🎒 Budget Weekend Activity Finder
A curated set of 76 free and low-cost things to do, filtered by who is going, what you can spend, how long you have and what the weather is doing. Shortlist the ones you like, then drop them into the weekend.
Generic ideas with planning cost bands, not live listings. It does not know your location, local prices, opening times or the forecast.
Narrow it down
Leave a group untouched to say "no preference". Within a group, ticking several widens the search; across groups, everything has to match at once.
Your shortlist and weekend plan
Add ideas above, then assign them to the parts of the weekend that suit. Each idea can only be shortlisted once.
Your filters, shortlist and weekend slots stay in this browser. Who is going, what you can spend and what you picked are never uploaded, never put into the web address, and never included in analytics.
How the filtering works, and what this page does not know
- Every idea is tagged by hand with who it suits, a cost band, a time band, where it happens, what weather it works in, its style, and roughly how much walking is involved.
- Leaving a filter group empty means "no preference". Ticking several options within a group widens the search; filters across groups all have to match at once, which is why adding a fifth filter often empties the list.
- An idea tagged any weather always survives a weather filter, because it genuinely does not care.
- Surprise me picks at random from the ideas currently matching your filters — never from the full list. If nothing matches, it says so instead of picking something unsuitable.
- Costs are planning bands, not prices:
Free,£very low,££low,£££moderate. There is no price for any named venue anywhere on this page, because prices vary by town, season and day. - This page has no location data, no live listings, no opening times and no weather feed, and it never asks where you are. Check anything local before you set off — especially whether a place is open and whether entry is actually free where you live.
Want a completely random idea?
The finder above is the useful part — it narrows 76 ideas down to the ones that fit your budget, time and group. This wheel ignores all of that and just picks something, which is occasionally exactly what you want.
🎒 Result
Your Options (0)
Options on the wheel
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A worked example
A wet Saturday, two adults and two children, and almost nothing to spend. Tick With children, Free, 1–3 hours and Rain-friendly, and the list drops from 76 to a handful — things like a blanket fort, an indoor scavenger hunt, or a free museum where one is available.
Add Outdoors to that and the list will usually empty, because free, rain-friendly, child-suitable and outdoors rarely coexist. That is the filters being honest rather than broken: removing one brings the list straight back.
Shortlist two or three, then drop them into Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon. The shortlist and the slots are saved in this browser, so the plan is still there on Saturday.
Frequently asked questions
Does this know what is on near me?
No. It has no location data, no listings feed and no opening times, and it never asks where you are. These are generic ideas that work in most places — you will need to check what your own area actually offers.
Why are there no real prices?
Because any specific price would be invented. What a swimming session or a bowling lane costs varies by town, day and season. The tool uses planning bands — free, very low, low, moderate — so you can filter by rough affordability without being told a number that is wrong where you live.
Why does my search sometimes return nothing?
Filters across different groups all have to be satisfied at once. Free plus outdoors plus rain-friendly plus with-children is a genuinely small overlap. Removing one filter, usually budget or weather, brings the list back.
Does Surprise me pick from everything?
No. It only picks from the ideas currently matching your filters, so it will not suggest a full-day trip when you asked for something under an hour. If nothing matches, it tells you rather than picking anyway.
Is my shortlist saved?
Yes, in this browser only, under the key gws-weekend-plan-v1. Only the ideas you shortlisted and which slot you put them in are stored — never your filters, your budget or anything about who is going. The delete button removes it.
Are the accessibility labels reliable?
They are a rough guide to how much walking is typically involved, not an access statement for any particular place. Anything marked as varying really does vary. Check specific venues directly if access matters.
How the wheel works
How does the wheel pick a result?
The wheel selects a result at random before the animation starts, then calculates the exact rotation needed to land that result under the pointer. The displayed result always matches where the wheel visually stops.
Is every option equally likely?
Yes. Every option has an equal chance of being selected, using your browser's built-in random number generator with no weighting or bias.
Can I edit the options?
Yes. Add, remove, or edit any option using the text area on the right. Changes take effect on your next spin and stay only for your current browser session.