If you’re thinking of what you can do with your little ‘uns that won’t break the bank, here are some ways to spend less on days out and activities.
Days out aren’t cheap so here I’ll share special offers where you can bring down the price of tickets, as well as any special free events and activities. I’ve also had a look at schemes such as Kids Pass and Little Bird and shared whether I think they’re any good.
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Kids Pass and Little Bird memberships
What do Kids Pass and Little Bird do?
Both Kids Pass and Little Bird are essentially memberships which gives you discounts on the places and things kids like to do.
Kids Pass promises:
- Up to 57% off at “family days out” such as theme parks, bowling and play centres
- Up to 40% off at cinemas, seven days a week
- Kids eat free or for £1 at hundreds of restaurants
- Savings on places like Butlins and Haven
You only need one card per family, rather than per child.
Little Bird promises similar offers, as well as a shop to buy discounted tickets.
Are they any good?
The discounts generally look pretty decent, especially the restaurants and cinema deals. They’re pretty similar too, though Kids Pass seems to have more options – possibly because it’s been around longer.
Restaurant deals
Some of the restaurant chains involved are Giraffe, Garfunkels, Barburrito, Handmade Burger Co, and Bella Italia each offering free food for kids or £1 meals. There’s also BOGOG at Pizza Hut (delivery) and second pizza for £1 at Papa Johns. There are hundreds of independent ones too. You can see those involved without getting a membership.
Cinema deals
The cinema discounts through Kids Pass are available at most of the major chains and various independent places. You get up to 40% off tickets for kids and adults, making it a good option even if you don’t have kids. A quick look at a few different chains and it generally works out as £8 per adult ticket.
Little Bird has fewer cinema chains, with only Vue and Odeon included. At the time of writing, you’ll pay:
- Odeon: £7.78 or £9.51 (inside the M25)
- Vue: £4.25 or £8.50
Do make sure though that it’s not cheaper to buy your tickets with a different deal. For example, my local Vue in York now charges £4.99 for all showings all the time, but when I last checked it would cost more than £8 via Kids Pass.
You’ll need to buy your tickets through the website or app – you can’t just show your pass at the box office.
Other deals
The theme park and other family activities look good, though as with most entertainment it’s worth shopping around for other offers. It does look like it includes all the major theme parks and places like MadameTussaudss and London Dungeon.
You can also save up to 50% at places like Eurocamp, Haven and Butlins.
Special offers
Kids Pass offers
At full-price – £75 a year – it’s possibly a bit pricey. However, there are ways to save which make it a must-try.
30-day trial for £1, then £39.99 for a year or £3.99 a month
For £1 I’m confident you’ll save some money with the card. Sadly my exclusive 90-day offer has ended and all trials have been cut to 30 days.
After the 30-days it will auto-renew at £39.99 for a further 12 months. Make sure you remember to cancel if you don’t want to keep it.
Or there’s a second option where you pay £3.99 a month after the trial, though to get that you’ll need to cancel before your trial ends and sign up for this option. It’s more expensive if you stay for a year, but you have the option to cancel when you’re not using it.
> Try Kids Pass for £1 for 30-days then £39.99 a year
Little Bird offers
There’s also a 30-day trial for £1 offer. After this, it renews at £34.99.
Days Out offers
Another scheme is the Days Out website. This works slightly differently. You pay £5 to download five vouchers a year, or £15 for unlimited offers. Worth a look for different attractions.
Theme park deals
Check out my separate guide to paying less for theme park tickets such as Alton Towers and Legoland.
I want to cancel my kids pass and my returned , you have took 29.99 out of my back which as left me no money for my gas and electric. I was not aware you would take this much out of my bank
Hi Jo, I’m not part of or connected to Kids Pass so I can’t help you cancel it. You need to contact Kids Pass ASAP. However, it’s worth calling up your energy company and explain the situation and ask them if they will give you a break for a month, or reduce the payment for a month. You can also get in touch with organisations such as Step Change or the Money Advice Service if you feel you need help keeping on top of your budget every month. Hope you can get it sorted. Andy
Did you get your money back? They did the same to me. Im pulling my hear out,£39.99 godness! I never even used them.
WARNING! DONT sign up with Kids Pass they are scum! I got my trial subscription and never signed up for anything more, 1 year and 3 months after they take money from my account. When asked to cancel and refund the money i was sent an automatic email saying that they dont refund money its in their policy apparently. When emailed to ask for a cancellation from now on, they dont even reply to confirm.
