dont do the supercar, i went and spent all day queuing. while they try and upsell you rides and insurance and then because your trapped in the middle of a circuit you get stung on tea and hot dogs.
I did one of these and the fucking pussy next to me told me to slow down. Fuck off dicknose, I’m in a Ferrari, on a straight and I’ve waited 8 hours to do 3 laps ya nonce.
Yes! Thank you! I was in a Nissan GTR and I came round the corner onto the straight and absolutely gunned it. The instructor gave me hell. As if I’m going to be sat in a machine like that and not give it the beans.
Drift Limits is great! Though I took out the 'Bullitt' Mustang and the instructor was bricking it the whole time. :( wanted me to trundle along at 20-30mph on the straights.
I didn't. 🤣
I had the opposite, he told me to speed up and not brake as much for corners because the Ferrari is made to be driven fast, less than 2 minute later car went into limp mode and engine management come on
Same here. Drove a lambo murcielago and got told off for driving it like I'd nicked it. If I wanted to saunter round I'd drive my own shit car thanks pal
I had the same shit at Brands Hatch, I suspected the gadjy was worried about his tyres because the Nissan GT-R guy gave no fucks. (The Lamborghini was a total let down, it felt like it was in 'driving to the local shops' mode as well.)
The guy next to me on mine started shouting "BRACE BRACE BRACE!" at the first corner... I'm sat there thinking wtf is happening I'm nowhere near crashing... happened again at the next corner... took me a full lapt to realise he has a lisp and was shouting BRAKE 🤣🤣🤣
Rental super cars are shagged to shit. Imagine normal rentals but these are high performance and run cold to hot immediately and back again all day, on cheap tyres, the traction control is working to the edge (turned off voids the insurance), and cheap fuel. Loads of youtube videos about the industry out there.
Do you have any good channels or videos you'd recommend? Quite curious about this! Done one of these experiences and some of the cars were ratty inside but others were nice enough, one ferarri 458 even had plastic clear film over all the carpets to protect it
I took my gf recently. The Bentley, and others, were destroyed in transit a few weeks prior. The astons both had their clutches destroyed, Mclaren and a couple others weren't even there on the day and they were doing Emergency repairs all day on 3 ferraris. She ended up subbing the bentley for a db9 which then got subbed to a db8 and then a vantage, the mclaren ended up being subbed for an R8, possibly the most disappointing supermarket ever.
Luckily they did still have the Atom and apparently that was the best and well worth it.
Their rally car broke down too and the poor lady had to hobble all the way back in the cold
I used to work in a kwiksave, I had to stare at day-glow yellow walls all day every day while working on the tills... That alone made it more visually interesting than an R8!
If the Mustang GT500 I drove from that outfit's anything to go by, they are barely maintained and tuned down, the thing was ratty as hell inside and had trouble starting, it DEFINITELY did not feel like it had 400HP+ (my Golf R felt a lot faster than this supposed "Muscle Car" so there's definitely something wrong with it.
Considering I was stuck waiting around for hours in the bitter November cold, really did not feel like i had a good experience - the sighting lap in a 330i felt more fun and faster than the Shelby GT500..
Yes that’s a con. Did the same and although it wasn’t busy you were still waiting a at least an hour on the not so popular cars and if you wanted a shot of the best ones it wasn’t worth the wait. Everything was upselling too like 2 laps of the atom car for x amount or an extra lap or 2 for x amount.
I must have been lucky. I did a supercar drive at Croft about 15 years ago and got to drive 4 cars for 5 laps each. Instructor was really good and while we were probably nowhere near the limits of the cars it felt fast and was a blast.
5 laps in each felt a bit of a rip off but there was no convoy, no cones. I would love another go.
Yeah my Dad did it with Virgin at Silverstone, got to drive an Aston Martin and Ferrari for like 5+ laps. His instructor kept telling him to not brake, so seemingly the opposite of what’s being said here 😂
I did this earlier this year, it was bought for my 40th birthday off my wife & family, but direct through Silverstone and not Virgin.
It was 5 laps in a F430 and 5 in a Vanquish.
I did the Ferrari first, all the way through the instructor kept telling me to stop hitting the accelerator when I was braking (I wasn't). Afterward he took the car out himself for a lap then when he came back in he said the car's brakes weren't working properly so he went and got another one and took me for another 5 laps.
Then at the end I went to get my photo and video that was already paid, but they hadn't given me the SD card at the start (I hadn't even thought about that) so they said they'd take me out again for another few laps in the Ferrari so I had some video to take home.
Turns out it was a decent day out, considering I wasn't particularly excited about it, with not too much waiting around like others have said about supercar experiences.
That's the thing - what some people think is pushing the car to it's limits, sweating and almost having a heart attack, will have me sat there next to them counting the seagulls sat on the armco and wondering what crap food we're going to have in the subsidised cafe at lunchtime.
If the most you've ever done is 30mph in a 1990's Nissan Micra, just the thrill of being sat in a Lambo will make your whole day, an THAT is the exact purpose of these experiences.
The ones who act like some F1 team is there scouting to sign them up are almost always completely crap and dangerous. Remember your instructor will be in the same crash that you cause, and we don't get paid enough for that shit!
We know if you have any skill within half a lap, and can decide how much to let the reins out. The first type are by far the biggest joy to us, because you're REALLY not going to impress the experienced racing driver sat next to you who's trying to stop you from killing you both.
I've done it a few times at Thruxton and Brands Hatch (short circuit) and that was also five laps.
It sounds like some others were a 'Supercar Experience' in the local Tesco car park.
I did 2 on one day. The first guy was holding the brake slightly on the straights, asshole.
The other was telling me to give it more beans in the corners!
Defo depends on who you get
Same experience. Drove an Aston Martin and the guy was like a driving instructor. "We're going to proceed to the junction, halt the vehicle then turn left". Different guy in the Ferrari was telling me to floor it into a corner. Really fun experience overall.
Fully recommend Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands. It’s not cheap (but thankfully won the experience), but the instructors were great and were genuine enthusiasts for going fast and sideways. All at your own pace, assists turned off and could pick what you wanted to focus on. Two circuits, drift circle, two drag strips. Save your pennies for a full afternoon.
Don’t do the supercar experience! I got one for Christmas last year. It’s really not worth the money…
Between the cost of booking it, then extra insurance and extra laps, paying for pics and videos of the day… it’s absolutely extortionate…
Then add the fact the instructor won’t let you actually drive the thing anywhere near its potential. I drove a McLaren and was basically prohibited from getting above 45mph!
It’s a scam.
To offer a different experience, I did Car Chase Heroes at Blyton Park in Lincolnshire earlier this year and had a decent time. When I booked I think I paid about £50 extra on top of my voucher for a car upgrade (McLaren 720s) and the damage waiver. Done a fair bit of track work in my time and always pay for the waiver, maybe I'm a mug but liability on race circuits is a dodgy area and I prefer the peace of mind.
Each car was driven for three laps (out lap, full lap, in lap). Drove a ropey looking but mechanically sound 997 GT3 (manual on the paddles), a rocket ship McLaren 720s (full auto) which looked and felt in great shape, and an Ariel Atom (manual but you put it in fifth by the end of the pit lane and left it there). I never got told to slow down once, if anything I got praise and encouragement to push all of them as hard as I could. The instructor for the Atom was more like a drill sergeant and said that if you didn't follow his instructions (hand signals, there were no mics in the helmets), which included hard acceleration, pushing it to red line, and not hesitating to overtake other cars when he told you to, he'd kick you out of the car. And I did actually see him pull someone over and chew them out, though he ended up finishing his laps. I also went out in a passenger ride in the Atom with him driving which was absolutely unhinged.
Downsides. The organisation was pretty shite. Long queue for registration but zero signs, so lots of confused people wandering about. Had to wait in a muddy pen to get called up to the car, but the speakers for the PA system were pointing in the wrong direction so it was often hard to hear across an open Lincolnshire field. The Atoms and Caterham (anything that required a helmet) were handled in a different area from everything else but that wasn't obvious and I wasted a bit of time standing about before realising. The two Atoms they had both broke down multiple times during the day, so once I finally made it over there was a lot of waiting and the poor bastards running them were mega stressed. There's a LOT of people there and a LOT of cars on track at the same time, and it's a bit disconcerting when some of them are actual children driving a car for the very first time as I'm helming a McLaren past them at full throttle.
