To be shocked at the cost of family days out?

[holidaaay]

My sister was talking to me earlier and she said she’d seen that tickets for x4 to our local zoo are £25 each. As soon as a child turns 3 you pay full price for them. £100, just to get there. I couldn’t believe it!

It got me thinking how everything is just this way now and almost feeling a bit sad about it.

Take a weekend to London. £300 return for everyone’s train tickets (that would be a very good deal, too!) easily £200 per night for the cheapest of hotel rooms a walk out of the centre. If you’re there for two nights that’s already £700, not to mention shows, food, attractions whilst there… I reckon you’re then on at least £1500. I don’t know who’s affording it.

Of course, you could limit or go without those types of activities and spend a lot of time in parks and having fun at home or finding local free things to do at the museum and library. Nothing wrong with those things at all. But nor do I think it’s far fetched to hope some of the more ‘exciting’ activities and trips would be just that little bit cheaper so families can make some memories alongside doing the everyday things. It would be nice to think the zoo and a weekend to a big city weren’t activities reserved for the rich.

We have a few years before we will be paying full price for DD. We are likely going to be one and done, finances hugely influencing this and we don’t earn badly. I just don’t know how families with 2+ children do it- school holidays must cost parents so much money especially if the weather is crap. Never mind then factoring in other costs in the year like holidays and Christmas, any childcare bills you have to pay for monthly.

Has it really always been like this or prices just steadily getting more stupid?

They are so expensive. We have really cut back on them due to this. It is hundreds for 1 day.

Someone's paying it though, or they'd drop the prices.
Season tickets, Tesco Clubcard deals, Blue light card deals etc can reduce the prices hugely.
But yes, days out to bug attractions are expensive, and always have been.

No it’s gone up massively, but the costs of running anything involving animals for example is astronomical. We used to have some lovely local ish farm parks, a few farm animals, maybe a tractor ride, a small soft play- this was reasonably priced. Now they’re all bells and whistles with rides, entertainment, huge soft plays, big themed events for Christmas etc. And they charge hugely for it, triple what it used to be, from age age 2 upwards- we can’t go anymore. But apparently without the big sparkly rebrand and going more ‘theme park’ they wouldn’t survive. This has happened with so many attractions.

Regularly have stayed in London premier inns in good central locations for £100 a night, though.

There are still some good deals to be had for shows but they’re fewer between. Even a ‘cheap’ meal At Wetherspoons isn’t that cheap anymore.

Holidays too..... alot charge adult prices from 12 or 13. To be an adult is 18.
We have 3 teens, so now anywhere is paying for 5 adults.

Agree. Although there are ways round it - rail cards via Tesco clubcard points. Get your kid a blue Peter card asap - get them into lots of attractions for free. We ask grandparents for days out now the kids are 11 & 9 and not so into toys.

Take a weekend to London. £300 return for everyone’s train tickets (that would be a very good deal, too!)

I have bought tickets for £30 for three? This includes underground travel too. Excellent value. We are 130 miles away.

Yes those kinds of activities are crazy expensive, which is why for us something like the zoo or the sea life centre is a special birthday trip. We'll do something like that once a year. We go to the theatre maybe twice a year - once during the summer and once at christmas, but not the west end. We have two young kids and over the summer holidays we do maybe one paid event every other weekend, and the rest of the days are spent on free activities. Museums, galleries, libraries, parks are all free, and there are lots of children's events over school holidays that are low cost, you just need to book in advance.

Yeah we go to the local farm (which to be fair is fantastic) once a year now- usually Easter so we can bottle feed the lambs!

To be fair with school age kids a lot more time is taken up with hobbies and parties and play dates so we are looking to
fill weekends much less now than when we just had a toddler. DD is 6 and over the summer she’s got her dance show and rehearsals, going to football camp, staying at her granny’s with a cousin, meeting friends in the park, etc.

We reserve certain activities for when we're abroad in Europe, e.g. the zoo or tropical swimming pools. Train tickets to London are cheaper than you might think on the weekend, but the rest is undoubtedly expensive. I have no idea how people can afford activities all the time.

Take a weekend to London. £300 return for everyone’s train tickets (that would be a very good deal, too!) easily £200 per night for the cheapest of hotel rooms a walk out of the centre. If you’re there for two nights that’s already £700, not to mention shows, food, attractions whilst there… I reckon you’re then on at least £1500. I don’t know who’s affording it.

A weekend in London, if you have to get there by train and stay two nights in a hotel, isn't a day out - it's a short break.

Yanbu. Taking just one child to Alton Towers this weekend, on my own without dh. That's almost £80. I wouldn't pay that though, we used clubcard points.

I also had a fanciful idea that we might one day take our dc to Glastonbury. No chance. Around £1k, and that's without spending money. For 3 days.

Those are two of the more expensive ones. But even taking a family of four to the cinema costs an absolute fortune.

