THE summer holidays are just around the corner, and as the queen of money-saving mums, I’ve compiled a list of my favourite tricks for saving cash on day trips in the UK.
Like lots of parents, I love to treat my three boys to fun family days out over the long summer break – but budget constraints mean I have to search for the best value passes and tickets.
Travel writer Catherine Lofthouse (pictured with her son) has a number of tricks for saving money on top attractions in the summer holidays[/caption]
There are lots of ways to save money in the holidays – for instance, Lost Gardens of Heligan (pictured) offers visitors the chance to convert tickets to a free weekly pass[/caption]
From twilight tickets to summer passes, here are a few hidden hacks that I’ve used over the years to make our money stretch further.
Twilight tickets
With the long summer days in full flow, sometimes it makes sense to head to an outdoor attraction later in the day.
Often, there are fewer visitors and the sun isn’t at full strength, especially as daylight stretches well into the evening now.
This makes it less hot and sweaty, and much better if you have young children or babies with you.
We love a trip to Gulliver’s, which offers rides and play aplenty at four sites in Derbyshire, Milton Keynes, Rotherham and Warrington.
Depending on the site, tickets in the summer holidays can cost £22.50 to £24.50 per person.
But, if a full day out is a bit too much for your family, you can get an afternoon ticket from 2pm to 5pm for £15 or £16.
At Milton Keynes, there’s also the option of paying £18 to visit the dino and farm park next door from midday and then go into the theme park from 2pm onwards.
This is ideal if you are in a group with different-aged children.
Norfolk Museums have cut-price twilight tickets for the last hour of opening at places like Norwich Castle or the Elizabethan House in Great Yarmouth from £1.50 to £2.50 per person.
We love popping into the atmospheric Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth, which has loads of hands-on activities that tell the town’s tale of fishing, seafaring and tourism.
A twilight ticket means a family of four only pays £10 for a visit instead of £28.40 – perfect to while away an hour after spending the day on the beach.
Puxton Park near Weston-super-Mare offers a £6 twilight ticket for its last two hours of opening, giving access to its soft play, adventure zones and animal park. A family of four normally costs either £46 or £62 for a full day in the summer holidays.
Summer season tickets
Lots of visitor sites now offer summer passes that include unlimited entry over the long school holidays, which can be excellent value for money if you’re planning to make repeat visits.
At Statfold Country Park in the Midlands, the new steam into summer pass costs £70 for a family of four and covers train rides, entry to the National Fairground Museum, soft play and mini golf until the end of September.
To visit for a day in the summer holidays would cost £57.50, so it’s well worth buying the pass, even if you’ll only use it twice.
Farm parks can be a fantastic choice if you’re looking for a summer pass.
At Lee Valley Animal Adventure Park in Essex, two adults and two children can visit unlimited times from July 5 to August 31 for £62.97, compared to paying £42.96 for entry for one day over the school holidays.
And we’ve also had great value passes in the past for soft play centres, which tend to be quieter in the summer months when people are outdoors more.
If you live near one of the 70 pubs that host a Wacky Warehouse, you can buy a month-long pass for £14 per child for access to the soft play, with discounts if you buy more than one pass at the same time.
Statfold Country Park in the Midlands offers summer passes to families[/caption]
Weekly or fortnightly passes
If you’re holidaying away from home, some attractions in tourist hotspots offer weekly or fortnightly tickets to encourage families to make return visits while they are in the area.
Down in Cornwall, you can upgrade a day ticket to visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan into a weekly pass for free on arrival at the ticket office.
A ticket booked in advance for a family of four costs £75.50, so you’ll want to make the most of your entry fee by visiting several times if possible.
If you’re heading to Scotland for your holidays, the Historic Scotland Explorer Pass is £100 for two adults and up to three children aged 7-15 for 14 days.
It covers entry to lots of sites such as Skara Brae in Orkney and Edinburgh Castle, which by itself costs £74 prebooked or £82 on the day for two adults and three children. So if you’re visiting the castle and a couple of other sites, the Explorer Pass could be the perfect way to save money.
In Devon, Woodlands theme park offers a seven-day wristband for £123 for a family of four, compared to £86.72 for one-day entry.
Audley End Miniature Railway Essex often holds an end of season sale – so it’s cheaper to go towards the end of August[/caption]
End of summer sale
When my boys were young, we used to love chugging around the tracks at Audley End Miniature Railway near Saffron Walden in Essex.
But with tickets costing £18 per person this August, it can be quite an expensive day out, especially towards the end of the school holidays when funds are dwindling and you’ll need to buy new school uniform for the academic year ahead.
Last summer, the visitor attraction offered 30 per cent off for the last week in August, making a final day of family fun before the kids go back to school more affordable.
It’s worth waiting to book your tickets to see if a similar discount code is available this year, as it could take tickets for me and my three boys from £72 down to £50.
Another place I like to look out for discount codes is at indoor attractions like waterparks or adventure golf.
These tend to be quieter over the summer months while people are out and about in the warm weather, so they sometimes do discounts at the end of the summer to get visitors back in before the autumn.
We often visit Moorways Sports Village in Derby using discount codes, which can take the price for a waterpark session down to £8 per person.
That’s a similar price to a round of indoor adventure golf near us, which sometimes offers a 20 per cent discount code towards the end of the school holidays.
Sign up for the social media pages of your local attractions to make sure you hear about these offers when they are launched.
It’s also a great time to look at venturing further afield to places where term time has already begun and prices have returned to off-peak.
If you live south of the Scottish border, it could be worth heading north at the end of August as schools in Scotland start back in the middle of the month.
Here in Leicestershire, we have a similar situation, with prices dropping for the last week of August once term has begun, even though all the children in neighbouring counties are still off school.
So make sure you do your summer holiday maths and work out what ticket works best for your family before you splash the cash.
Waiting until the last-minute to book a twilight ticket or use an end of summer discount code could be better for your budget.
Paying a bit more upfront could end up saving you a pretty penny in the long run.
The arcades at Great Yarmouth are great if you want to get out of the sun[/caption]