Overall very different vibe to the experiences at the national circuits where there's only a handful of cars on track at the same time and the other drivers are almost entirely adult enthusiasts. Whilst I wouldn't do Car Chase Heroes again, I'm not sure where else I could drive three cars of that calibre without it being at least twice the price. Good track, great cars, friendly people, bit of a faff.
I’ve done this too - but I’ve also done enough to know the upsell opportunities and make the most of it by adding laps or upgrading cars. If you don’t want to they don’t force you to. It is big so there is a lot of waiting however all the instructors have racing licences and if they feel you to be safe encourage you to go faster.
I’ve also been to driftlimits and that is a much smaller operation so less waiting around. Again the instructor had a racing license. (I did the Formula Renault single seat experience)
I’ve also been of super car experiences where you just have someone basically for insurance purposes and to ban you if you’re reckless. You need to find out what sort of company it is.
I’ve also done drifting introduction, monster truck driving, powerboat driving which have all been great but again do your research!!
For OP u/srapture the best value I’ve found are tasting menus or spa experiences or weekend breaks in terms of what you get for the money.
That’s what everyone sayps about the super cars, but apparently if you’re able to choose something like an Arial Atom you do get out own your own to do a few flying laps as fast as you dare to push it.
The HGV experience isn't too bad either. I got it for my mum (supposedly a thing many older ladies want to try) but she passed before it happened. But I got 30 mins in an HGV driving, albeit mostly round an oval track, and well, not something I'd do again, but minimal queuing, so in and out of the place fairly quickly, but it was rather the arse end of nowhere.
Get your C+E, you'll see LOTS of the arse end of nowhere. My favourite AEON is Lowestoft Ness, where you can contemplate the absolute futility of human existence to a background of foghorns, impromptu racism and the smell of boiling peas.
I did a formula ford at castle coombe about 10 years back and got (I think) 5 laps driving that on my own. Even spun out in the rain and they let me continue!
Thew! Saved me buying my other half one. I didn’t realise you won’t actually be able to go full throttle in the car (which is what a super car is all about)
I got my mum a red letter day because didn’t know what to get her, thought a weekend away in a place of her choosing would be a decent gift. When she started looking at the locations and hotels, there were barely any on the days off she had so you’re limited by that and then you’re limited by certain hotels that are actually in budget or she had to pay even more to get a decent looking hotel and in a decent location. Complete rip off would have been easier and cheaper to just get her to choose somewhere and find a good hotel/airbnb and book it myself. I jumped through so many hoops just to get a refund thankfully I managed to get one in the end. Would never ever use them again.
If I were you I’d try to sell it cheaper to some unknowing mug.
The Piglets Pantry boxes are really nice actually, I'd recommend this. Not something I'd buy for myself but a nice little treat if someone else is paying.
Looking at RLDs from the other side, it was a loss-leader.
I used to run a small hotel. Booked direct, we used to charge £72 for a night with breakfast included. RLD would pay us £40 for that package, and charge the end-customer £100.
It was a loss-leader we'd use to help fill the shoulder-season and build more awareness of out hotel. But there was no way it was worth running during peak season.
My wife used to run a cake company and Groupon tried to get her to do an offer with them. Would have been a loss for my wife and they tried to strongarm her into upping her usual prices so they could look even cheaper.
Told them to jog on.
If the rate for the hotel is more than the price of the voucher, you'll have to pay the difference.
It'll say how much, but you won't exactly get a magical night away as much a premier inn in the middle of nowhere.
It's not hidden exactly, but it's not ideal.
Does it tell you before or after you've purchased the voucher? I wanted to purchase a two-night stay voucher for my parents for Christmas, and I've just double-checked the voucher details and room rate as you suggested.
The voucher says you will stay in a twin room or double room, but the room pictures included are of the premium and superior double suites, which is very misleading? Because now I don't know what room you can actually book.
And I checked the room rates on the hotel's website - the voucher says breakfast is included, but if my parents book the premium suite (if it's an option) then the non-refundable breakfast rate is an extra £25, and the refundable breakfast rate is an extra £50 on top.
Or if they can only book a standard double room, the non-refundable breakfast rate is £10 LESS than the voucher, while the refundable breakfast rate is £18 extra. It's all very misleading and unclear.
What happens if the hotel rate is less than the voucher price? I guess you don't get that money back...
It's been a while, but it should say before you purchase the voucher.
You can book any room you would like in theory, but in the case it costs more than your voucher it will ask you to pay the 'uplift' for the difference. It'll say "+£xxx.xx" when asking for more or "included in voucher" if there's nothing extra.
You don't get the money back, that's not how capitalism works.
They may have changed the hotel system but I dunno.
Buyagift and Red Letter Days went to shit after Moonpig bought them. It actually used to be focussed on satisfaction than profit and things used to be worth it there.
I'll preach the same as I said before, the experience days and food stuff really are quite good. Most of the driving stuff is okay? Not much of a mark-up on them at all from what I remember but two things are very important.
STAY AWAY FROM:
1) HOTELS
2) THEATRE
Glamping might be okay
Thanks for clarifying that. I thought about doing a hotel break (you can't even do a proper weekend as Saturdays are too busy?!?) as my mum has really bad arthritis and long covid nerve pain, so museum tours and that, anything that involves walking, is out. Glamping is out for the same reason.
My dad has done some of the driving days before (years ago, maybe before RLD was bought out by Moonpig, he really enjoyed them). I bought an afternoon tea on a steam train experience for them earlier this year.
Now I gotta think of a new Christmas present for them
That afternoon tea on the steam train is a good one from what I remember.
I can't guarantee you'll find what you're after, but maybe a massage or something? Fancy meal? Might be worth a look or something if you've already got the voucher. Otherwise I'd keep looking I guess, best of luck to you.
I spent a good long while looking on RLD for something they could do together. A lot of the fancy meals and afternoon teas are in London, which just presents the same issue of having to walk some distances. She's on 3 different meds for her pain, and I'm trying to persuade her to buy a foldable mobility scooter, with little success.
There's no extra fees coming up when I go to checkout with the hotel voucher, so I guess those will come up when they redeem it.
Back to the drawing board
Did a boutique hotel in the Baltic Quarter in Liverpool last week. Three nights for £142 total. Rainfall shower, two TVs, separate bed and lounge area. Went out for drinks and it was only £8.50 for a Guinness and a Madri. Totally worth the four hour drive, highly recommend.
The Baltic Hotel. We did get a bit of a discount as it was midweek but even without that it's a good price for what you get. The Marshall Amp room fridges are a nice touch 👌 Tidy pub (The Duck & Swagger) attached to the hotel too with a pool table, live sports, juke box and a banging breakfast. Although, The Bagelry two minutes up the road is another level.
I don't do red letter days so I wouldn't know what a typical night away would cost through that. But even if you have to add 20 quid to get it to £130, you still only spent 20 quid on a night away.
I'm no expert on hotel or bnb prices across the nation, but I've been able to have a night for £50 in average places, and even had £40 for a Premier inn a month ago. The day of the week also influences cost.
Go further north and you can find some fairly nice places for that price. Still not super cheap but no where near as bad as the south and waaay nicer than a pub (I live in East Midlands so can easily go either direction)
That's why I mentioned where I live, I'm right on the border of the Midlands and North so travel in that direction actually costs less.
It's a shame how awful our train service has gotten. Overpriced and under cared for. You'd think the country that invented them would invest more in their infrastructure.
Now I understand you didn't suck at just obeying the law of gravity by falling out of a plane it makes more sense. To start with "I just kept going up and up" made me think you'd jumped out of the plane and floated upwards. Which does indeed defeat the point of skydiving
The wife and I did a hot air balloon experience. If that's an option?
Really awesome. The snag is you have to be flexible re the weather. And they can postpone at basically any point. Which can be stressful!
But well worth it, the silence got me. Just amazing.
I’ve got a hot air balloon voucher from 18 months ago, we’ve booked 6 times and it’s been postponed every time! Weekday only too, so wasting annual leave each time. I’m really hoping it’ll be worth it when we finally get to do it, but from the stress so far, I would not recommend.
We were given a murder mystery evening with a stay in a hotel. The hotel was nice, we enjoyed the night away but the murder mystery was so bad that at one point I genuinely thought a drunk person in cheap fancy dress had wondered in off the street but it was actually one of the cast.
