Making accommodation better value for money would be the best way of improving British holidays, according to the results of a survey of 3,500 UK travellers released yesterday.

Those polled by travel company Lonely Planet also said cheaper train travel would make a British holiday better.

Other ways of improving the British holiday experience would be having fewer crowds at destinations and being able to reach more places by train.

The survey also showed that the most under-rated British day out was walking Scotland’s wild beaches, followed by exploring big cities in August when many workers are away on holiday.

Asked to say which places they would not go to even if they were paid to do so, those surveyed put an all-inclusive resort in Benidorm, Spain, in August at the top of their hate list, followed by a 3 a.m. Saturday night visit to a bar in San Antonio, Ibiza.

Third on the hate list was Madame Tussauds waxworks in London on a bank holiday on Monday, a visit to Butlins holiday resort in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, was in fourth, holidaying at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, during the school holidays was in fifth place, and Terminal 3 at Heathrow airport at 7 p.m. on a Friday night was sixth.

The poll also found:

• The greatest journey would be a London to Beijing rail trip including the Trans-Siberian Railway;

• The best wildlife encounter would be seeing mountain gorillas in Uganda;

• Eating steak in Buenos Aires would be the best food-place combination, while having a Mojito in Havana, Cuba, would fit the bill for a drink-place combination;

• The Monaco Grand Prix would be the best sporting event, the Rio de Janeiro Carnival the best thing to attend in the coming year, and reggae on the beach in Jamaica would be the ideal cultural experience;

• New Zealand would be the ideal country to live in, and Italian was the favourite food;

• A Thailand beach was the best place to relax, while Michael Palin was named the ideal travelling companion.