It is an expensive business nowadays visiting tourist attractions. With the increase in the cost of living and spiralling debt it seems everything is getting more expensive and going on holiday now sometimes feels like you need to take out an extra mortgage to cover the cost of the whole thing

This article is to help determine the best course of action to take when deciding what to do and where to go and will offer some good cost effective suggestions for sunny and rainy days excursions. The suggestions within this article are designed to be just that: suggestions. The ideas have been gathered from a range of sources from personal experience to feedback from clients.

It is a known fact that prices increase yearly. It seems to be one of the unwritten rules of the universe: “As time passes, prices will increase”. This can also be applied to tourist attractions. You may have revisited an attraction recently that you had last been to 10 years ago and been shocked at the price however apply the unwritten rule of a rate of 50p a year and £5 will have been added to the entrance fee.

The most expensive area of tourist attractions to visit is in London where the price for a single adult ticket broke the £10 barrier years ago. However this has now spread to the rest of the country. As a consequence a family ticket based on two adults and two children where the child price will normally be half of the adult price you are looking at a total of £30. And this is before buying any food and the pre-requisite toys.

All in all a day out can cost somewhere in the region of £100.

So how to ensure that you do not spend that every day on holiday, especially if you are visiting London?

The answer is planning. It does not mean that you have to know where you are going and what you are doing every day of your visit, though it is an idea to have a rough guide especially if you do not want to break the bank.

Do a bit of investigation prior to your visit. Know what each member of your party wants to see and then combine them and compromise. This will not only structure your holiday but will also prevent arguments and tantrums on discovery of places being visited.

It will be inevitable that you will be visiting attractions that will charge (probably high) entrance fees. Though it may be advisable to plan to visit these on two or three days out of the week. If one member of your party wishes to go to a theme park do a bit of research to find out what theme parks are about in the local area and visit the most popular. Look into transport as well as it may be possible to get there by train or bus.

Do not feel the need to rely on city centre attractions just because you may not have direct access to a car. Even hiring a car for the day (can be as cheap as �20) can be cheaper than train fares and allows a bit more freedom.

So to balance the cost of these days have days where you do �free visits�. A high proportion of popular tourist destinations will have free entry museums, exhibitions or galleries that may not be as dull as they can appear. Most will have a schedule of shows that can be highly entertaining. One of the most enjoyable visits I have had recently was to a free exhibition of Modern Art. I do however recommend purchasing a catalogue as this increases the entertainment value exponentially as you will be amazed as I was what you have to pay for a bucket of bricks!

Even a day in the park can be enjoyable and cheap, though it is very weather dependant. So if you are sure that the day will be sunny pack a picnic, a few games, prepare yourself for either crazy golf and boating and lay back and enjoy. It can be mentally and physically exhausting rushing around a new city to try to see everything so this can sometimes be a welcome break.
One of the best activities to arrange on arrival in a big city is a bus tour. Nearly all major cities will have these hop on hop off buses that travel regularly around the city sights and will have a commentary as well so not only will it be informative it is also an ideal way to orient yourself. These hop on hop off buses are the better idea than a guided tour as if something takes your fancy then just get off, visit and then catch a later bus.

Word of warning though, it is very tempting to use this to visit the sights that you have planned to see in the week, DON�T. You will find yourself rushing around making sure that you can catch the bus back and a tourist attraction that you planned to spend all day at you will end up being there for a few hours. So view the bus tour as getting your bearings.

Some of these bus tour tickets can also be used on a second day and can also get a discount on entry into certain attractions. For example the bus tour in New York can be bought in conjunction with a trip to Liberty Island for a much reduced rate. So it worth reading all the info that is available to you in tourist attractions and bus tour offices.

One of the major areas to save money when visiting attractions is picnics. We have all been to places where you pay a fair amount of money to get in and find that the food available is disappointing. There are exceptions to this. The food we had in Australia Zoo just outside of Brisbane set the standard for me of which no other zoo that I have visited has matched.

You also have to be aware that as soon as you are through the ticket desk you are viewed as a captive market. You will, if you stay all day, require at some point refreshment whether it be food or drink. So therefore prices can be hiked up as much as 400% because you have no other option. So make that picnic and you will be guaranteed, except if you are at Australia Zoo that you will be eating better food than what you could buy.

To put it in perspective, if a tourist attraction has 5000 people through their doors each day and each person expects a cooked meal within the couple of hours over lunch how fresh, well prepared and edible will that food be. It is the case of quantity not quality that will come into play. So you can find yourself paying restaurant prices for caf� food.

The answer: picnic. If you cannot make the sandwiches yourself find a nice deli (9th Avenue, 23rd Street if you are in New York) to make them for you. You will be amazed at the savings you can make.