Paris may be known as the most romantic city in the world, but it’s also the most expensive place to buy a club sandwich — making it the priciest travel destination on the globe.
That’s the conclusion of online accommodation booking site Hotels.com which surveyed 750 hotels in three to five star categories across 26 countries and price-checked a standard club sandwich — a staple on nearly every hotel menu — against one another.
Dubbed the Club Sandwich Index or CSI, a triple-decker sandwich in Paris averages $33.10, followed by Geneva and Oslo, where ordering the all-American chicken, bacon, lettuce and mayonnaise club will set you back on average $32.56 and $30.50 respectively. Like The Economist’s Big Mac Index which uses the worldwide prices of McDonald’s iconic sandwich to gauge the purchasing power parity between two currencies, Hotels.com says it created the CSI to help serve as a barometer of travel costs for globetrotters.
New Delhi sells the cheapest club sandwich at $9.57, while Berlin and Brasilia landed in the middle at $17.77.
Meanwhile, a club sandwich at a Tokyo hotel will set you back $27.65; in Hong Kong it will cost US$18.35; in London $18.71 and Toronto $16.05.
Said Hotels.com spokesperson Alison Couper in a statement: “Paris may well be the gastronomic capital of the world but at an average $33.10, per club, travellers may be better off sticking to a Croque-Monsieur.”