As the pound's power falls and

THE plunge in the spending power of the pound abroad, and the debt mountain facing several countries in the eurozone, has left Britons puzzled over where to holiday this summer.

This week two suppliers of foreign currency Stainless Steel Rings store gave their analysis of where the best value can be found. Many travellers only started planning trips after Germany knocked England out of the World Cup.

According to an analysis by ICE (International Currency Exchange), Croatia and Bulgaria are both "key hotspots" for summer.

Both offer better value against the pound than a year ago.

Joanna Williams, head of marketing at ICE, says: "The popularity of the eurozone is seeing a resurgence due to the strengthening pound against the euro - which saw a 19-month high this week.

"But Brits are also capitalising on favourable exchange rates, low day-to-day living costs and Mediterranean temperatures in non- euro hot spots Croatia and Bulgaria."

At the Post Office, head of travel money Sarah Munro says: "Football fans looking to escape World Cup woes will get the best deal by heading off to a Balkan beach resort.

"There, sterling will stretch further - and none of the region's soccer nations remain in contention."

The Post Office also identifies Bulgaria, Croatia - and the embattled eurozone - as the only places where the UK pound buys more foreign currency than a year ago.

"English soccer supporters will score an own goal if they fail to consider a holiday in the eurozone, where prices can be up to 43% lower than a year ago", the Post Office says.

All this, of course, assumes the crisis in the eurozone is contained for the rest of this year - and way beyond.

Not everyone is sure this will be achieved. Political commentator Peter Oborne argued the other day in the Daily Mail that Greece and Portugal will "inevitably" quit the euro at some point. This possibility, he thinks, heightens the risk of accepting euro notes with serial numbers prefixed with the letters Y (coming from Greece) or M (Portugal).

"In these extreme circumstances, the euros issued by these two countries might be converted back to drachmas and escudos - leaving the value of them in jeopardy", he writes.

"Of course, under European Central Bank rolex fake rules, the value of this money ought to be fully protected, but who knows what will happen if there was a major crisis?" He says that he will steer clear of notes with serial numbers G (Cyprus), S (Italy), V (Spain), T (Ireland) and F (Malta).

'Safe' euro notes, in Mr Oborne's view, are prefixed Z (Belgium), U (France), I (Finland), and H (Slovenia).

And we can, he says, have "total confidence" in notes with serial numbers beginning with X (Germany), P (The Netherlands) and N (Austria).

Could millions of Britons face fresh humiliation at the hands of the Germans, leaders of the fight for the euro? Although 16 of 27 EU member states have so far replaced their currencies with the euro, doubts about its long-term viability have intensified this year.

Growing fears that some member countries could default on their debts helped to push London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares below 5000 this week - around 15% down on its mid-April peak of 5833. That could be costly for someone about t
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