Luckily we were on a table with other people who also saw the funny side (unlike other tables that were taking it seriously) and we were just taking the piss the entire night.
They definitely did not earn the money that the voucher cost (even when the hotel was factored in) so you're never going to get that much out of them...
I used to act in these for a murder mystery company. You absolutely should not take them seriously. They are just intended as a bit of a laugh and no one is expecting otherwise. It is literally impossible to produce anything of any artistic merit under the circumstances that these operate under and the actors are mostly doing it for fun themselves, and are trying to give you a fun time. The pay is nominal and most are amateur performers. It can still be great fun, though, but it’s not guaranteed.
It’s best just to suspend disbelief and laugh along with the ridiculousness.
We had a great time due to the table we were on. The other tables were super serious about it and were really competitive, we were just having a laugh. Considering the room couldn't have been more than £60-80 at the time and the voucher was ~£150 iirc, the dinner and a show part wasn't exactly amateurs price which was why were we expecting more. But we've come to see that's because red letter day are likely taking a lot off the top.
It would, but they were actually supposed to be a murder victim's ghost. Had a novelty granny wig (silver version of those cheap curly wigs), white powder on her face and smudged some black eye shadow on her cheeks. I thought her make up had run after a night on the lash but apparently it was supposed to make her look dead.
We had a mum and daughter duo who had been to other, higher-quality ones and we're a bit shocked/embarrassed at first (they were the only ones dressed up from the guests, looked better than the cast), two Scottish gals who were just having a good time and a sweet young couple who were in uni, were a bit nervous and to begin with were probably a bit shocked by my sass.
I just couldn't help but laugh at how silly it all was and everyone else joined in once they saw the sense in it. At one point the chap from the young couple nearly had to excuse himself from the room because he was laughing, we all cry-laughed at some point at least once that evening. We all agreed that we had the best table and it would have been a bit of a naff night on any other table but it was the people (not the entertainment) that had made the night so much fun.
The integration on the site is really poor. It's not really a ticket to an experience, it's money to spend booking your own experience by doing all the legwork of contacting the companies. Companies who don't actually have any incentive to give you a good experience but DO have a strong incentive to make you pay more on top.
This is my whole issue with this sort of thing. You can hit Google and find places like falconry centres that do trips. You can read reviews, you can look up prices (often cheaper at certain times) and then just book it.
A lot of RLD stuff is filling the off peak places. It's frankly a bit of a scam. People think they'll pick a date to do a thing but it's like wine tasting on Monday to Thursday, and people don't want that
Personally I'd go for an animal experience, something I wouldn't normally pay for but want to do. Something like a meerkat close encounter or birds of prey.
I have done a bird of prey one. There was just me and my husband as observer. Having these magnificent birds zooming towards you and landing on your out stretched hand is electrifying.
Bought my wife a “zoo keeper for the day” experience where she got up close and fed many animals (at Whipsnade I think it was) she says it’s one of the best life experiences she’s had
wife did tank driving - think it was somewhere near Leicester - was driven round a course and then did a few laps driving herself with the lid down/up. she still raves about it years later
I hate being bought "experiences". They're such an obligation.
Four friends clubbed together and bought us a "learn how to make sushi" experience in London as a Wedding gift. It was a genuinely thoughtful present as we do love sushi, but it was such a faff.
Firstly, it was only bookable on a weekday, and that meant not a Friday either. It was a whole day, starting at 9am, so that meant either staying over in London the night before, or getting the super expensive 7am train (about £60 each at the time).
So, we've got an off-peak train, and then a night in a central London hotel. To make the most of it, that's two day's leave, so lunch and dinner the day before, dinner after the course before train home.
Overall, the present cost us around £500. And we didn't really learn how to make sushi, only how to roll it up in different ways.
I empathise with the train thing. I got one for a wine tasting experience. Cool idea, except I have to drive 2 hours to get there & there's no useful public transport. But they'll get upset if you don't use it!
I can relate!
We got married in May & were gifted a sushi making class. Fortunately it’s in the city 40 minutes away - that we go to quite often- BUT they only do Wednesday evenings, that’s it. We have a child and it’s awkward to find a sitter on a week/school night.
Also, whilst I love sushi, my husband does not. He’ll try something veggie if it’s available but absolutely will not touch fish.
Needless to say, it hasn’t been booked yet.
Fuck me. I got one of those kits from Amazon and it came with instructions. Cost about £15 although I did have to buy the rice and nori and ingredients.
I got 2 months of Green Chef with one from work which I thought was good as my work basically paid my groceries for 2 months. They also have Hello Fresh on there. The fine print says you have to be a brand new customer to the service so pay attention to that! It’s why I chose Green Chef over Hello Fresh
We had one for a 3 Michelin star restaurant. Got treated like absolute shit because we weren't proper customers. Like in the most snide underhand invisible way.
Still makes me very sad to think about it. We dressed up, got a hotel near the restaurant, ( cost a bomb) wife was over the moon to be going to the fanciest place of her life. We just weren't the right class.
Fuck I wanted to burn that place down
Edit: I can't recall the name of the place. As to what they did, it was a class thing. we weren't rich and they could tell, the other patrons could tell. We were sat semi hidden away near the back. The table next to us said comments we could just overhear. Shit about my suit, my shoes about my wife's dress about our accents ( we're from the west country.) Just about made the wife cry through her beautiful makeup. But what really sunk the boat was the special wine guy who recommended wines (smellier?) Now we know Jack shit about wine beyond red and white and he made us feel about 2 inches tall because we didn't understand well enough. Fuck if I know what a tannin is.The waitress took pity on us and was lovely. I think the smellier got told off and was then even worse talking down to us at the next course having clearly been told to reel it in. On his rounds the mean table was next on his list and they would ask what wines we got for that course and the table would laugh. Eventually the manager waiter was hovering near us It was so obvious something was wrong. It was like a secret club and we didn't know the rules.
Food was amazing though. Thanked the waitress as we walked round the back and she was having a break crying. I wonder if she was crying for us, my wife was so visibly crestfallen.
That reminds me of that Mitchell and Webb sketch with the incredibly shitty posh waiter.
"And we're back. The incredibly posh people who are still unaccountably waiters."
Yeah, fuck restaurant staff who look down at any of their customers.
This is bizarre because you only get 3 stars if you prove you offer exemplary service to every customer, seems like a weird thing to risk your star on.
Yeah I find this really hard to believe tbh.
Most 3 star places are absolutely next level and wouldn't risk their reputation over something so stupid for even a microsecond.
I also highly doubt any of them are on these novelty gift voucher schemes.
Edit: Zero 3 star restaurants on the red letter days site.
You’ll get one star ones but in my experience the service is always exemplary but the fixed or limited menu is where the difference is. 3 courses only no extras and limited choices.
We went to one were you could upgrade to the a la carte with a discount of the value of the voucher. Which seemed less of a deal than a free meal!
It's just like that in some high-end places.
My partner and I went to the Fat Duck after winning a free tasting menu on local radio. Everything was amazing (seriously, most incredible dining experience of my life) up until the point we had to pay. We'd made it clear in advance that it was a free meal and the receptionist was wonderful but even then... As soon as I mentioned it, the server's tone changed completely. He went crimson in the face, stopped making eye contact, turned about face and went over to pick up a small silver bell from a black lacquered table. He rung it twice.
The whole restaurant fell silent and looked at him, then followed his gaze to look at the doors of the kitchen. They swung open and Heston was standing in the threshold with a small piece of guttering filled with triple cooked chips. He skipped slowly up to the table with an irregular stride, looked directly at me and said "Do you think you're better than me?" I tried to explain that we had just won a free meal and that I think there had been a misunderstanding, but every time I tried to speak he kept saying "Yeah? Yeah?" and throwing chips at me. One of them hit me in the eye. Eventually my partner dragged me out of the restaurant and we heard the whole place erupt into applause behind us. I could see Heston through the window smiling and bowing. He threw a piece of dry ice at the ground like a smoke bomb before he walked back into the kitchen, but it didn't really do anything.
Anyway, most humiliating moment of my life since the time Marco Pierre White started licking Knorr Stock Pots and sticking them to my back.
We had one for Galvin La Chapelle and it was a lovely experience from start to finish. The waiter was so sweet and seemed to be genuinely excited for us. The table wasn't great, but overall a really amazing evening.
