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?

The cost of living and electricity is definitely a factor in the increases. I'm more likely to think twice before buying these days too as wages haven't kept up.
I generally use Tesco club card or similar discount schemes where possible. I always keep an eye out for advertised deals too but even then I've reduced the amount I spend on these things in favour of local free outings, playgrounds and cheap museums. If the kids don't enjoy it or we have a bad time it's not such a waste then. And we save the bigger outings for a birthday or something special or tie in to a holiday.

We aren't tight for money but last week planned to do a farm- £50 for the four of us? So then we said swimming £25??!

In the end we went to the zoo as we have annual passes. Prices to things are ridiculous now

We have zoo passes for our local and it’s £50ish a year for an adult renewal and £40ish for a child. We go at least once a month so well worth it. We are also going to a theme park next month collected the sun 2 free tickets and then used a discount with a cadburys packet for the next two tickets so for 4 of us plus parking it’s £47 which is more than half the price it should have been online. Need to be savvy to make it work but it can be done

@greenpolarbear yep Switzerland is gobsmacking- we sometimes had to go with work-

It's always been this way. I'm one of 5, we were children in the 80s and 90s.
There were no meals out, proper days out were rare treats in the holidays, as was the cinema. We had a lot of picnics, knew where the good parks were, spent time in the woods, kite flying, a big space green space plus pals and a football. Lots of fun stuff that didn't cost very much.

yes it has got a lot more expensive. DS is autistic so we usually get 1 free adult ticket which helps a bit but it’s still extortionate and doesn’t cushion the blow if the day out is a disaster and we have to leave! Even some of the ‘free’ attractions like nice trails with a park near me have upped their parking to 7/8 quid.

Also did a family trip out with the ‘buy one get one free’ offer for Merlin attractions on Cadbury selection boxes, except you’re not allowed BOGOF on the online booking prices, only the more expensive price you’d pay if you bought tickets on the day. So it didn’t work out anywhere near 50% off 🙄

For the train tickets you need a friends and family Railcard. I can get to London from Scotland for less than that.

I think train travel and a premier inn is good value (obviously it depends on getting a good deal) because you can enjoy the free or low cost things in another area

Be glad the zoo wasn't Chester, that's £30 each.

it annoys me how soon they charge full pricing too, some places are from 18 months! Still in a pushchair and napping- yet getting charged full amount. Kelloggs often have two for one. Club card too- though not as good as it used to be. Merlin passes do a Black Friday sale and the off peak one I think is 79?

I remember very few days out like this in 60s and70s and very few meals out and we were quite comfortably off-I do remember though going abroad twice a year from the age of 8 . (1969)

I do notice on here though the amount parents seem to spend on hobbies and activities these days-and a lot of them aren't cheap- I think some of it comes from peer pressure - 'everyone goes there etc' some of it from a feeling that kids need to be active all the time. Problem is I think it creates a bit of a circle that kids expectations massively rise that life is always fun filled - rather than long bouts of boredom with some special fun days mixed in-

There's a cheaper entry to big London attractions (like the Tower) if you have travelled by train.

Days out were always expensive. The difference now seems to be the expectation that zoos/soft play/attractions are a regular thing. I grew up in the 80s and my grandparents took us on an annual zoo trip, and it was a big deal (and we were a fairly mc family). My dc are teens now and paid outings weren't that frequent, because they were expensive. My sister's dc are both early primary school and they seem to be at trampoline park/soft play/farm every other weekend, where they meet with friends and put it over social media. Also as a child and when mine were young we never ate at these places, we'd bring a picnic along, but it seems very standard now that eating out is an essential part of the trip.

Days out are so expensive nowadays!! I’ve booked a few things ahead. For me and 2 DC…

x3 tickets for Harry Potter World £139.50
x3 tickets with mid fast pass for Legoland £237
x3 tickets to Xmas panto £94

Doesn’t include travel, parking, food/drinks 🙈

Yes days out are ridiculously expensive.

However were going to london in a couple of weeks and its definitely not costing £1500

Train advance tickets from south east £46
Tower of london and Eye deal £160
Premier inn 1 night inc breakfast £165
Show £285

£656 plus food for 3 people.

Westfield is also pretty cheap to park in

We bought annual passes for Alton towers this year and we've really had the value out of them. Random Saturdays, inset days and dh and I have even booked annual leave days and just gone on our own. We are theme park enthusiasts though so never get bored of it and the kids love it. I worked out if we'd paid each time for tickets we'd have spent around £1k so far and it's not even summer holidays. Zoos are so expensive now and now the kids are older they're not really that fussed. An afternoon at our local garden centre can set me back £80 odd quid after I've paid for lunch and entrance to the farm.

