I’m frequently irked by family tickets – as a parent of an only child there’s rarely a deal to be had for my circumstances. But at least in my set-up there are two adults. In families with only one earner it must be especially frustrating to be charged as much as a family where there are two.
Vaila McClure from the charity Gingerbread, which campaigns for lone parents, says they are often low earners and have pressures on their finances. “So many single-parent families really struggle to afford to go out,” she says. “Single-parent families shouldn’t be overlooked – they are still part of society. Money shouldn’t be a barrier for them because of unfair ticket pricing.”
Over the summer the charity ran a scheme with the National Trust, which runs stately homes and other historical attractions across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to offer free tickets to single-parent families. McClure says for some it was their only day trip. “People may dismiss it and say ‘it’s just a day out,’ but it’s really, really important for families to be able to spend time together,” she says. “Children are missing out on that cultural capital, on having fun and on just doing the things that their friends are doing.”
McClure says thinking is still dominated by the traditional two-adult and 2.4 children set-up, even though that is not representative of every family. In 2024, almost a quarter of the UK’s 8.3 million families with dependent children had a single parent – a total of 2 million. A survey done on behalf of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) found for 41% of people, family tickets “rarely match my family structure”.
Not every attraction or activity has a family ticket. Some, such as the big Merlin group attractions – which include Legoland and Alton Towers – charge an individual price for day tickets and you simply pay for the number of people who are going. But there are lots of places that advertise a family ticket, which you would assume offers a discount.
I chose a selection from around the UK to look at. Because of the time of year, I included ice rinks and cinemas as well as days outside. For each I looked at full-price tickets and then how big a discount was available on the family ticket. At most places children below a certain age get free admission – as it varies, in all cases I included children who needed a paid-for ticket. I used online prices for weekend dates in the current season.
The first thing that struck me was that many of the single-parent offers were aimed at people with three children. This was the case at the ice rinks currently outside at Hampton Court Palace in London and at the Boxpark in Liverpool. At Hampton Court a family of two adults and two children could save £12, or 16% of the full price, with a £61 family ticket. The same ticket is available for one adult with three children. Their saving is smaller, at just under 10%, as children’s tickets cost less, and for a single-parent family with one or two children the family ticket is more expensive than separate ones.
You also need three children to benefit from the family tickets on sale at branches of Cineworld, at the Making of Harry Potter tour and at the Bristol Zoo Project. Official figures show that in 2024, just 14% of single-parent families had three or more children, so most will not benefit from these offers.
The majority of single-parent families (54%) have one child, while 32% have two children. Although not typically described as family tickets, there are some discounts available for an adult with one child, though these are principally aimed at parents of young children. Cineworld, for example, offers deals for junior films. Deals from outside organisations – such as National Rail and Kellogg’s – often reduce prices for two people, but attractions do not seem to bother.
When I compared prices for families with two kids and looked at how big the discount was for a single parent compared with the discount for two parents, in several cases it was less.
At Ulster Folk Museum, for example, a family ticket for four represents a saving of 24%, while a family of three saves just 11%. Elsewhere, the family version of Scotland’s Explorer Pass, which is run by Historic Environment Scotland and offers entrance to a long list of sites over a 14-day period, gives a 61% saving to two adults and two children and 10% to one adult and two children.
A spokesperson on behalf of National Museums NI, which runs the folk museum, says it has to balance affordability with its responsibility to protect and care for Northern Ireland’s national collection, and that prices are continually reviewed.
“We work to ensure that visiting our museums is accessible, enjoyable and great value for all families,” they say. “Recognising that families come in all shapes and sizes, we provide flexible small-group ticket options and benchmark our pricing carefully across the sector.”
Historic Environment Scotland says the family option on the Explorer Pass is priced as two adults, meaning children in effect go free. “However, we will also be reviewing this price structure to ensure our products provide optimum accessibility for our family markets,” a spokesperson says. At Edinburgh Castle, which it also runs, a single parent with two children gets a slightly better deal than a two-adult family, saving 10.5% over individual tickets, compared with 10%. Yet the spokesperson acknowledges a range of family price tickets “does not cover all family combinations, and we are in the process of reviewing our pricing”.
Five years ago Gingerbread worked with the museum Bletchley Park. Its family tickets now offer a substantial 28% discount to a single parent with two children, versus a 19% discount to a two-adult two-children group. The National Trust also tilts the discount on its annual pass in favour of single parents, and day tickets at Kew Gardens are discounted more for them.
Bernard Donoghue, director of the ALVA, says many attractions offer free or discounted tickets aimed at people who qualify for certain state benefits, typically including universal credit, which some working parents are entitled to.
He says “very few” of the ALVA’s members have a rigid definition of what makes a family “and more and more are moving towards memberships which look like 2025 families”.
When deciding on pricing he says: “They need to balance the operational costs of running the attraction, which are getting greater every day, with their social mission to be as accessible and inclusive as possible.”
