveling from Dublin the average cost range for Benidorm is between €1,107 to €1,184, for Mallorca is between €1,024 to €1,237 and to attend Cheltenham is between €3,034 to €4,132. Pint of Guinness comparison - €9.22 Cheltenham Races; €5.50 Mallorca; €4.50 Benidorm High ticket prices make watching the races an expensive affair, coupled with the average accommodation costs which are exponentially higher than that in Mallorca and Benidorm. The weather in Spain will also be warmer as the average temperature is about 10 degree Celsius higher than that in Cheltenham at this time of year. AirBnB versus Hotels To look at accommodation costs we checked listings on both AirBnB and Booking.com and the former offers a cheaper average price than Booking.com. When renting an AirBnB for four days in Benidorm, the average cost is around €310. For the same duration, a hotel room through Booking.com costs on average €386 for the same period. In Mallorca, the average cost of an AirBnB accommodation is €386 and that of a hotel is €598. Even in Cheltenham, AirBnB is a cheaper accommodation option with an average cost of €1,444 compared to that of a hotel being €2,541. Methodology We collected return travel costs to Cheltenham from London and Dublin to Cheltenham London - we collected the average cost of traveling via train to and from Cheltenham Dublin - we collected the average flight cost to and from Cheltenham (with flights being to Birmingham) For accommodation costs, we looked at listings on AirBnB and Booking.com for the time period: 11 March to 14 March, 2025 We gathered average temperature through weather25.com For Cheltenham tickets, we looked at the combined average cost of the following enclosures over each of the four days of the Festival: Best Mate Enclosure Club Enclosure Guinness Grandstand Race Course View Tattersalls Enclosure Overall it is far more expensive to attend the Cheltenham Festival than watch the action from a pub in a Spanish resort, but it is difficult to put a price on experiencing the thrill and excitement of national hunt racing in person. For many jumps fans you cannot put a price on being there to witness the likes of Galopin Des Champs attempt to win a third straight Gold Cup or experience the sheer excitement of cheering your winning fancy back into the Winner’s Enclosure at Prestbury Park in March.
