Low-budget "Staycation" - all ideas and advice welcome :)

[fuzzpig]

As we aren't going on a 'proper' holiday this year we've decided to make the most of my week off sometime during the summer by visiting a few places. We hardly ever do stuff like that. I get anxious about travelling so I'd like to start thinking about it now!

We are in West Sussex and have no car so will be using our Family Railcard.

It will be DH (probably still on crutches), me, 5yo DD, nearly 3yo DS (probably in buggy some of the time) and two 14yo DSDs who don't live with us but will probably stay with us for that week (no big deal if not as we live in the same town so can meet at the station each day).

So looking for ideas for places to go, things to see, money-saving tips, stuff to do in the evenings (to make it a bit different to a usual week) etc.

So far we have:
Arundel: castle and wetland centre
Chichester, possibly (we went today and had a lovely canal boat trip but didn't get to see much else of the city)
A day in London?
Probably get the tent and telescope out for a night or two on our (front) lawn.

How about becoming National Trust members, the venues often have art and craft activities for the children and trails.
Drussilas is a good day out but quite expensive.

I've often wondered about the NT - I was under the impression that a lot of the places seem to be quite inaccessible without a car but I'll have a look.

How about interspersing sightseeing days with beach/pool days? Is there a nice hotel/club in the vicinity where you could use the pool and have a lazy day?

Ooh I'm not sure, wouldn't you have to stay in the hotel for that though?

There's a leisure centre but it's attached to DSDs' school so it's boring to them IYSWIM. Could look up centres in a different town.

We will be doing the same, also without a car. We live in London so there are a lot of things to do but the cost can really add up.

Do you have any supermarket reward vouchers? I have saved £35 quid of Rewards which will get us into Legoland for the day, otherwise there is no way we could afford to go.

A lot of train companies do Day Out Deals. Is it worth looking on train websites for discounted trips? We willl be doing Southend (ugh but the kids love it) this way as you save a lot of money on the theme park entrance prices.

I love the idea of the day at the hotel pool. Can you really do that?

I will keep thinking of ideas and will scour this tread for other good tips. Thanks for starting this thread

Some hotels do a day pass for their pool and spa, so you don't have to be staying there to use the facilities.

Do you shop at Tescos? Are there any clubcard deals you can use?

If you have any woods den building is great - you need string and maybe a knife/small ax

If you have access to a beach you could have an evening barbeque

Feeding the ducks or going to a different park to your usual one.

Staying in and cooking or art activities together at home, especially in the middle of a busy week. Then take the children to Mcdonalds for an early tea so they have been somewhere.

Does your local cinema do Saturday morning kids films at a really low price? That could be good. Or I go bowling but just pay for the children to play to keep costs down.
Another idea is have some ready meals in the fridge so you can just pop those in the oven after a busy day out.
Some icecream and sauce and a supply of sweets are good for a 'treat week'. Plus some wine for you once the children are in bed.

A beach day (if the weather is ok) would be good, as you don't need to spend much money. You could maybe take a picnic lunch, and then treat yourselves to an ice cream, and maybe fish and chips for tea.....

Yes, I was thinking of a day pass for a hotel or something. You don't want to spend every day of your holiday in a train and traipsing round heritage sites - visits are lovely, but you need some relaxation too

This website has lots of special offers like (2 for 1 entry) if you travel to places by train. You use your tickets to help get the discount or something I think. Lots are London based, but there is also a lot of variety outside London, including 2 for 1 takeaway fish and chips on Brighton Pier

I think you should make a spinner with all the different options on it and then each of you gets to take it in turns to spin it when you get to the station. Will be like a magical mystery tour.

Wow thanks for all the ideas! I love the spinner - will use that maybe for things closer to home, as for train journeys we tend to book a couple of days in advance on southern.com to save more money.

Funnily enough I just switched to Tesco online specifically because my friend told me how much money she was saving with clubcard (ok, and the fact Asda screwed up every single delivery!). I'm not sure we will have many clubcard points by then but hopefully enough for one thing. I may also see if I can nick my mum's Tastecard for one nice meal.

I'd definitely like to do different things, avoiding our usual haunts - so probably not Brighton as that's our standby day out. We actually got married in the Royal Albion hotel (the big one by the pier) in 2008 :) have been to Littlehampton a few times also, so would love suggestions of alternatives!

Have done a bit of googling and apparently you can get a day pass for butlins in bognor :o

Also DH is wondering about going to isle of wight for a day?! Train to portsmouth, then ferry, apparently - some cheap deals available.

I think going to the IoW would be great fun - theres something really different about going on a boat.
Keep an eye out on Groupon for deals - sometimes theres good family day out deals, but also your local tourist website might have vouchers

I keep hearing about groupon, what is it?

Portsmouth and Chichester are lovely days out. I think the Butlins idea is really good as it would give you the 'holiday' feel.

We have also agreed to do big trips every other day and alternate with something quieter. I will be off from Sunday to the following Sunday.

Tricky if you have no car and have trouble walking and distance.

There are two train stations at Portsmouth- Portsmouth and Southsea is just across from Victoria park which has a lovely and massive outdoor play area just right for the two youngest. There are also some animals in a large enclosure which are nice to feed. The other station is next to the dockyards (pricey but very interesting) and Gunwharf - very cheap designer shopping ideal for 14 year olds. Portsmouth is a very poor city so there are loads of cheap eats etc in the evenings.
IOW is brilliant for beaches but you would need a taxi for the 10 min walk from the station if DH has difficulty walking far. Once there the buses are good if you leave Ryde but a brilliant beach is right there as you get off the Cat.

Lots of great ideas thank you. The good thing is because we don't normally do much, expectations aren't terribly high :)