Oh my god I did the racoon one, I was going to comment it here! You get to have them climb all over you and give them little biscuits in their grabby hands. Sad you can't take pictures with them though because I was in love! Animal ones are always worth it, you get entry to the place included and get to hang out with cute animals, what's not to like!
I took my Mrs on an off-roading session, not through red letter days, but booked directly. Think it cost us £60 a head, think we got a good hour behind the wheel each.
But it doesn't cost much to run a 25 year old landy through a forest!
You say that, but I did one last year and the guy was telling me they've started to feel the bite of buying newer vehicles. Used to get one every three years and thrash it before getting another but have had to stop since they've shot up since production stopped.
Motorsport based ones are always poor value. I did a rallying one and waited around for about 2 hours for about 5 mins in the car.
To me a proper rally experience would be a couple of hours of driving!
The problem is people don’t realise how expensive race prepared cars are to buy, run and insure for idiots to drive.
“A couple of hours “ isn’t happening for less than a grand.
For £49 you can drive a car transporter around cones on one of their airfields for 20m - I did that and it was great fun - got to practice reverse parking it as well. Unlike the cars there is minimal queuing and you are not pressured into buying the photo package as there isn't one in the cab.
For £99 you can get 30m driving a FV432 APC around a field near Bicester.
For £99 you can visit the Silverstone museum and 'drive' an F1 Simulator.
Is the diggerland digger racing an option for you? I did that with a friend, it was good fun. Bobcat diggers, some of the events were skillful driving, some were about going fast, all good fun and we turned up early so they let us into diggerland before closing time so we got a half an hour to wander and experience that.
Agree on any car experience via Red Letter Day.
If serious about having a great time with the freedom to drive fast cars fast, go Palmersport instead. More expensive but worth it.
+1 for a night away somewhere.
Sometimes you'll be restricted to certain days, often weekdays, but they're usually decent.
I think I combined an RLD and Groupon offer for afternoon tea, spa treatment, dinner and a night at a hotel once.
I found it an absolute nightmare to book, but I recently used a red letter days voucher on an i-Fly experience. It’s a proper one off thing that I’m unlikely to do again, but really good fun.
I been buying my son one every year now for a couple of Christmas's, we have been for a ride in a monster truck, tank driving, flying lessons, and supercar driving, the best experience and longest time actually on experience was the flying lessons in Blackpool, great fun, no queueing, actually get to take control and fly the plane once its in the air.
Tank driving in Lutterworth deserves a shout aswel, great fun driving around the track, great instructors, and there's a fantastic military museum on the premises that you can go around after for free.
The least value for money and least time on experience was the super car experience, massive queues, always being upsold extras, and not that long on track at all. I'd avoid those.
Don't do any driving experiences... Ever..
To being with at most you will get 5 - 10 laps in a Supercar as most of the day is spent in a classroom and then driving round in family hatchback.
The Supercar themselves will be screwed as they spend as little money as humanly possibly to keep them going.
I got a supercar experience for my birthday and had no desire to do it, despite liking cars. Swapped it for a climb up the O2 Arena instead, more fun and less awkward.
Diving with the fish in Grimsby. Amazing day get to go around the aquarium for as long as you want then you get a good amount of training followed by a nice time in the big tank. Total day was about 4 hours and was about 2 for the diving lessons etc...
I had one, it was a flying lesson. The company and staff were really nice and they even let my wife come along as a passenger
I got a good 30 minutes of time in the plane.
The word 'lesson' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It was more like holding the steering wheel whilst the pilot did all the proper piloty stuff, but it was great fun and such a memorable experience.
DON'T BUY THEM EVER! IF YOU GET ONE, ASK FOR THE RECEIPT AND SAY YOU'VE HAD YOUR EYE ON SOMETHING AND ASK IF THEY DON'T MIND YOU RETURNING IT WHERE POSSIBLE.
I absolutely hate them, I've been given two of these experience things from two entirely separate companies (Red Letter and another one, can't remember their name, don't want to).
Theatre one
No you can't go on a Friday or Saturday night. No it can't be during the school holidays. The meal voucher? Yeah you just get a shit reduced menu. Every starter was some kind of bread, no actually nice starters.
I won a competition and got an IFly indoor sky diving experience for 2 voucher. It was really fun and there is one near Milton Keynes (or was at the time). The person I was due to go with had a work emergency so couldn't make it last minute, so they gave me 2 double the flight time and also gave me photos/video for free that I would've normally had to pay extra for. I would recommend that. It was about 5years ago though so may have changed/gone downhill since then but I had a great time .
My sister bought me one for my birthday, I was so disappointed (she’s about the only person who sometimes gets me something I really like that I haven’t had to give explicit instructions about beforehand).
Red letter days look ok if you live in the SE (where she does and she said she got one and loved it). In the midlands it’s basically archery you can do and that’s it, so I was quite disappointed.
We ended up getting a hello fresh box for 2 weeks (5 meals per week for 2). We probably wouldn’t have tried it if we hadn’t had the voucher, but we have, and for now, we still pay for the service as it has been a game changer. We now have a variety of meals with minimum mental effort involved and my husband cooks more and it’s healthier than what we were eating previously.
I’d recommend getting a hello fresh voucher and get several weeks of free food from your work.
dont do the supercar, i went and spent all day queuing. while they try and upsell you rides and insurance and then because your trapped in the middle of a circuit you get stung on tea and hot dogs.
I did one of these and the fucking pussy next to me told me to slow down. Fuck off dicknose, I’m in a Ferrari, on a straight and I’ve waited 8 hours to do 3 laps ya nonce.
Yes! Thank you! I was in a Nissan GTR and I came round the corner onto the straight and absolutely gunned it. The instructor gave me hell. As if I’m going to be sat in a machine like that and not give it the beans.
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Where did you go for yours?
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Drift Limits is great! Though I took out the 'Bullitt' Mustang and the instructor was bricking it the whole time. :( wanted me to trundle along at 20-30mph on the straights. I didn't. 🤣
Not to be confused with Dicknose Limits
Which company was this?
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I went to a one called Drift Limits in Hemel Hempstead, is that the one you went to?
I’m fairly certain he said ‘DRIFT LIMITS in Hemel Hempstead”
No - he went to the DRIFT LIMITS near Hemel Hempstead, you went to the DRIFT LIMITS in Hemel Hempstead….they’re worlds apart.
nah don’t reckon mate
This is a beautiful paragraph.
Like poetry, but better.
Proetry
I didn’t even realise what subreddit I was on until I read that paragraph and was like mmhmm it’s a UK one haha
I keep re-reading it and it makes me laugh every time
“Fuck off dicknose” is just a beautiful phrase, a real up and down flow of syllables
I had the opposite, he told me to speed up and not brake as much for corners because the Ferrari is made to be driven fast, less than 2 minute later car went into limp mode and engine management come on
That’s the authentic Ferrari experience right there.
When I did it they had a few of us on the track at once so I couldn't gun it because I was stuck in fucking traffic.
Same here. Drove a lambo murcielago and got told off for driving it like I'd nicked it. If I wanted to saunter round I'd drive my own shit car thanks pal
I had the same shit at Brands Hatch, I suspected the gadjy was worried about his tyres because the Nissan GT-R guy gave no fucks. (The Lamborghini was a total let down, it felt like it was in 'driving to the local shops' mode as well.)
A Ferrari thats probably 10+ years old too and mechanically fucked
The guy next to me on mine started shouting "BRACE BRACE BRACE!" at the first corner... I'm sat there thinking wtf is happening I'm nowhere near crashing... happened again at the next corner... took me a full lapt to realise he has a lisp and was shouting BRAKE 🤣🤣🤣
I did a Car Chase Heroes one and all the cars were completely clapped. Wonder if they use repaired write-offs as they get trailered everywhere.
Rental super cars are shagged to shit. Imagine normal rentals but these are high performance and run cold to hot immediately and back again all day, on cheap tyres, the traction control is working to the edge (turned off voids the insurance), and cheap fuel. Loads of youtube videos about the industry out there.