What you have to remember is that anything with animals costs so much money (food, vets, insurance, premises big enough, staff) and they make pretty much 0 money in termtime. When I was part time with DS we had membership to Lonlgleat. The only people there Monday to Friday and on winter weekends were also annual pass holders. With toddlers and picnics!

I think things like theme parks have always been "expensive" but I feel like Alton Towers has always been about £30 since back in the 90s (online booking price is from £29).

I can afford but just can't justify the prices as they are now. It's not worth it.

It's "mug" pricing, i.e. stupidly inflated prices for people who can afford it and/or don't care about money.

There are nearly always ways of getting cheaper prices if you plan in advance, google for deals, etc.

As others have said, Tesco Club Card is a good place to start to use for attraction entry fees.

There is also a range of railway discount cards which last a year and pay for themselves within just one or two journeys. You can also get discounted attraction entry fees if you buy at the same time as railway tickets. Some railway tickets to London can include the underground tickets cheaply or free.

Hotels usually will do cheaper room rates if you contact them directly rather than using their own website or Booking.com - the rules of platforms like Booking.com ban them from offering cheaper deals online, but if you phone up, you can often get a lot cheaper as they're not paying the Booking.com commission.

Our day trip to London is about £45 for myself and a child, which isn’t too bad but once you start adding attractions it suddenly becomes £200 for the day with food as well. There’s not a lot of value for money things to do anymore sadly.

Or you could try one of the Heritage Organisations. English Heritage is £127 for a yearly membership for 2 adults and up to 12 children (up to the age of 17). Unlimited visits to over 440 sites - houses, castles, Roman forts, Stonehenge etc
I know its not Alton Towers but it is an option. Educational too 🙄

Some ways you can significantly reduce the cost of days out:

1. Get the Family and Friends railcard, the savings will more than cover the cost of the train ticket over the course of the year/3 years (get the digital version so you don’t get caught out if you forget to bring the paper ticket - https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/great-britain/railcards)
2. Look for National Rail 2-4-1 offers - https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/2for1-london/
3. Virgin Experience Days periodically has discounts and discount codes for up to 20% - I’ve found this to be good for things like Go Ape but you have to keep a lookout for deals
4. If your company has an employee corporate discount scheme, use it (days out, cinema vouchers, theatre tokens, dining out, everything!)

Things have always been expensive? My parents were middle class/comfortably off in the 90s and we never did theme parks/zoos etc.

I think they are possibly even more expensive now because of:

• animal welfare. These things were cheaper when the animals were not well cared for.
• safety - everything is better maintained with more safety features now
• central funding: some organisations used to get council or government funding and a lot of these things have been steadily reduced over 14 years of conservative government
• extra features, tons of play parks & soft plays everywhere.

I do think social media gives people the misguided impression that everyone is constantly on exciting days out, and people expect things that aren't realistic as a result.

My kids have done two expensive days out this year,
one to an aquarium. It was not far from home so travel was free and DH took a picnic lunch.
Two to a zoo farm type place, which was part of a visit to grandparents.

Other days out were free museums and parks.

Our day trip to London is about £45 for myself and a child, which isn’t too bad but once you start adding attractions it suddenly becomes £200 for the day with food as well. There’s not a lot of value for money things to do anymore sadly.

London has so many low cost things! Museums, parks, riverboat rides, famous buildings. You don't need to buy lunches in cafes, you can take a sandwich picnic for far less money

Top tip if possible. Drive to Stanmore station. Park for £6 and get the train/underground from there. I think £6 includes overnight. It's an absolute bargain.

Take a weekend to London. £300 return for everyone’s train tickets (that would be a very good deal, too!) easily £200 per night for the cheapest of hotel rooms a walk out of the centre. If you’re there for two nights that’s already £700, not to mention shows, food, attractions whilst there… I reckon you’re then on at least £1500. I don’t know who’s affording it.

That’s always been a hugely expensive type of weekend though.

When there’s a few of you, driving somewhere is generally cheaper than train (central London is a bloody pain with cars though). Hotels are always going to be expensive, as are shows and attractions.

We always did weekends away out of big cities, in Premier Inns where you get a child free for an adult breakfast, bought rolls for lunch and visited places that took Tesco Clubcard. For shows, we use TodayTix or the lotteries or visit local theatres when London shows are on tour.

We used to do season tickets, and maybe time them to run August to July so we could use them for 2 summers.

I live near Thorpe Park, Chessington and Legoland never could afford to go there. That was well over 10 years ago.
I also think it was unfair that a family ticket was only 2 adults and 2 children so you had to pay extra for the other 2 if you had 4.

Our small local farm has started doing event days its normally £3 per child over 2, £4 per adult, however on peppa pig days ect it's £24 per adult and £18 per child. We stick to the non event days.

I mean me and my husband stay often in nice hotels in central London and 2 days is roughly £500 that’s with food etc. we don’t often go to shows though.