words Al Woods
A new survey has revealed that Kingston upon Hull is the most affordable city to have a date night in the UK. In second place was Cardiff, whilst Stoke-on-Trent followed in a close third-place. Unsurprisingly, the capital city proved to be the most expensive city in the country for courting couples.
Research for the survey was conducted by beauty experts Cosmetify. They analysed data from Expatistan and Numbeo to find the average cost of a date night for two people in each of the cities. It included observations of the average cost of set date activities, such as two tickets to the cinema, the cost of a taxi fare for a five-mile journey and a trip to a restaurant for two meals, one pint of beer and a cocktail.
The cost of a meal for two in Hull comes to £20.00, plus an average of £3.37 for a pint of beer and £7.00 for a single cocktail. This, combined with an average of £10.37 for a five-mile taxi journey and £13.00 for two cinema tickets, brings the total for a date night to £53.74. It is nearly half of the amount that it costs couples on a similar night out in London.
Cardiff prices proved slightly more expensive than that of Hull. The Welsh capital costs couples an average of £55.43 to enjoy the same activities over the course of an evening. Whilst cocktails in Cardiff cost the same price as those in Hull, a pint of beer will set customers back 10p more at an approximate cost of £3.47. Taxis will also cost an average of £11.96 for five-mile journey, which costs approximately £1.59 more than those in Hull. Cinema tickets are actually cheaper in Cardiff than Hull, at a price of £11.50 for two, compared to the charge of £13.00 in the East Yorkshire city. A meal for two costs £1.50 more in Cardiff than it would in Hull, however.
Although the cost of a cocktail and a dinner for two costs the same price in Stoke-on-Trent as Cardiff, two cinema tickets in the city would cost couples £16.25, which is just over £3.25 than it does in Hull. A taxi fare for five miles costs an average of £10.62 in Stoke-on-Trent, however, which is only 25p than the average cost in Hull.
Top ten most affordable cities for a date night
Below is a table showing the breakdown costs of an average date night in the top 10 most affordable cities.
| City | Average cost of two cinema tickets | Average cost of one pint of beer | Average cost for one cocktail | Average cost for a taxi fare (5 miles) | Average cost of a restaurant dinner for two people | Total average cost |
| Kingston upon Hull | £13.00 | £3.37 | £7.00 | £10.37 | £20.00 | £53.74 |
| Cardiff | £11.50 | £3.47 | £7.00 | £11.96 | £21.50 | £55.43 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | £16.25 | £3.51 | £7.00 | £10.62 | £21.50 | £58.88 |
| Belfast | £10.26 | £4.46 | £8.00 | £11.83 | £27.00 | £61.55 |
| Newcastle | £16.00 | £4.21 | £8.00 | £9.86 | £24.50 | £62.57 |
| Portsmouth | £14.00 | £3.92 | £7.00 | £10.18 | £27.50 | £62.60 |
| Leeds | £16.25 | £3.90 | £9.00 | £11.32 | £23.00 | £63.47 |
| Sheffield | £20.00 | £2.84 | £7.00 | £12.76 | £21.50 | £64.10 |
| Leicester | £17.00 | £3.52 | £10.00 | £11.46 | £23.00 | £64.98 |
| Birmingham | £20.00 | £3.87 | £8.00 | £12.08 | £21.50 | £65.45 |
Out of the ten most affordable cities included in the survey, Sheffield has the cheapest average cost of a pint of beer at £2.84. However, cinema tickets in this city are the highest of the lot at £20.00. Kingston upon Hull had the most affordable price for two meals at a restaurant at £20.00, although four other cities had an average cost for two meals of only £1.50 more.
The most popular price for cocktails in the majority of the cities was £7.00, although Leicester – the ninth most affordable city for a date night – had the most expensive cocktail price of £10.00. Although the general trend in the survey found that dinner for two was significantly more expensive than two cinema tickets, Sheffield and Birmingham’s cinema costs were only £1.00 cheaper than that of dinner in a restaurant.
Commenting on the findings of the survey, a spokesperson for Cosmetify said: “After spending so long being unable to enjoy a night out with a partner, people can finally have a date night again. Couples in Kingston upon Hull can enjoy the fact that they are getting good value for money compared to the rest of the UK. Meanwhile, Londoners might face more awkward questions about splitting the bill, given how high the cost of a date is in the capital.”
Top ten most expensive cities for a date night
London had the most expensive average cost of a cocktail and pint of beer out of all of the cities in the survey. Couples can expect to pay in the region of £12.00 for a single cocktail and £6.11 for a pint. At an average price of £27.00, two cinema tickets in London cost over double the price of tickets in Hull. In addition, a romantic meal for two in the capital cost approximately £34.00, whilst a five-mile taxi fare is priced at an eye-watering average of £24.86. This is over double the cost of taxi fares in each of the cities featured in the ‘top ten most affordable’ list.
Coming in at second of the most expensive cities for a date night is Oxford. The city has previously been named the least affordable place to live in the UK, which explains the high cost of enjoying activities on an average date night in the city. Although it places second in the survey, date nights in Oxford can cost around £20.00 less than they do in London. Edinburgh, which is the third most expensive city for a date night, only costs £1.23 less than Oxford, based on the average prices in the city.
The table below shows the top three most expensive cities for a date night in the UK. It includes the same breakdown of costs for activities that were reviewed in the most affordable cities list.
| City | Average cost for two cinema tickets | Average cost for one pint beer | Average cost for one cocktail | Average cost for a taxi fare (5 miles) | Average cost for a restaurant dinner for two people | Total average cost |
| London | £27.00 | £6.11 | £12.00 | £24.86 | £34.00 | £103.97 |
| Oxford | £22.00 | £4.25 | £8.00 | £19.21 | £30.50 | £83.96 |
| Edinburgh | £20.00 | £4.55 | £9.00 | £15.68 | £33.50 | £82.73 |
The cost of cinema tickets in Edinburgh came to the same average as Sheffield and Birmingham, which featured in the most affordable cities list. However, the Scottish city’s average was pushed up by expenses such as the dining cost for two people in a restaurant. The average price in Edinburgh of £33.50 was the second-highest dinner cost after that of London. Cocktails in Edingburgh also cost £2.00 more than the cost found in five of the most affordable cities. These costs helped to increase the total average cost of a date night in Edinburgh to £82.37.
Other cities that proved to be expensive for an average date night include Cambridge, which had a total cost of £81.03. A pair of cinema tickets in the city were found to cost an average of £22.27, whilst a single pint of beer can be expected to cost £4.50. This means that Oxford, Edinburgh and Cambridge all have a date night average that costs roughly the same amount of between £81 and £83.
Overall, the best place to plan your next date night if you want to save a few pennies is Kingston upon Hull. Couples can enjoy an evening of activities, plus a taxi ride for only £53.74. The survey found that the average price of activities such as a meal for two and cinema tickets are significantly lower here than that of many other cities up and down the UK. Cardiff and Stoke-on-Trent were also found to be reasonably priced when it came to enjoying a pint of beer and a cocktail.
At the other end of the scale is London, which costs a whopping £103.97 for the exact same types of activities, such as visiting the cinema and having a meal. The average cost of a meal in London costs £34.00, which is very expensive in comparison to the modest £20.00 that it would cost on average to dine in a restaurant in Hull.
Prices can vary dramatically across the country due to the difference in the average salary of the various regions, as well as general living costs. Kingston upon Hull has previously appeared in statistics involving the most affordable cities to live in, largely due to a lower than average salary for the locals. London, on the other hand, is renowned for having a high living cost, as well as a higher than normal salary rate for jobs throughout the city.