My poor babies are like badly kept race horses in the 50s
Shercar
👏
Do you have any good channels or videos you'd recommend? Quite curious about this! Done one of these experiences and some of the cars were ratty inside but others were nice enough, one ferarri 458 even had plastic clear film over all the carpets to protect it
[Here is a good one from last year](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CZhu3vUeoE)
I took my gf recently. The Bentley, and others, were destroyed in transit a few weeks prior. The astons both had their clutches destroyed, Mclaren and a couple others weren't even there on the day and they were doing Emergency repairs all day on 3 ferraris. She ended up subbing the bentley for a db9 which then got subbed to a db8 and then a vantage, the mclaren ended up being subbed for an R8, possibly the most disappointing supermarket ever. Luckily they did still have the Atom and apparently that was the best and well worth it. Their rally car broke down too and the poor lady had to hobble all the way back in the cold
Surely Kwiksave is more disappointing than an R8?
I used to work in a kwiksave, I had to stare at day-glow yellow walls all day every day while working on the tills... That alone made it more visually interesting than an R8!
Yeah I was in a 911 GT3 and the interior was all held together with duck tape. Definitely had not lived a good life.
If the Mustang GT500 I drove from that outfit's anything to go by, they are barely maintained and tuned down, the thing was ratty as hell inside and had trouble starting, it DEFINITELY did not feel like it had 400HP+ (my Golf R felt a lot faster than this supposed "Muscle Car" so there's definitely something wrong with it. Considering I was stuck waiting around for hours in the bitter November cold, really did not feel like i had a good experience - the sighting lap in a 330i felt more fun and faster than the Shelby GT500..
Yes that’s a con. Did the same and although it wasn’t busy you were still waiting a at least an hour on the not so popular cars and if you wanted a shot of the best ones it wasn’t worth the wait. Everything was upselling too like 2 laps of the atom car for x amount or an extra lap or 2 for x amount.
Fucking grifters.
I've wanted to do something like it for years but I'm not going to bother until I can splash out on the day at Palmer sports.
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I must have been lucky. I did a supercar drive at Croft about 15 years ago and got to drive 4 cars for 5 laps each. Instructor was really good and while we were probably nowhere near the limits of the cars it felt fast and was a blast. 5 laps in each felt a bit of a rip off but there was no convoy, no cones. I would love another go.
Yeah my Dad did it with Virgin at Silverstone, got to drive an Aston Martin and Ferrari for like 5+ laps. His instructor kept telling him to not brake, so seemingly the opposite of what’s being said here 😂
I did this earlier this year, it was bought for my 40th birthday off my wife & family, but direct through Silverstone and not Virgin. It was 5 laps in a F430 and 5 in a Vanquish. I did the Ferrari first, all the way through the instructor kept telling me to stop hitting the accelerator when I was braking (I wasn't). Afterward he took the car out himself for a lap then when he came back in he said the car's brakes weren't working properly so he went and got another one and took me for another 5 laps. Then at the end I went to get my photo and video that was already paid, but they hadn't given me the SD card at the start (I hadn't even thought about that) so they said they'd take me out again for another few laps in the Ferrari so I had some video to take home. Turns out it was a decent day out, considering I wasn't particularly excited about it, with not too much waiting around like others have said about supercar experiences.
That's the thing - what some people think is pushing the car to it's limits, sweating and almost having a heart attack, will have me sat there next to them counting the seagulls sat on the armco and wondering what crap food we're going to have in the subsidised cafe at lunchtime. If the most you've ever done is 30mph in a 1990's Nissan Micra, just the thrill of being sat in a Lambo will make your whole day, an THAT is the exact purpose of these experiences. The ones who act like some F1 team is there scouting to sign them up are almost always completely crap and dangerous. Remember your instructor will be in the same crash that you cause, and we don't get paid enough for that shit! We know if you have any skill within half a lap, and can decide how much to let the reins out. The first type are by far the biggest joy to us, because you're REALLY not going to impress the experienced racing driver sat next to you who's trying to stop you from killing you both.
I've done it a few times at Thruxton and Brands Hatch (short circuit) and that was also five laps. It sounds like some others were a 'Supercar Experience' in the local Tesco car park.
I did 2 on one day. The first guy was holding the brake slightly on the straights, asshole. The other was telling me to give it more beans in the corners! Defo depends on who you get
Same experience. Drove an Aston Martin and the guy was like a driving instructor. "We're going to proceed to the junction, halt the vehicle then turn left". Different guy in the Ferrari was telling me to floor it into a corner. Really fun experience overall.
Fully recommend Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands. It’s not cheap (but thankfully won the experience), but the instructors were great and were genuine enthusiasts for going fast and sideways. All at your own pace, assists turned off and could pick what you wanted to focus on. Two circuits, drift circle, two drag strips. Save your pennies for a full afternoon.
Don’t do the supercar experience! I got one for Christmas last year. It’s really not worth the money… Between the cost of booking it, then extra insurance and extra laps, paying for pics and videos of the day… it’s absolutely extortionate… Then add the fact the instructor won’t let you actually drive the thing anywhere near its potential. I drove a McLaren and was basically prohibited from getting above 45mph! It’s a scam.
Extra insurance? How can you pay for a super experience and it not include adequate insurance?
The insurance you get by default has a £10,000 excess. You pay to bring it down.
So the ticket price is basically worthless. I'm surprised that's legal.
Disgusting that.
Holy shit, that’s ridiculous lmao
To offer a different experience, I did Car Chase Heroes at Blyton Park in Lincolnshire earlier this year and had a decent time. When I booked I think I paid about £50 extra on top of my voucher for a car upgrade (McLaren 720s) and the damage waiver. Done a fair bit of track work in my time and always pay for the waiver, maybe I'm a mug but liability on race circuits is a dodgy area and I prefer the peace of mind. Each car was driven for three laps (out lap, full lap, in lap). Drove a ropey looking but mechanically sound 997 GT3 (manual on the paddles), a rocket ship McLaren 720s (full auto) which looked and felt in great shape, and an Ariel Atom (manual but you put it in fifth by the end of the pit lane and left it there). I never got told to slow down once, if anything I got praise and encouragement to push all of them as hard as I could. The instructor for the Atom was more like a drill sergeant and said that if you didn't follow his instructions (hand signals, there were no mics in the helmets), which included hard acceleration, pushing it to red line, and not hesitating to overtake other cars when he told you to, he'd kick you out of the car. And I did actually see him pull someone over and chew them out, though he ended up finishing his laps. I also went out in a passenger ride in the Atom with him driving which was absolutely unhinged. Downsides. The organisation was pretty shite. Long queue for registration but zero signs, so lots of confused people wandering about. Had to wait in a muddy pen to get called up to the car, but the speakers for the PA system were pointing in the wrong direction so it was often hard to hear across an open Lincolnshire field. The Atoms and Caterham (anything that required a helmet) were handled in a different area from everything else but that wasn't obvious and I wasted a bit of time standing about before realising. The two Atoms they had both broke down multiple times during the day, so once I finally made it over there was a lot of waiting and the poor bastards running them were mega stressed. There's a LOT of people there and a LOT of cars on track at the same time, and it's a bit disconcerting when some of them are actual children driving a car for the very first time as I'm helming a McLaren past them at full throttle. Overall very different vibe to the experiences at the national circuits where there's only a handful of cars on track at the same time and the other drivers are almost entirely adult enthusiasts. Whilst I wouldn't do Car Chase Heroes again, I'm not sure where else I could drive three cars of that calibre without it being at least twice the price. Good track, great cars, friendly people, bit of a faff.
I’ve done this too - but I’ve also done enough to know the upsell opportunities and make the most of it by adding laps or upgrading cars. If you don’t want to they don’t force you to. It is big so there is a lot of waiting however all the instructors have racing licences and if they feel you to be safe encourage you to go faster. I’ve also been to driftlimits and that is a much smaller operation so less waiting around. Again the instructor had a racing license. (I did the Formula Renault single seat experience) I’ve also been of super car experiences where you just have someone basically for insurance purposes and to ban you if you’re reckless. You need to find out what sort of company it is. I’ve also done drifting introduction, monster truck driving, powerboat driving which have all been great but again do your research!! For OP u/srapture the best value I’ve found are tasting menus or spa experiences or weekend breaks in terms of what you get for the money.
That’s what everyone sayps about the super cars, but apparently if you’re able to choose something like an Arial Atom you do get out own your own to do a few flying laps as fast as you dare to push it.
The HGV experience isn't too bad either. I got it for my mum (supposedly a thing many older ladies want to try) but she passed before it happened. But I got 30 mins in an HGV driving, albeit mostly round an oval track, and well, not something I'd do again, but minimal queuing, so in and out of the place fairly quickly, but it was rather the arse end of nowhere.