I followed their cancellation process, it’s at the bottom of the Account page online – entered card number and clicked cancel – got an email confirming. Job done – if they take any more money, it’ll be easy to get it back as I have proof.
Note – the Amazon deal is now correct at 2%, but they currently have Tesco vouchers which are listed at 2.38%, but actually billed at 4% off. You can use these to purchase Amazon vouchers at Tesco, although you don’t get rewards points for doing so!
Thanks Tony. Yeah I spotted the Amazon reduction yesterday have have updated the deal. Interesting about the Tesco error! Hadn’t thought about using it to buy gift cards in-store. They can sometimes be funny about that (apparently gift cards are often used for money laundering), but I’ve done it a few times.
Appalling, it’s great when you use it fine, but when it comes to any issues with the payments they are appalling.
I initially got a free KidsPass membership via my membership on childcare.com. The year ended and I did not renew my membership. After getting bombarded by their emails non stop, I decided to sign up to a £2.99 / month membership.
I noticed when I was looking through my bank statements that they had taken £39.99 out of my account. I wrote to them to question this. They informed me that I had taken up the £1 trial offer.
I was a little perturbed as I did not recall doing this, especially not on a day where I was travelling!
I then took a look at my bank statements, and saw the £2.99 was taken out in 3 consecutive months. I then noticed that the day immediately after my last £2.99 payment, a £1 payment was taken out. Why would I take out a £1 trial offer whilst I was still on a monthly membership? On a day where I was out of the country, and was going to be away for a week? And sign up to an agreement in which I would be worse off? (£2.99 / month = £38.87 for 13 months, vs £40.99 (£39.99 per year + £1 for the trial month).
I informed them that there must have been a technical glitch on their side. But the response I kept getting was “As you had signed on to the £1 trial offer and did not cancel after 30 days, you are liable for the £39.99)
I did not sign up to this!!!!!!!!
I’ve even checked all my emails, and I never received any email from them on the said sign-up date of any receipt or terms & conditions!
I’m sorry, but this is completely farcical. But really, where I’d been happy to pay £2.99 a month for this membership (which is close to what the annual amount is), and continue with this membership, I would not be looking at renewing this any more!
What a nightmare. Did you email or phone them? Sometimes I find if you can get someone on the phone they’re more helpful. Or you can ask about escalating a complaint.
DO NOT USE KIDS PASS. It is a scam. THE £1 trial is to lure you in and then they steal money from your account. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP. YOU’ll REGRET IT
Lots of negative comments, but if you’re organised I doubt there’s anything to worry about.
I’m currently on my 3rd £1 trial.
I cancelled a couple of days before the end of the previous two following their instructions, and immediately got an email confirming the cancellation.
A month or so later, they email me again and ask me if I want another £1 trial!
My advice – put a notification in your calendar at least 2 days before the end of the trial. Follow their process to cancel and make sure you get a confirmation email – if you don’t ring them BEFORE the trial period is up to ask why.
Just signed up for this £1 trial and feel extremely disappointed. I wanted to book 2x adults and 1x 4 yr old kid tickets for Edinburgh zoo. They just lie by saying you save £ 13.95. They charge me £ 37.5. The Zoo website would charge you 40.7. Poor service and would not recommend
Signed up for The time £1 trial. However I did not get a voucher for Legoland. The times is not mentioning it either.
You need to go into the Times+ part of the website and search for the deals. It’s there!
The link is also in the info above, but here it is again https://www.mytimesplus.co.uk/public/offers/get-two-legoland-tickets-for-20-worth-up-to-120
great. Thanks!
An absolute con! Do not use Kids Pass! I took up the 1 month free trial for £1. They’ve now taken £39.99 from my account, without warning. I contacted them immediately but they refuse to refund me. Some may say it is my own fault for not cancelling before the end of the trail period but I argue that I am always very careful about these things, T&C’s, etc, and there is nothing clear about this being an automatic subscription. There is no reminder either as you would get from any lawful site, if you look about there are many other parents caught out by this! The offers are nothing that you can’t get anywhere else for free from newspapers, cereal boxes and sweet wrappers. DO NOT USE KIDS PASS IT IS A CON!
I agree with Jade’s comment. Had the same experience. I have never used kids Pass not sure if I ever will £39.99 gone in vain.