Spain most popular destination as summer holidays begin Airports in the South East are expected to be extremely busy if figures from this time last year are anything to go by, with 480,000 passengers departing from Heathrow, 276,000 from Gatwick, 125,000 from Stansted and 70,000 from Luton. Eurostar is also reporting a rise in passenger numbers on last year, with 70,000 passengers leaving for Paris and the south of France this weekend. A recent survey has identified the cheapest destinations for a holiday this summer based on average hotel rates for July and August in 1,000 resorts. Patong Beach, near Phuket in Thailand, was named the cheapest, by hotel comparison Trivago, with room rates averaging £33 a night. The top five most affordable resorts in the list also included Kefalos (in Kos), Varna (Bulgaria) and Las Palmas (Gran Canaria). The most expensive resorts, according to the survey, were Bora Bora in French Polynesia (£497 a night), Porto Cervo in Sardinia (£417) and Pula (£377), also in Sardinia. The top 10 cheapest destinations in terms of average hotel prices