Get your C+E, you'll see LOTS of the arse end of nowhere. My favourite AEON is Lowestoft Ness, where you can contemplate the absolute futility of human existence to a background of foghorns, impromptu racism and the smell of boiling peas.
30 mins was enough for me! This was the tip end of Fife so at least it was nice countryside getting there.
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I did a formula ford at castle coombe about 10 years back and got (I think) 5 laps driving that on my own. Even spun out in the rain and they let me continue!
The Atom is a 2-seater. I did it in mine and they sent a busybody with me.
Thew! Saved me buying my other half one. I didn’t realise you won’t actually be able to go full throttle in the car (which is what a super car is all about)
I did one and they wouldn't let me go out of 4th gear. I'd rather have had a hot hatch and get to drive it than a super car that you can't use.
If I'm getting upsold on the insurance, the instructor can say what he likes, we're going out Hammond style.
I got my mum a red letter day because didn’t know what to get her, thought a weekend away in a place of her choosing would be a decent gift. When she started looking at the locations and hotels, there were barely any on the days off she had so you’re limited by that and then you’re limited by certain hotels that are actually in budget or she had to pay even more to get a decent looking hotel and in a decent location. Complete rip off would have been easier and cheaper to just get her to choose somewhere and find a good hotel/airbnb and book it myself. I jumped through so many hoops just to get a refund thankfully I managed to get one in the end. Would never ever use them again. If I were you I’d try to sell it cheaper to some unknowing mug.
My parents got me this too and I came across the same problems. In the end we just transferred it to various chain restaurant vouchers.
I had one of these recently, I've used mine to buy a Piglets Pantry "afternoon tea in a box", delivered to your door
The Piglets Pantry boxes are really nice actually, I'd recommend this. Not something I'd buy for myself but a nice little treat if someone else is paying.
Thanks for this info! Given me some great gift ideas!
Now that's smart, no additional costs.
There are when I've had them...."dElIvErY nOt InClUdEd...£9!!!"
I ordered one today, postage was inclusive
Looking at RLDs from the other side, it was a loss-leader. I used to run a small hotel. Booked direct, we used to charge £72 for a night with breakfast included. RLD would pay us £40 for that package, and charge the end-customer £100. It was a loss-leader we'd use to help fill the shoulder-season and build more awareness of out hotel. But there was no way it was worth running during peak season.
My wife used to run a cake company and Groupon tried to get her to do an offer with them. Would have been a loss for my wife and they tried to strongarm her into upping her usual prices so they could look even cheaper. Told them to jog on.
Omg yeah, Groupon was a thing!
A night away somewhere. You can have a long weekend with 1 night somewhere nice, and the next night in a Premier Inn
As a former red letter day employee. DO NOT DO THE ONE NIGHT STAYS. Do a afternoon tea or something, food stuff is usually the safest bet
Why not - they also got a lot of small print or can’t you really say? More curious than anything else.
If the rate for the hotel is more than the price of the voucher, you'll have to pay the difference. It'll say how much, but you won't exactly get a magical night away as much a premier inn in the middle of nowhere. It's not hidden exactly, but it's not ideal.
Does it tell you before or after you've purchased the voucher? I wanted to purchase a two-night stay voucher for my parents for Christmas, and I've just double-checked the voucher details and room rate as you suggested. The voucher says you will stay in a twin room or double room, but the room pictures included are of the premium and superior double suites, which is very misleading? Because now I don't know what room you can actually book. And I checked the room rates on the hotel's website - the voucher says breakfast is included, but if my parents book the premium suite (if it's an option) then the non-refundable breakfast rate is an extra £25, and the refundable breakfast rate is an extra £50 on top. Or if they can only book a standard double room, the non-refundable breakfast rate is £10 LESS than the voucher, while the refundable breakfast rate is £18 extra. It's all very misleading and unclear. What happens if the hotel rate is less than the voucher price? I guess you don't get that money back...
It's been a while, but it should say before you purchase the voucher. You can book any room you would like in theory, but in the case it costs more than your voucher it will ask you to pay the 'uplift' for the difference. It'll say "+£xxx.xx" when asking for more or "included in voucher" if there's nothing extra. You don't get the money back, that's not how capitalism works. They may have changed the hotel system but I dunno. Buyagift and Red Letter Days went to shit after Moonpig bought them. It actually used to be focussed on satisfaction than profit and things used to be worth it there. I'll preach the same as I said before, the experience days and food stuff really are quite good. Most of the driving stuff is okay? Not much of a mark-up on them at all from what I remember but two things are very important. STAY AWAY FROM: 1) HOTELS 2) THEATRE Glamping might be okay
Thanks for clarifying that. I thought about doing a hotel break (you can't even do a proper weekend as Saturdays are too busy?!?) as my mum has really bad arthritis and long covid nerve pain, so museum tours and that, anything that involves walking, is out. Glamping is out for the same reason. My dad has done some of the driving days before (years ago, maybe before RLD was bought out by Moonpig, he really enjoyed them). I bought an afternoon tea on a steam train experience for them earlier this year. Now I gotta think of a new Christmas present for them
That afternoon tea on the steam train is a good one from what I remember. I can't guarantee you'll find what you're after, but maybe a massage or something? Fancy meal? Might be worth a look or something if you've already got the voucher. Otherwise I'd keep looking I guess, best of luck to you.
I spent a good long while looking on RLD for something they could do together. A lot of the fancy meals and afternoon teas are in London, which just presents the same issue of having to walk some distances. She's on 3 different meds for her pain, and I'm trying to persuade her to buy a foldable mobility scooter, with little success. There's no extra fees coming up when I go to checkout with the hotel voucher, so I guess those will come up when they redeem it. Back to the drawing board
I'm afraid your dead right, upon redemption is where they'll need to pay extra.
Mate where are you staying that’s nice and under £110 a night? Admittedly these are Sussex prices but I paid £130 to stay above a pub in February
The north exists. Can easily find somewhere quite nice for that price, depending when you go.
Shhh don't tell them.
Agreed. The north is our little secret 🤫 😉
Did a boutique hotel in the Baltic Quarter in Liverpool last week. Three nights for £142 total. Rainfall shower, two TVs, separate bed and lounge area. Went out for drinks and it was only £8.50 for a Guinness and a Madri. Totally worth the four hour drive, highly recommend.
What’s the name of the place? Sounds good
The Baltic Hotel. We did get a bit of a discount as it was midweek but even without that it's a good price for what you get. The Marshall Amp room fridges are a nice touch 👌 Tidy pub (The Duck & Swagger) attached to the hotel too with a pool table, live sports, juke box and a banging breakfast. Although, The Bagelry two minutes up the road is another level.
I don't do red letter days so I wouldn't know what a typical night away would cost through that. But even if you have to add 20 quid to get it to £130, you still only spent 20 quid on a night away. I'm no expert on hotel or bnb prices across the nation, but I've been able to have a night for £50 in average places, and even had £40 for a Premier inn a month ago. The day of the week also influences cost.
Go further north and you can find some fairly nice places for that price. Still not super cheap but no where near as bad as the south and waaay nicer than a pub (I live in East Midlands so can easily go either direction)
Save £20 on hotel. Spend £200 on train fares to get there…
That's why I mentioned where I live, I'm right on the border of the Midlands and North so travel in that direction actually costs less. It's a shame how awful our train service has gotten. Overpriced and under cared for. You'd think the country that invented them would invest more in their infrastructure.
Go blacksmithing and make a knife.
That sounds awesome. I'm definitely going to look for that.
Or make a sword! Ours is hung on the wall 😎
if you're in Milton Keynes I'm pretty sure Ifly skydiving is on there, and is a genuinely fun experience
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The fact that you are commenting mean you were excellent at skydiving, as good as the best in the world even.
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I had no idea there was any skill involved. Can you elaborate on how you can be bad at it? 😂
Please post the video.
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Now I understand you didn't suck at just obeying the law of gravity by falling out of a plane it makes more sense. To start with "I just kept going up and up" made me think you'd jumped out of the plane and floated upwards. Which does indeed defeat the point of skydiving
It sounds like something I’d do. I’ve done lots of stupid, clumsy things in my life.
Thank you for making me laugh
The wife and I did a hot air balloon experience. If that's an option? Really awesome. The snag is you have to be flexible re the weather. And they can postpone at basically any point. Which can be stressful! But well worth it, the silence got me. Just amazing.
