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Updated: 9 Jan 2023

Best and worst city break providers

Which city break provider should you use for your next trip? Our survey of thousands of holidaymakers reveals all

Which? Team

With hundreds of companies to choose from, which ones offer the nicest accommodation, the most helpful customer service and the best value for money? Here, we reveal satisfaction ratings for the city break providers that were used most in our survey.

These reviews cover city break providers who offer short weekend breaks to cities throughout Europe. To read our full reviews, click on the links in the table or scroll down.

To be named a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP), companies must be among the most highly rated in our survey and meet other consumer-focused criteria. Following the pandemic and subsequent travel chaos, we have asked all of our WRPs to guarantee a full refund, or free changes, if government restrictions mean you can’t travel.

In response to the cost of living crisis we have also asked all of our WRPs not to apply surcharges. Legally, tour operators are allowed to charge you up to 8% more for a holiday you’ve already booked if their own costs rise. But our WRPs guarantee they will waive that right in 2023.

Best and worst city break holiday providers


Barrhead Travel	82%	Read full Barrhead Travel review	£102	n/a
RECOMMENDED PROVIDER Jet2Holidays	81%	Read full Jet2Holidays review	£104	n/a
Trailfinders	81%	Read full Trailfinders review	£135	£217
Virgin Holidays	81%	Read full Virgin Holidays review	£116	£157
British Airways Holidays	79%	Read full British Airways Holidays review	n/a	n/a
Hays Travel	79%	Read full Hays Travel review	£98	£150
Travel Republic	79%	Read full Travel Republic review	£89	n/a

Using the table Star ratings are based on one to five stars. The more stars the better. Click on the 'i' symbol to see sample sizes. n/a indicates we did not receive enough responses to report on a company in that category. Average price Based on the median price per person per day of holidays taken by survey respondents, in all categories, with the company named. Short-haul destinations are defined as anywhere less than a five-hour flight from London. Customer score Based on a combination of overall satisfaction and how likely people are to recommend the company

Which city break holiday companies are recommended providers?

Jet2holidays – 81%

Jet2holidays has gone from strength to strength, and despite growing to be one of the UK’s biggest package tour operators, it has managed to maintain the personal touch.

Customers were impressed with its city breaks brand, Jet2CityBreaks, which includes 22kg of luggage at no extra cost and provided exceptional customer service.

Which? verdict: The only Which? Recommended Provider for city breaks in our survey, Jet2CityBreaks shines with five-star customer service at a very reasonable price.

Read the full Jet2holidays review

How we researched holiday companies

In August 2022, we asked 8,361 Which? Connect panel members and the public to complete an online survey about their experiences of booking and going on holiday in the past two years. We only reported on companies when we received at least 30 responses.