The UK’s best-value attractions where you pay once and go all year

Glasgow Science Centre, Glasgow Becoming a “passport holder” for £31 per adult (and £24 per child) pays for itself in just two visits, allowing you to visit all year round. You will be privy to three floors of interactive exhibitions, including an immersive walkway through the solar system and a chance to get hands-on with quantum technology and get stuck into the workings of the body (including performing a virtual autopsy). glasgowsciencecentre.org Life Science Centre, Newcastle In the heart of Newcastle’s city centre and connected to the pioneering International Centre for Life, the science centre features a Space Zone, a planetarium, and many special exhibitions. Currently, it is home to The Great Dinosaur Escape, with 25 enormous animatronic dinos from Mexico making their UK debut. Annual membership for unlimited visits is £35. There is also a “try before you buy” option where you can upgrade to becoming a member at the end of your first visit, and they will deduct the cost of your admission fee. life.org.uk Beamish Open Air Museum, County Durham For just £35, you can visit the North East’s outdoor living museum – the first of its kind and featuring historic streets and costumed performers from Victorian and Edwardian times – as many times as you like. This reduces to £26 for over 60s and students, and £20.50 for children. beamish.org.uk Shorts Knowsley Safari Park, Merseyside This safari experience near Liverpool has the longest drive of its kind in the UK, featuring everything from white rhino to camels, yaks to ostriches. An annual pass is £87 for adults and £78 for kids up to age 17, and also includes 10 per cent off animal adoptions and 20 per cent off the baboon bus (kitted out with ropes for them to swing on – and avoiding potential damage to your own car). knowsleysafariexperience.co.uk Drayton Manor, West Midlands Thomas the Tank Engine fans unite, with an annual gold pass for adults and children aged over four for £99 (including unlimited entry, free car parking and mini golf, plus 20 per cent off food and drink). If an annual payment is too much of an outlay, it is just £7 per month. As well as Europe’s only Thomas Land, Drayton Manor Resort has a 15-acre zoo and more than 50 rides offering various levels of adrenaline-fuelled thrill. draytonmanor.co.uk Leeds Castle, Kent Head back in time to the glamorous 1930s when this castle, outside Maidstone, was the country pile of American heiress Lady Baille. For £34.50 per adult or £87 for a family of four, you can pay once and visit as many times as you fancy all year. As well as exploring the castle, the entry features the famously tricky maze (complete with magical grotto in the centre), play area, daily falconry displays and bird of prey meet and greets. leeds-castle.com Port Lympne Reserve and Howletts Wild Animal Park, Kent For £90 per year, per adult (or £170 for two), and £72 per child, you get unlimited access to both of the Aspinall Foundation’s wildlife parks, including the famous safari at Port Lympne. The 45-minute truck ride offers sightings of everything from baby giraffes to spectacled bears and three species of rhino. You also enjoy 20 per cent off refreshments (which are a cut above the usual offerings), including afternoon tea or Sunday roasts at The Garden Room restaurant. aspinallfoundation.org Storm Chaser in Tornado Springs at Paultons Park Drusillas Park, Sussex Drusillas, near the village of Alfriston in East Sussex, 15 miles along the coast from Brighton, is a more low key but equally action-packed day out with than your usual theme park experience, including rides for little and bigger kids, up to secondary school age. It is also home to a compact zoo, including meerkats, lemurs, lynx and capybaras, and is dedicated to the conservation of local wildlife, as well as breeding programmes for threatened species. Standard adult membership is £105 per year for adults and children and and you can visit as many times as you like through the year. It allows for friends to join you for just £5 after 3pm in term time. drusillas.co.uk/annual-membership Paultons Park, Dorset The theme park, featuring everything from high-adrenaline rides in the newly revamped Viking Realm of Vanguard to its jewel in the crown of Peppa Pig World, has a variety of options for annual memberships. For £172 (down to £153 if you renew), there are unlimited visits during off-peak times, so it is just the ticket for those with Peppa-obsessed pre-schoolers. For those tied to school holidays and weekends, a £290 premium pass gives unlimited visits at any time and a 20 per cent discount on food and drink (reducing to £262 on renewal). paultonspark.co.uk/tickets/annual-passes National Maritime Museum, Cornwall Celebrating Cornish maritime heritage in Falmouth, the museum tells the story of everything from the town’s role as a jumping-off point for D-Day, to being the start and finish for Ellen MacArthur’s solo round-the-world trip. Currently, there is an exhibition celebrating 100 years of surf culture. Membership (£38 for adults, £20 for children) grants you free entry all year and a 10 per cent discount for guests. It also allows free access to partner attractions – including The Lost Gardens of Heligan – in January and November. nmmc.co.uk Eden Project, Cornwall One of Cornwall’s top tourist attractions, the Mediterranean and rainforest biomes nestled in a reclaimed clay pit are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. The social enterprise and global garden project is yours to visit as often as you would like for £77.50 per year. Bring a guest, and there’s no pre-booking required – which is great news for silly season in Cornwall when the hordes are descending. membership.edenproject.com The National Botanic Garden of Wales (Photo: Visit Wales) National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthen Becoming a member here offers altruistic benefits on top of personal ones – you are supporting one of Wales’s most important garden charities and helping to protect both local and international plant species at risk of extinction. Membership allows free entry all year, an invitation to a dedicated member’s day garden party, and entry to partner gardens around the country, including Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire and University of Oxford Botanic Garden. An individual membership is £69, and you can bring up to four children. botanicgarden.wales Folly Farm, Pembrokeshire The zoo is home to more than 100 species – including the only giraffes in Wales – as well as lions, penguins and a troop of macaque monkeys. There is also a barn with rare breed farm animals and a “cwtch corner”, where little ones can cuddle guinea pigs and rabbits. All this, plus vintage fairground rides and a big wheel, just north of the seaside resorts of Tenby and Saundersfoot. An annual pass for a family of four is £280, and an individual pass is £75 per adult and £70 per child. folly-farm.co.uk VARIOUS LOCATIONS English Heritage English Heritage owns more than 400 places to visit across the country – and many iconic sites, Stonehenge among them. Your pass will also grant you access to Whitby Abbey, Yarmouth Castle and Carisbrooke Castle. For a family of two adults and up to 12 children, pay £149 per year, or a single adult membership is £84 and kids go free. However, from now until 31 August, English Heritage is offering 25% off annual memberships using the code EHSUM26. Anyone who purchases an annual membership in this time, will also be entered into a draw to win a Lifetime Membership worth up to £2,650. english-heritage.org.uk Cadw Welsh for “to protect”, Cadw is the Welsh government’s historic environment service, looking after more than 100 sites. Head to the six-centuries-old Castell Conwy, or St David’s Bishop’s Palace, situated in the UK’s smallest city. For adults, the cost is £65.60 per year, while a family membership for two adults and all children is £98.40 annually. cadw.gov.wales/cadw-membership Conwy Castle in Llandudno Historic Scotland Historic Scotland has more than 60 sites. Visit Lochleven Castle in Kinross, or Huntingtower Castle in Perth. In Stirling, travel by boat to the former monastery of Inchmahome Priory. For an adult, it costs £72 per year. For two adults plus children, pay £130 annually. historicenvironment.scot National Trust Another membership with benefits beyond money-saving – buy a National Trust pass and you will be helping to preserve hundreds of historic houses, gardens, as well as countryside and the coastline. The are numerous options, covering everything from stately homes to waterfalls to woodland in every county of England. In Yorkshire, discover the dramatic rock formations of Brimham Rocks near Harrogate, head to Nunnington Hall Manor house near York, or try Hardcastle Crags, a 19th-century mill and wooded valley. Visit Shropshire for Ironbridge Gorge in Telford, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, or Staffordshire for the Elizabethan farmhouse Moseley Old Hall. Over in Norfolk, take a trip to the famous Horsey Windpump, a windmill on the broads near Great Yarmouth or, in neighbouring Suffolk, visit the Anglo-Saxon burial site Sutton Hoo, close to Woodbridge. If you’re heading to the Isle of Wight, visit Newtown National Nature Reserve for floral meadows and the chance to spot red squirrels and rare butterflies. An adult membership is £100.80 per year, and children are £12 annually (with under 5s free). A family of two adults and unlimited children go for £176.40 a year for free annual entry to over 500 places, plus free parking. nationaltrust.org.uk Iron Bridge in Shropshire (Photo: Historic England Archive/Getty) Merlin Pass If you are an avid day tripper with a penchant for a theme park, a yearly Merlin Pass is a cost-effective way of doing things. It covers most of the UK’s biggest theme parks, including Alton Towers Resort, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures, plus both LEGOLAND in Windsor and the Discovery Centres in Manchester and Birmingham. All the Sea Life centres across the UK (including Brighton, Great Yarmouth, Blackpool, and Scarborough) are included. For those in the Midlands, there is also Cadbury World and Warwick Castle, while in London, visit Madame Tussauds, the London Eye, The Dungeons, and Shrek’s Adventure. An annual pass is £139, covering entry to all the attractions for 339 days of the year, while a gold pass is £239, giving you 364 days access and extra perks including free parking. merlinannualpass.co.uk Go Ape There are 35 climbing, swinging, zip-lining adventures in treetops all over the UK, perfect for visiting during holidays as well as closer to home. Try the Treetop Challenge (as well as axe throwing and zip lining) at Aberfoyle by Loch Lomond, or head to Grizedale Forest in the Lake District or the iconic Sherwood Forest near Nottingham. In South Wales, there’s a Go Ape in Margam Country Park near Port Talbot and there are three offerings in London – Battersea Park, Ally Pally, and further out of town, in Cockfosters. The Treetop Challenge Annual Pass allows for a free session every day of the year they’re open (plus 15 per cent off for up to five other people per visit) for £129.95 per year. A pass for just the kids (aged 4-10) is £79.95. goape.co.uk/annual-pass