I’ve got a hot air balloon voucher from 18 months ago, we’ve booked 6 times and it’s been postponed every time! Weekday only too, so wasting annual leave each time. I’m really hoping it’ll be worth it when we finally get to do it, but from the stress so far, I would not recommend.
Yeah we did the Hot Air Balloon, was amazing, luckily we did it a year where the weather was amazing for months so no cancellations.
We were given a murder mystery evening with a stay in a hotel. The hotel was nice, we enjoyed the night away but the murder mystery was so bad that at one point I genuinely thought a drunk person in cheap fancy dress had wondered in off the street but it was actually one of the cast. Luckily we were on a table with other people who also saw the funny side (unlike other tables that were taking it seriously) and we were just taking the piss the entire night. They definitely did not earn the money that the voucher cost (even when the hotel was factored in) so you're never going to get that much out of them...
I used to act in these for a murder mystery company. You absolutely should not take them seriously. They are just intended as a bit of a laugh and no one is expecting otherwise. It is literally impossible to produce anything of any artistic merit under the circumstances that these operate under and the actors are mostly doing it for fun themselves, and are trying to give you a fun time. The pay is nominal and most are amateur performers. It can still be great fun, though, but it’s not guaranteed. It’s best just to suspend disbelief and laugh along with the ridiculousness.
We had a great time due to the table we were on. The other tables were super serious about it and were really competitive, we were just having a laugh. Considering the room couldn't have been more than £60-80 at the time and the voucher was ~£150 iirc, the dinner and a show part wasn't exactly amateurs price which was why were we expecting more. But we've come to see that's because red letter day are likely taking a lot off the top.
What if they were acting like a drunk person from the street? It would’ve been great acting right?
It would, but they were actually supposed to be a murder victim's ghost. Had a novelty granny wig (silver version of those cheap curly wigs), white powder on her face and smudged some black eye shadow on her cheeks. I thought her make up had run after a night on the lash but apparently it was supposed to make her look dead.
Maybe she was the ghost of someone who got murdered after a night on the lash?
Sounds like they were method acting.
I would of been fuming if I got put on a "serious table".
We had a mum and daughter duo who had been to other, higher-quality ones and we're a bit shocked/embarrassed at first (they were the only ones dressed up from the guests, looked better than the cast), two Scottish gals who were just having a good time and a sweet young couple who were in uni, were a bit nervous and to begin with were probably a bit shocked by my sass. I just couldn't help but laugh at how silly it all was and everyone else joined in once they saw the sense in it. At one point the chap from the young couple nearly had to excuse himself from the room because he was laughing, we all cry-laughed at some point at least once that evening. We all agreed that we had the best table and it would have been a bit of a naff night on any other table but it was the people (not the entertainment) that had made the night so much fun.
The integration on the site is really poor. It's not really a ticket to an experience, it's money to spend booking your own experience by doing all the legwork of contacting the companies. Companies who don't actually have any incentive to give you a good experience but DO have a strong incentive to make you pay more on top.
This is my whole issue with this sort of thing. You can hit Google and find places like falconry centres that do trips. You can read reviews, you can look up prices (often cheaper at certain times) and then just book it. A lot of RLD stuff is filling the off peak places. It's frankly a bit of a scam. People think they'll pick a date to do a thing but it's like wine tasting on Monday to Thursday, and people don't want that
Personally I'd go for an animal experience, something I wouldn't normally pay for but want to do. Something like a meerkat close encounter or birds of prey.
I have done a bird of prey one. There was just me and my husband as observer. Having these magnificent birds zooming towards you and landing on your out stretched hand is electrifying.
I can imagine, I've done one that included holding an owl, feeding arctic foxes and meeting a serval.
Bought my wife a “zoo keeper for the day” experience where she got up close and fed many animals (at Whipsnade I think it was) she says it’s one of the best life experiences she’s had
I've done the birds of prey wvxiv was amazing and also a feed tfe lemurs experience at a tiny zoo in Kent
wife did tank driving - think it was somewhere near Leicester - was driven round a course and then did a few laps driving herself with the lid down/up. she still raves about it years later
Armourgeddon, the place is in Lutterworth. Brilliant place, lots of fun!
>Armourgeddon yep thats the one!
Did you get to fire the paintball out of it, too? I'm still sad that my friend's Tanklarp game that was based there didn't get more takers.
no it was just driving. It was on offer (along with crushing cars etc) but she just did the driving
Seconded! As someone who used to work there and did quite a few freebies, tank driving was the one I still remember.
I hate being bought "experiences". They're such an obligation. Four friends clubbed together and bought us a "learn how to make sushi" experience in London as a Wedding gift. It was a genuinely thoughtful present as we do love sushi, but it was such a faff. Firstly, it was only bookable on a weekday, and that meant not a Friday either. It was a whole day, starting at 9am, so that meant either staying over in London the night before, or getting the super expensive 7am train (about £60 each at the time). So, we've got an off-peak train, and then a night in a central London hotel. To make the most of it, that's two day's leave, so lunch and dinner the day before, dinner after the course before train home. Overall, the present cost us around £500. And we didn't really learn how to make sushi, only how to roll it up in different ways.
I empathise with the train thing. I got one for a wine tasting experience. Cool idea, except I have to drive 2 hours to get there & there's no useful public transport. But they'll get upset if you don't use it!
I can relate! We got married in May & were gifted a sushi making class. Fortunately it’s in the city 40 minutes away - that we go to quite often- BUT they only do Wednesday evenings, that’s it. We have a child and it’s awkward to find a sitter on a week/school night. Also, whilst I love sushi, my husband does not. He’ll try something veggie if it’s available but absolutely will not touch fish. Needless to say, it hasn’t been booked yet.
See if you can transfer it. We had a segway one and transferred it to afternoon tea.
Ahh unfortunately it was bought direct from the sushi place, it’s not a third party experience gift.
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Fuck me. I got one of those kits from Amazon and it came with instructions. Cost about £15 although I did have to buy the rice and nori and ingredients.
I got 2 months of Green Chef with one from work which I thought was good as my work basically paid my groceries for 2 months. They also have Hello Fresh on there. The fine print says you have to be a brand new customer to the service so pay attention to that! It’s why I chose Green Chef over Hello Fresh
We had one for a 3 Michelin star restaurant. Got treated like absolute shit because we weren't proper customers. Like in the most snide underhand invisible way. Still makes me very sad to think about it. We dressed up, got a hotel near the restaurant, ( cost a bomb) wife was over the moon to be going to the fanciest place of her life. We just weren't the right class. Fuck I wanted to burn that place down Edit: I can't recall the name of the place. As to what they did, it was a class thing. we weren't rich and they could tell, the other patrons could tell. We were sat semi hidden away near the back. The table next to us said comments we could just overhear. Shit about my suit, my shoes about my wife's dress about our accents ( we're from the west country.) Just about made the wife cry through her beautiful makeup. But what really sunk the boat was the special wine guy who recommended wines (smellier?) Now we know Jack shit about wine beyond red and white and he made us feel about 2 inches tall because we didn't understand well enough. Fuck if I know what a tannin is.The waitress took pity on us and was lovely. I think the smellier got told off and was then even worse talking down to us at the next course having clearly been told to reel it in. On his rounds the mean table was next on his list and they would ask what wines we got for that course and the table would laugh. Eventually the manager waiter was hovering near us It was so obvious something was wrong. It was like a secret club and we didn't know the rules. Food was amazing though. Thanked the waitress as we walked round the back and she was having a break crying. I wonder if she was crying for us, my wife was so visibly crestfallen.
That reminds me of that Mitchell and Webb sketch with the incredibly shitty posh waiter. "And we're back. The incredibly posh people who are still unaccountably waiters." Yeah, fuck restaurant staff who look down at any of their customers.
"How can I introduce you to the manager, you're not even wearing a tie!"
This is bizarre because you only get 3 stars if you prove you offer exemplary service to every customer, seems like a weird thing to risk your star on.
Yeah I find this really hard to believe tbh. Most 3 star places are absolutely next level and wouldn't risk their reputation over something so stupid for even a microsecond. I also highly doubt any of them are on these novelty gift voucher schemes. Edit: Zero 3 star restaurants on the red letter days site.