We bought the passes as Christmas presents and they've been great although I realise we are very lucky that the cost of these was within our means. We always take a packed lunch and being regulars we know how to get the most out of our day. We also live in the north where house prices etc are lower so our mortgage etc is manageable. I have no idea how average earners in London manage it.

Shows are expensisve, but you can often get cheap tickets on the day (from Leicester Sq booth, or Covent Garden booth).
If you are not fussed about what you are seeing, then you see what is available.
I last did this a few years ago - pre covid. (check for suitability for DC etc)
Train tickets are cheaper if bought as soon as the cheap tickets are relased (12 weeks ahead). But this applies to the national railways rather than commuter railways.
Family events with children. I still feel angry that on a visit to London Zoo with my 3 DC, our tickets cost more than a family ticket (1 adult 3 DC, cost more than 2 adults, and 2 DC). I queried this, but was told that this was the price. If I had been quicker and said my DS (then age 13) was 16, it would have been cheaper!!! , but he did not look 16, and I dont think I would have got away with it, anyway.(It was many years ago).
Always look for deals when buying tickets.

I'm a whizz at shopping around for voucher codes and 2for1s - I also tend to look for venues which you pay once and have free entry for a whole year - lots of family attractions do that now (Beamish, Alnwick Castle, National Space Museum etc) or places like West Mids Safari Park where you get a free return visit - these kind of tickets were never available just a few years ago. And there are lots of really good free museums - RAF Museum etc

I also do the Sun Super Saver codes, Kelloggs vouchers and many railway lines if you travel by train you get 241 tickets. You've just got to be savvy

Lots of places also do mums or dads go free for mothers/Father's Day etc

I take a packed lunch and there is a limit on gift shop expenditure.

everything is expensive now - just to take my 3 to the local leisure centre swimming for an hour is £10 - when my twins turn 4 it will be £18! For a cold shower and questionable cleanliness

99's with a flake from the ice cream van for 3 kids will set you back a tenner these days

We normally get an annual pass for somewhere as our Christmas present from the in-laws and do a different place every year. We don't do overnights.

It's bonkers.

We've tried to massively cut down on days out unless it's something free like walks/picnics. We are lucky that where we live there's lots of activity-walks where there's stuff for kids to do along the way to keep them motivated.

We have annual family passes to our local zoo (€100 for 3 of us, youngest is free) and also for our local pool (€120 for 4 of us).

That's it for us for the summer!

Problem is I think it creates a bit of a circle that kids expectations massively rise that life is always fun filled - rather than long bouts of boredom with some special fun days mixed in-

I think this is true. I was a kid in the 90s and, although we were less comfortable than you sounded (we didn't go abroad til I was 11 and even then it wasn't far), it was similar. We had a caravan for holidays in the UK. We went to the park a lot. We entertained ourselves. I had the best childhood and I'm trying to replicate that for my DD.

DD is a similar age to a couple of my friends kids. She spends a lot of time playing in the garden or running round the park compared to my friends kids who are either battling for screentime or paying through the nose for constant activities. We love our bear hunts, picnics, going to see the baby swans etc. I don't really go in for comparisons because it benefits no-one. But what I have noticed is that her imagination is out of this world, and I can sit and chill on the patio for half an hour while she makes "potions" or plays with the fairies in her garden, or picks flowers. She will sit and watch the birds. My friends can't.

I'm not trying to pretend I'm an amazing parent or anything. I'm just muddling through and I know I'm lucky she is more interested in the outside world than screens (don't get me wrong, she loves a screen but would rather go look for butterflies). But you can see the difference the type of activities kids do has on them.

Yes even an hour in a trampoline park is £12 pp , two hours at soft play £10 pp.

And that's a small portion of the day

DC are teens. Days out to these places were £20-25 a family when they were toddlers. It's now that each. My wages haven't gone up by 4x.

Agree with others, at the risk of sounding like an old codger 'big' days out like the zoo or similar were a once a year birthday treat (& that was instead of a party - I was offered the choice). It does seem that these days it is 'expected' to provide expensive days out as the norm but you have to be strong and just accept that DC don't need constant expensive 'entertainment'. When our DS was younger we went to the park, picnics, community & church events, cubs,scouts, local sport teams etc ... nothing very expensive and he grew up a well rounded, sociable child.

Yes, I remember childhood holidays in Cornwall or Norfolk going to national trust properties (we were members) or the woods for a picnic. I remember getting leaflets from a display at the supermarket and excitedly trawling through them looking for the picture of a leaf that meant it was national trust and we could go there. I lived in hope for years that the national trust would take over somewhere like Thorpe park or Alton towers!