25+ fun things to do for under a tenner
ShareWant to treat the family to a fun day out or plan a cheap break with your partner, but don’t want it to cost the earth? Well, you’re in luck. We’ve researched and rounded up the cheapest activities and attractions across the country that cost under £10 per person, so you don’t have to.
• Looking for cheap things to do in London? Climb the 311 steps of The Monument for 360-degree views across the city. Built in the late 17th century to commemorate the Great Fire of London, it costs just over a fiver for adults to experience this historical landmark (and even less for kids!).
• Head into the deep, dark woods and keep an eye out for Gruffalo sculptures in Cannock Chase Forest with Forestry England’s £1.50 Gruffalo trail.
• Face your fears on The Original Ghost Walk of York. Visit one of the most haunted pubs in Britain and delve into the city’s history and mystery for only £7.50 each.
• Dangle 90 metres above the Thames and enjoy unbeatable views towards the iconic O2 Arena on an Emirates Air Line cable car for only £5 one way. There’s no need to queue for a ticket either as you can pay with a Contactless device.
• Delve into the history of Norwich – from its Viking roots to its ancient city walls – on The City of Centuries Tour. Running until September, you can book tickets online for only £8 an adult and £6.50 per child.
• Compete against your mates at one of the wacky, graffiti-ridden Plonk crazy golf courses in Camden, Hackney, Shoreditch and Borough for less than £10 when you visit Monday to Friday before 5pm.
• See the grave of Karl Marx, George Eliot and lots more in the illustrious Highgate East Cemetery. Entry only costs £4.50 but if you want to learn more about this world-famous graveyard, you can book a guided tour for only £9.50. Entrance to the West Cemetery is not included.
• Take the plunge and go swimming in one of the Hampstead Heath bathing ponds. They’re some of the best open-air natural swimming spots in London and entry costs under a fiver.
• Escape the hustle and bustle by listening to birdsong and wandering through a wildflower meadow at the four-acre Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens in York. Tickets cost £6.
• Head into the upside-down (no, not that one) at Brighton’s epic Upside Down House. For £4.50, you can balance on ceilings, do handstands on the loo and capture some cracking pictures. This topsy-turvy attraction can also be found in Bournemouth, Lakeside, Milton Keynes, Great Yarmouth and Clacton-on-Sea.
• Step into the enchanting world of St Nectan’s Glen in Cornwall, filled with ivy-clad trees, cascading waterfall and legends of fairies. Said to be one of the UK’s most spiritual sites, entry to this natural gem only costs £7.45.
• Discover a playground of plague, meet the notorious Grim Reaper and poke into our medical past at Chester’s Sick to Death, for only £6 for an adult ticket.
• Pick your team and venture out on a quest around Liverpool, Chester or Nottingham, solving puzzles and completing challenges with GoQuest Adventures (there’s even a chance to win prizes). Each game costs £27.95, but if you split it between five people it works out at under £6 each.
• Take a 90-minute guided tour around Port Sunlight, a village built on soap. Experience what life was like here for the resident workers over a century ago and get frothy at the interactive SoapWorks for just £8.
• A cheap break to Newcastle isn’t complete without exploring the ancient passageways and chambers of the imposing Norman fortress of Newcastle Castle. Said to be the place where the city got its name, it costs only £9.25 an adult or £5.75 for a child.
• See town centres, farms, sports stadiums, zoos and castles (but in miniature) at Great Yarmouth’s Merrivale Model Village for £8.99, or £30 for two adults and three children
• Hear stories of the people of Southampton, their lives and connections to the Titanic tragedy at the SeaCity Museum – with tickets priced at £9.50 per adult.
• Whack on some sun cream and take to the water at Chagford’s outdoor swimming pool, the largest river-fed open-air lido in the southwest. Swim sessions start at £2.50 for kids over 5 years.
• Take a guided tour of the vines and subterranean cellars or learn wine-drinking etiquette on a wine-tasting lesson (both priced at £10 each) at Adgestone Vineyard on the Isle of Wight. Bookings aren’t required, so just show up and drink some wine.
• Hire a boat from Wroxham and amble along the waterways of the Norfolk Broads with your mates and some bubbly. Two-hour boat hire will set you back £60 (or just £7.50 each if you split it between eight people).
• Head into the Somerset countryside to find out how family-run Exmoor Distillery produces their small-batch gins on a distillery tour. It costs £9.50 and you’ll even have the chance to taste a few.
• Hire a paddleboard on the Isle of Wight’s Sandown Beach and explore the blue waters of the southeast coast – they cost just £10 for an hour.
• Cross over the causeway to explore the mystical Holy Island of Lindisfarne and take a peek inside its hilltop castle. Castle entry costs just £9.50 (including GiftAid).
• Uncover over 30 years of graffiti art history and learn about the mysterious Banksy on Where the Wall’s ‘A Piece of…Banksy’ self-guided tour, one of the best cheap things to do in Bristol.
• Aged 16 to 25? Sign up for a free Tate Collective membership to get £5 tickets to year-round exhibitions at the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate St Ives and Tate Liverpool.
• Catch the latest blockbusters at Vue for under a tenner all day, every day, or at Odeon when you book selected showings between Tuesday and Sunday. Showcase Cinemas also have discounted tickets under £10 on selected weekday showings when you join their Insider Club – it’s free, so why not?
• Discover thousands of vintage toys – from model railways and dollhouses to figurines and teddy bears – at Brighton Toy and Model Museum for just £6.50 a ticket.
• Save money on a family trip to Westonbirt Arboretum this summer with free kids' tickets (for children aged 0-18 years) between 23 July and 4 September. If you're visiting as two adults and two kids, this works out at just £5.50 each.
• Take in original Banksy artworks alongside pieces from over 90 world-famous artists including Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Blek le Rat at the 20-21 Visual Art Centre's New Icons exhibition in Scunthorpe. Tickets cost just £8 for adults or £15 for teens aged 12-17.
• Wind down from a busy week with an outdoor guided meditation at Norwich's Plantation Garden every Saturday between 9 and 10am. Tickets cost £7 and include entry to the garden.
• Give Eaton Park's 18-hole crazy golf course your best shot before exploring one of the most beautiful parks in Norwich, complete with a model boating lake, cafe, tennis courts and picnic spots galore. If you're just sticking to crazy golf, it'll only cost you a fiver per adult.
• Feast your eyes on one of the most impressive waterfalls in England, High Force. With origins dating back over 300 million years, this powerful cascade is a real force of nature and costs only £2.50 to see.
• Explore the opulent state rooms of The Mansion, traverse the 50 acres of luscious green gardens or meet farmworkers from the past and present at Tatton Park, with entry to one of these three attractions coming in at just £8.
• Wander through a Victorian Row, hear grizzly tales from the high seas and have a snoop inside a fisherman's home at the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth - all for just £7 per person.
• Prepare for a night of spooky tales and strange encounters on The Original Nottingham Ghost Walk. This spine-tingling stroll runs every Saturday at 7pm, and will only set you back £9.
• Experience life as a 1950's fisherman, leaving your home in Grimsby and making the treacherous trip to the Arctic fishing grounds, at the award-winning Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre, where entry is just £6 for adults and £2 for children.
• Discover how orphaned and injured seals are nursed back to full health at Skegness' Natureland Seal Sanctuary (and meet lots of them in the process) for £6 per person.
• Get hands on with donkeys, alpacas, goats and guinea pigs at one of the UK's largest urban community farms, Nunny's Farm, for just £3.50.