Disclaimer: This post is a collaboration with Stagecoach, but all thoughts and experiences are my own
Everyone’s talking about the cost of living crisis. With everything going up, from food, to electricity to fuel, things have never been tighter for families and I think all of us are feeling the pinch.
In particular, our family is finding the cost of diesel to be particularly hard hitting. Neil works in Manchester all week and his fuel costs have doubled in the last few months, this leaves us little in terms of budget to spend at the weekend on family days out.
Fortunately, we can still rely on public transport to get us from A to B. We are lucky enough to live in an area serviced by Stagecoach who recently got in touch to challenge us to spend a family day and see how much money we could save by taking the bus instead of the car.
Using the Journey Planner, we planned a family day out to Preston on the 2A route and the boys absolutely loved it!
Burscough to Preston
Preston is the nearest city to our little village of Burscough and we often pop there with the boys for a bit of shopping or some lunch. We nearly always drive which costs us around £16 (not taking into account wear and tear on the car.)
That’s:
- £8 in fuel
- £8 parking for the day in St George’s Shopping Centre
But by travelling via Stagecoach it costs just £7.40 for a Day Rider ticket for the three of us. More than half of the price!
The journey takes just less than an hour and was a lot less stressful than having to try and navigate driving alongside appeasing two little boys who are constantly wriggling and bickering in the backseat. The boys were so made up with getting to sit at the top of a double decker and gawping out of the window that I barely heard a peep out of them for the whole journey!
A Budget-Friendly Day Out in Preston
It’s so easy to have a fun, yet budget-friendly day out in Preston. Some of our favourite places to visit include:
- Harris Museum
- Preston Guild Wheel
- Preston Market
- Wallace & Gromit Statue
Harris Museum
The Harris Museum is Preston’s free art and library. Unfortunately, it was closed during our day out in Preston, but it’s a fab place to spend time with kids where you can see over 1200 paintings and sculptures.
Preston Guild Wheel
The Guild Wheel is a 21 mile circular route that can be ridden or walked in any direction for as far as you want. You can join the route at any point on the way. It’s a great place to get the kids active and takes you alongside rambling rivers and canal sides, woodland, city centre parkland, historic docklands and attractive nature reserves. There’s always something new to see enroute!
Preston Market
Preston Market is a great place to shop or chill out with food and a drink. The kids love exploring all the different stalls and we always fill our shopping bags with lots of yummy produce and a gift or two for upcoming birthdays.
Wallace & Gromit Statue
Based on Earl Street – just outside the Market Hall in Preston City Centre, the Wallace and Gromit bronze statue pays homage to the cheese-loving inventor and his pooch pal and doubles as a bench – ideal for fun and memorable photographs. The kids absolutely love it!
Lunch at Rise
Of course, a day out with the fam isn’t complete without a nice lunch out. Of course, to make the day as budget friendly as possible, you could pack a picnic, but we decided to treat ourselves to brunch at Rise. They make delicious brunch dishes such as Eggs Benedict, Avocado on Toast and Grilled Cheese which the boys devoured with glee!
A fantastic day out in Preston thanks to Stagecoach!
The boys absolutely loved their adventure riding on the double decker bus from Burscough to Preston and we had a fantastic budget-friendly family day out in the city without the stress of the car. It was so easy for us to figure out the bus timetable using the Journey Planner on the app, and I could even track the bus too so I knew exactly when it was arriving!
It even meant I could have a cheeky glass of wine at Preston Market – which is unusual for me as I am normally driving!
We will definitely be making more use of the bus now we know how easy it is to ride (gone are the days of needing the exact change in order to board and the facilities once you’re on the bus are fab – there’s even free Wifi!)