We compare the offers on the most popular family discount subscriptions
Kids Pass and Days Out With The Kids are two popular subscriptions that claim to save you money on your days out. But does paying for membership actually save you money, or can you find similar offers without the need for a subscription. Here’s what we think.
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What family discount sites are available?
Kids Pass is the most popular family days out app but there are others too which claim to save you money on tickets for days out, meals out, even shopping discounts.
Days Out With The Kids is a website with a similar offering and there are also websites like Little Bird and Top Dog Days which are free to access and tell you where to find good offers.
How much do the subscriptions cost?
A Kids Pass subscription costs £3.99 a month or £39.99 for a year or you can try it for just £1.
A Days Out With The Kids subscription costs £4.99 a month and you can try it for 30 days for £1.
Keep an eye out for offers for the welcome trials on cashback sites like Quidco and TopCashback, as you may earn more cashback than the trial costs at times. We’ll also share any decent deals we spot in our family days out deals page.
Both subscriptions can be cancelled at any time if you pay monthly, so it may just be worth having them for school holidays. If you’re not going to make use of it for the entire year then it’s probably best to avoid paying in advance for an annual subscription.
If you do come to the end of your Kids Pass £1 welcome offer and attempt to cancel your subscription, you can often take advantage of a further reduced price as low as £1.99 for a month if you want to hold on to it for a while longer. It will usually be the second offer they make you as they try to hold on to you!
How do they work?
You often can’t see the size of the discounts until you’ve signed up, which is why the cheap or free trials are worth a look. Once in you can access offers and deals on the listed attractions.
But be warned, it’s not always a simple discount code from these subscription sites to access the discounted tickets. Some attractions have limited discounted ticket availability, you may have to print a coupon and use it to purchase tickets on the gate.
You may even be required to email the attraction with your code in advance of your visit to get tickets, which all in all can be a bit of a faff.
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How do the money saving apps and websites compare?
There are so many days out offers that we couldn’t possibly compare all of them, so we’ve pulled out some popular attractions and priced them up for one adult and one child via the passes, and compared them to booking directly and other online deals. The price is for online bookings and correct at the time of writing (July 2024).
Sea Life Centre
| Attraction | Kids Pass | Days Out With The Kids | Other online deals | Direct with venue |
| Sea Life Centre Weymouth | Extra 15% of web price Adult £24 Child £20 | Extra 30% off entry Adult £17.50 Child £14.70 | National Rail Days Out Adult £16.67 Child £14 | Adult £25 Child £10.50 (half price offer) |
| Total | £44 | £32.20 | £30.67 | £35.50 |
Cheapest: National Rail Days Out
Hollywood Bowl
| Attraction | Kids Pass | Days Out With The Kids | Other online deals | Direct with venue |
| Hollywood Bowl – 2 games, school holidays | 10% off £23.40 | 10% off Mon-Thurs £23.40 | none | 50% off before 11am £13 |
| Total | £23.40 | £23.40 | £13 |
Cheapest: Hollywood Bowl website
Postal Museum
| Attraction | Kids Pass | Days Out With The Kids | Other online deals | Direct with venue |
| Postal Museum | 5% off Adult £16.72 Child £9.50 | 10% off Adult £15.84 Child £9 | none | Adult £17.60 Child £10 |
| Total | £26.22 | £24.84 | £27.60 |
Cheapest: Days Out With The Kids
Vue tickets
| Attraction | Kids Pass | Days Out With The Kids | Other online deals | Direct with venue (my local price) |
| Vue cinema | Up to 30% off Adult £4.70 Child £4.70 | 1 free kids ticket Adult £4.99 Child 0 | Sky VIP – 2 free tickets per month – but you have to subscribe to Sky Cinema. Meerkat Movies 2 for 1 every Tuesday and Wednesday More on our Vue deals page | Adult £5.99 Child £5.99 |
| Total | £9.40 | £4.99 | £11.98 |
Cheapest: Days Out With The Kids (unless you have Sky Movies or Meerkat Movies)
Madam Tussauds
| Attraction | Kids Pass | Days Out With The Kids | Other online deals | Direct with venue |
| Madam Tussauds | 15% off web price Adult £29 Child £26 | 15% off online price Adult £29 Child £26 | Save 40% on Sunday advance tickets with code SUNDAY40 Adult £25.20 Child £22.80 | Lowest price guarantee Adult £29 Child £26 |
| Total | £55 | £55 | £48 | £55 |
Cheapest: online discount code search
Will family pass subscriptions save you money?
As you can see from our comparisons, where you book your tickets does make a difference and for some attractions, Kids Pass and Days Out With The Kids have discounted options. But they’re not the cheapest every time, so they shouldn’t be your default if you want to find the best deal for a family day out.
And with so many offers out there, whether booking directly with the venue, using sites like Wowcher and Groupon or just finding random coupon codes, I don’t think it actually pays in the long run to have a subscription with these apps.
Overall, I don’t think it is worth having a membership to either money saving site and paying for all year round access, as you’ll find deals that are nearly as good, or even better, with a quick online search.
That said, it is definitely worth taking advantage of their welcome offers such as the £1 offer that both Kids Pass and Days Out With The Kids have and using them if they save you money.
When it comes to restaurant discounts these sites offer, they are available year round which may save you money at other times, but at the moment, there are so many kids eat free offers out there, that these apps just can not compete.
What are the good offers on Kids Pass and Days Out With The Kids?
Here’s some good deals currently on Kids Pass or Days Out With The Kids.
- 50% off At Wacky Warehouses across the UK, Monday to Friday on both apps
- 20% off food at Welcome Break with Days Out With The Kids
- Kids go free at Blue Reef and Blue Planet Aquariums with Kids Pass
If you have found any ‘can’t be beaten’ offers on either site, let us know.
How to save money on days out and attractions
We’ve got dedicated deal pages which list savings for a number of fun things you can do with the family and the kids.
These include reduced price tickets to cinemas, theme parks and theatres, as well as annual Open Day events, National Trust savings and more. You’ll find the links in the “read more” box below.
If you’ve bought products like car insurance, home insurance, travel insurance etc via MoneySuperMarket or even used their free credit score monitor, you’ll be able to join their SuperSaveClub which gives you access to money saving offers for days out with the family and even free tickets for attractions across the UK.
And don’t forget, there are hundreds of museums and galleries across the UK that are free to visit all year round. You can find a full list at whichmuseum.co.uk.