THE school holidays can be an expensive time for parents.
Especially if you’re thinking about taking your kids to a big attraction like London Zoo – a pre-booked ticket for two adults and two children would set you back a whopping £129.20 at peak times.
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But there’s a clever way savvy mums and dads are getting their kids into some of the UK’s top attractions for free, and anyone can do it.
Becky took to TikTok to share the hack, as she admitted: “I cannot believe that people do not know about this!”
She said that her son has been taking advantage of the trick for the last three years – thanks to his Blue Peter badge.
“All you need to do is write a letter or draw a picture one time, send it into Blue Peter and you get a badge,” she said.
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Once your child gets the badge, you can use it to get them into a huge array of attractions for free.
Becky added that she’d used it a week or so ago, and ended up saving herself £18 thanks to her son getting free entry.
“If your child hasn’t got a Blue Peter badge, they need one!” she concluded.
Any child between the age of 5 and 15 can apply for a Blue Peter badge.
And there are several of different ones too – the Blue badge, the Green badge, the Music badge, the Sport badge, the Book badge, and the Gold badge.
There’s also an orange badge, but that is only awarded to those who win or are a runner up in a Blue Peter competition.
The application process for each badge is different, but you can find out how to apply here – and can do so online or by post.
For example, for the Blue badge – the original Blue Peter badge which was first launched in 1963 – you have to send in a “creative contribution”.
“This could be a poem, a story, some artwork, a model, a recipe, a suggestion for the show, or an interesting letter telling us about something you have done linked to your hobbies and interests,” they explained on the Blue Peter website.
When you receive your badge, you should get a letter with it which explains how to apply for a Blue Peter badge ID card.
It’s this card that you can then use to enter the attractions for free – up until your 16th birthday.
“I wrote a rant at age 12 about the environment and got a Blue Peter badge,” one person wrote in the comments section of Becky’s TikTok.
Which UK attractions can my child get into for free with a Blue Peter badge?
IF your child is between the ages of 5 and 15, has a Blue Peter badge and a badge ID card, they are entitled to free entry at over 200 top attractions in the UK. Here are a selection of those destinations:
- Hampton Court Palace
- Dudley Zoo
- St Paul’s Cathedral
- Kew Gardens
- British Motor Museum
- Eden Project
- Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
- Africa Alive Zoological Reserve
- Bluebell Railway
- Colchester Castle
- IWM Duxford
- Kensington Palace
- Peel Castle
- Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
- Tower of London
- Shakespeare’s Birthplace
- London Zoo
- Wookey Hole Caves
- Stonehenge
For the full list of attractions covered by the Blue Peter badge, click here.
“I’m now 31, a lawyer, and my siblings still say that’s my biggest flex!”
“I’m just SHOOK Blue Peter is still a thing!” another commented.
“I LOVE this!”
“Yeah I got a blue Peter badge when I was younger and used it all the time to go to different attractions for free,” a third added.
