Costa del Cheltenham! Thousands of Brits descend on Benidorm in fancy gown to look at Cheltenham Festival racing within the sunshine with £2 pints
Brits have swapped Cheltenham for Costa Blanca with a huge influx of fans hitting Benidorm to enjoy the racing away from the pricey festival in Gloucestershire.
Punters dressed up in comical outfits and hit the Benidorm strip for the start of the four-day festival on Tuesday, a growing tradition in recent years with hotel bookings rising by a staggering 225 per cent.
While Cheltenham organisers have sought to make beer more affordable after criticism last year, lowering the price of Guinness to £7.50 a pint, Benidorm’s offer of £1.70 a pint appears too good to turn down for thousands of Brits.
Holidaygoers were seen wearing traditional jockey outfits and downing pints in the sun while the races got under way 1,300 miles north – where the weather is currently 11 degrees and overcast.
It is not just the cheap booze that has enticed Brits to embrace Benidorm rather than Cheltenham. Burgers are available at over half the price of the £12 price at the festival, while flights cost a fraction of the train fares demanded of travellers going from London to Gloucestershire.
Entrance to bars on the strip is free, while a ticket for the day at Cheltenham will cost between £47 and £180.
Thousands of Britons have flocked to Benidorm for the start of Cheltenham
Punters are travelling to Spain rather than Gloucestershire as a cheaper alternative
Pints cost as little as £1.70 in the Spanish city, compared to £7.50 at the official event
Racing fans were seen wearing fancy costume as they enjoyed the first day of the four-day racing bonanza
There are countless big screen TVs showing all of the races, live DJ sets and pool parties on offer.
The festival gives Benidorm a running start to St Patrick’s Day (March 17) a typically hectic time in the area where tourists enjoy the holiday.
Brits reportedly make up over 40 per cent of Benidorm’s visitors over the course of a year. Nearly 900,000 UK travellers visited the city in 2024.
Cheltenham bosses are battling to boost attendances after last year’s figures dropped at an alarming rate.
In 2025, 218,839 people flocked to Prestbury Park – a decrease of more than 10,000 on the previous year when just south of 230,000 attended.
Last year’s Ladies Day, which is on a Wednesday, saw just 41,949 come through the gates – the lowest crowd figure for a single day in a quarter of a century.
Many punters blamed the increasing costs of attending and enjoying Cheltenham as the main factor for no-shows, with a pint of Guinness in 2025 almost at the £8-mark at £7.80.
And in response to all of the above, the price of a pint of Guinness at this year’s Festival has been slashed by 30p to £7.50. Meanwhile a half-pint is £3.75 – 15p less than last year.
That full-pint price reduction, spearheaded by chief executive Guy Lavender, means the popular alcoholic beverage is the same price it was in 2022.
A Guinness half-pint has decreased by 15p to £3.75 as Cheltenham tries to attract more fans
Racegoers pictured enjoying a £7.50 pint of Guinness ahead of the first day at Cheltenham
Speaking in September about that now-ratified decision, former MCC chairman Lavender said: ‘The price of a pint of Guinness is a peculiarly emotive issue for many people, but it’s important.
‘You can’t benchmark it, Cheltenham is its own event but it was quite clear that this was something people cared about. Therefore, my view was that we ought to do something about it.
‘Rather than put their prices up, which I expect every other venue to do, I felt we should reduce those prices and carry those costs ourselves. That’s a decision we’ve taken to implement for the whole of the season.
‘If you look at other sports and events, I think there will be very few that are matching that price point. It’s a deliberate, purposeful move towards delivering better value for racegoers. It’s not about selling more pints, it’s an indication of intent that we’re responding to the challenges around value. I hope it’ll be well received.’
As well as Guinness, there are many other price changes – albeit small – compared to last year.
Guinness 0.0 is cheaper too with a pint now £7.30 and a half-pint at £3.65 slightly less than last year’s prices of £7.40 and £3.70.
For those who wish to get on the spirits, there is good news too with 25ml of Morgan’s Spiced, Smirnoff, Gordon’s Gin and Gordon’s Pink Gin all reduced by 20p to £7.
A 330ml bottle of premium lager or a 500ml can of Doom Bar are still the same at £7.40 and £7.80 each. A 25ml shot of Jamesons is also still £7.30.
However, for those who wish to drink an alcohol free lager they face inflation by 10p with a 330ml bottle now up to £4.10. Wines have also increased by 30p to £10 for anyone fancying a house white, house red or house rose.