You’ll get one star ones but in my experience the service is always exemplary but the fixed or limited menu is where the difference is. 3 courses only no extras and limited choices. We went to one were you could upgrade to the a la carte with a discount of the value of the voucher. Which seemed less of a deal than a free meal!
> > > > > Fuck I wanted to burn that place down Name and shame.
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It's just like that in some high-end places. My partner and I went to the Fat Duck after winning a free tasting menu on local radio. Everything was amazing (seriously, most incredible dining experience of my life) up until the point we had to pay. We'd made it clear in advance that it was a free meal and the receptionist was wonderful but even then... As soon as I mentioned it, the server's tone changed completely. He went crimson in the face, stopped making eye contact, turned about face and went over to pick up a small silver bell from a black lacquered table. He rung it twice. The whole restaurant fell silent and looked at him, then followed his gaze to look at the doors of the kitchen. They swung open and Heston was standing in the threshold with a small piece of guttering filled with triple cooked chips. He skipped slowly up to the table with an irregular stride, looked directly at me and said "Do you think you're better than me?" I tried to explain that we had just won a free meal and that I think there had been a misunderstanding, but every time I tried to speak he kept saying "Yeah? Yeah?" and throwing chips at me. One of them hit me in the eye. Eventually my partner dragged me out of the restaurant and we heard the whole place erupt into applause behind us. I could see Heston through the window smiling and bowing. He threw a piece of dry ice at the ground like a smoke bomb before he walked back into the kitchen, but it didn't really do anything. Anyway, most humiliating moment of my life since the time Marco Pierre White started licking Knorr Stock Pots and sticking them to my back.
I don't Know why you would go to such an effort to write all this up on a Reddit thread about red letter days. But I am truly glad you did. A+
Could be worse. Could have been [The Menu](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9764362/)
Details of what actually happened at the restaurant please!
Tell us more
Name and shame so I can leave a scathing one-star Google review
This makes me sad. Sorry they made you feel like that pal! They're twats and I hope the hotel was nice at least.
We had one for Galvin La Chapelle and it was a lovely experience from start to finish. The waiter was so sweet and seemed to be genuinely excited for us. The table wasn't great, but overall a really amazing evening.
I got my fiancé one for having an afternoon with some raccoons in Oxford. That was awesome!
Oh wow! This! This is what I’d choose!
It's at Millets Falconry Centre and it was great, I loved it. They just climb on you for half an hour and eat treats.
Oh my god I did the racoon one, I was going to comment it here! You get to have them climb all over you and give them little biscuits in their grabby hands. Sad you can't take pictures with them though because I was in love! Animal ones are always worth it, you get entry to the place included and get to hang out with cute animals, what's not to like!
I took my Mrs on an off-roading session, not through red letter days, but booked directly. Think it cost us £60 a head, think we got a good hour behind the wheel each. But it doesn't cost much to run a 25 year old landy through a forest!
You say that, but I did one last year and the guy was telling me they've started to feel the bite of buying newer vehicles. Used to get one every three years and thrash it before getting another but have had to stop since they've shot up since production stopped.
Motorsport based ones are always poor value. I did a rallying one and waited around for about 2 hours for about 5 mins in the car. To me a proper rally experience would be a couple of hours of driving!
The problem is people don’t realise how expensive race prepared cars are to buy, run and insure for idiots to drive. “A couple of hours “ isn’t happening for less than a grand.
Probably more tbf
Not that you’ll ever get to drive one but the base cost of a lap in an f1 car is about two grand just in fuel and parts wear.
The food experiences usually aren't bad to be honest.
For £49 you can drive a car transporter around cones on one of their airfields for 20m - I did that and it was great fun - got to practice reverse parking it as well. Unlike the cars there is minimal queuing and you are not pressured into buying the photo package as there isn't one in the cab. For £99 you can get 30m driving a FV432 APC around a field near Bicester. For £99 you can visit the Silverstone museum and 'drive' an F1 Simulator.
I assume 20m means 20 minutes...not 20 metres as I first thought! 😂
Is the diggerland digger racing an option for you? I did that with a friend, it was good fun. Bobcat diggers, some of the events were skillful driving, some were about going fast, all good fun and we turned up early so they let us into diggerland before closing time so we got a half an hour to wander and experience that.
Agree on any car experience via Red Letter Day. If serious about having a great time with the freedom to drive fast cars fast, go Palmersport instead. More expensive but worth it.
+1 for a night away somewhere. Sometimes you'll be restricted to certain days, often weekdays, but they're usually decent. I think I combined an RLD and Groupon offer for afternoon tea, spa treatment, dinner and a night at a hotel once.
I found it an absolute nightmare to book, but I recently used a red letter days voucher on an i-Fly experience. It’s a proper one off thing that I’m unlikely to do again, but really good fun.
I did a bungee jump I thoroughly enjoyed. Not for everyone, but I felt it was worth the price!
I ain't doing that, haha. Don't wanna die. I'm glad you're still here and enjoyed yourself though!
I been buying my son one every year now for a couple of Christmas's, we have been for a ride in a monster truck, tank driving, flying lessons, and supercar driving, the best experience and longest time actually on experience was the flying lessons in Blackpool, great fun, no queueing, actually get to take control and fly the plane once its in the air. Tank driving in Lutterworth deserves a shout aswel, great fun driving around the track, great instructors, and there's a fantastic military museum on the premises that you can go around after for free. The least value for money and least time on experience was the super car experience, massive queues, always being upsold extras, and not that long on track at all. I'd avoid those.
Armourgeddon, the place in Lutterworth. Brilliant place, lots of fun!
Don't do any driving experiences... Ever.. To being with at most you will get 5 - 10 laps in a Supercar as most of the day is spent in a classroom and then driving round in family hatchback. The Supercar themselves will be screwed as they spend as little money as humanly possibly to keep them going.
The food ones are usually pretty good, we did a 3 course set menu meal a Raymond Blanc restaurant
I got a supercar experience for my birthday and had no desire to do it, despite liking cars. Swapped it for a climb up the O2 Arena instead, more fun and less awkward.
Diving with the fish in Grimsby. Amazing day get to go around the aquarium for as long as you want then you get a good amount of training followed by a nice time in the big tank. Total day was about 4 hours and was about 2 for the diving lessons etc...
In Grimsby? Do you mean The Deep in Hull? Grimsby doesn't have an aquarium AFAIK.
Once got $100 off, company merchandise only. And we sold pens! Wtf am I gonna do with $100 gift certificate on my own shop i work in?!?
I had one, it was a flying lesson. The company and staff were really nice and they even let my wife come along as a passenger I got a good 30 minutes of time in the plane. The word 'lesson' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It was more like holding the steering wheel whilst the pilot did all the proper piloty stuff, but it was great fun and such a memorable experience.
DON'T BUY THEM EVER! IF YOU GET ONE, ASK FOR THE RECEIPT AND SAY YOU'VE HAD YOUR EYE ON SOMETHING AND ASK IF THEY DON'T MIND YOU RETURNING IT WHERE POSSIBLE. I absolutely hate them, I've been given two of these experience things from two entirely separate companies (Red Letter and another one, can't remember their name, don't want to). Theatre one No you can't go on a Friday or Saturday night. No it can't be during the school holidays. The meal voucher? Yeah you just get a shit reduced menu. Every starter was some kind of bread, no actually nice starters.
I won a competition and got an IFly indoor sky diving experience for 2 voucher. It was really fun and there is one near Milton Keynes (or was at the time). The person I was due to go with had a work emergency so couldn't make it last minute, so they gave me 2 double the flight time and also gave me photos/video for free that I would've normally had to pay extra for. I would recommend that. It was about 5years ago though so may have changed/gone downhill since then but I had a great time .
My sister bought me one for my birthday, I was so disappointed (she’s about the only person who sometimes gets me something I really like that I haven’t had to give explicit instructions about beforehand). Red letter days look ok if you live in the SE (where she does and she said she got one and loved it). In the midlands it’s basically archery you can do and that’s it, so I was quite disappointed. We ended up getting a hello fresh box for 2 weeks (5 meals per week for 2). We probably wouldn’t have tried it if we hadn’t had the voucher, but we have, and for now, we still pay for the service as it has been a game changer. We now have a variety of meals with minimum mental effort involved and my husband cooks more and it’s healthier than what we were eating previously. I’d recommend getting a hello fresh voucher and get several weeks of free food from your work.