A Family and Friends Railcard will save you a third off the price of normal adult train fares and 60% off children’s fares so even taking into account that the price of one is going to increase to £30a year from the 19th May it still more than pays for itself over the course of a year. In fact, ours paid for itself on the first journey we booked with it to Manchester last Summer and it’s carried on saving us money since then.
I don’t know about you but I’d much rather get the train than drive somewhere – it’s a much more comfortable journey, there’s no car parking to worry about and it turns a quick trip to town into more of an adventure for the kids. That and the fact that I hate driving so I try and only drive when I absolutely have to!
You also get lots of great offers for entry into attractions if you’re travelling by rail. You need to collect a form from your train station and take it to the attraction to get two for one entry. There’s a great guide to the attractions that are included here – we got two for one at Madame Tussauds last year!
We first got our Family and Friends Railcard through the Daily Mail offer a few years ago where you got a 2 months Railcard for free and then the option to get a discount of a full year’s Railcard after the initial 2 months and I’m such a fan of it now that I look out for the offer every year so I can tell everyone I know about it 😉
It’s just a quick form to fill out and there’s absolutely nothing to pay and no catch – although they’re obviously hoping that you’ll like it that much that you’ll end up buying the full year’s Railcard, as we did and have done ever since.
If you want to register for your free 2 month Family and Friends Railcard, you can do it here. The site says they’re expecting high demand but they aim to get all cards out by the 31st May. This means that it should still be valid for the first week or so of the Summer Holidays so get planning and if you don’t think you’ll be buying the full year’s card, make sure you plan your trips for the first week so you can take advantage of the offers.
