Villa Park Tour

Today was Dylan’s day, the day he has waited for all school holidays. He was up early, no dragging him out of bed at gone 9am. He was downstairs dressed in his new Villa shirt ready to go. The tension was mounting, he made sure he ate a big breakfast.  Headphones were packed so he could get in the zone on the journey – no he wasn’t playing football anywhere,it was the Villa tour. We were travelling up the motorway to get a behind the scenes look at Villa Park and all its history.  Villa Park is in Dylan’s blood, his great grandad and extended family have been life long Villa fans, growing up in and around the area  some 80 years ago.  Popa regularly recounts tales of Villa matches and of watching games to Dylan who soaks it all up like a sponge!  Dylan has now been several matches and would love a season ticket.  I think as a teen I know where Dyl will be most weekends.

However day trips for a family of five can soon become an expensive days out if you add up diesel, lunches, snacks and entrance costs and these days out become expensive enough to send us into financial black hole!  Therefore I always always look out for the short cuts. I check for vouchers and offers whenever we have a day trip planned. This trip was no different! The tour tickets were buy one get one free and therefore all of us went (minus Erin who was at nursery). One of the best sites for checking for available deals and vouchers is voucher codes. They then can be downloaded to mobiles aswell which is perfect if you have a smart phone.  Voucher codes gave us a budget to have a day out and see if we could use vouchers at the same time to help cut costs.  Although we bought the Villa tickets direct from Villa Park we made the most of vouchers to get a good lunch deal.

The tour was at 10.30 this morning and we were welcomed into the players lounge where the family of players spend time before the game.  There was a real buzz about Villa Park as they have the first home game coming up on Saturday and it is a big game against Liverpool.  The finishing touches are all being put into place.  I was initially surprised at how big the place is and just how many staff are employed.  Then the tour started and we saw all the hospitality spots and the impressive view from the sky lounge.  A highlight was obviously the changing rooms where players shirts were hanging.

Dylan also got to walk out of the tunnel whilst the music was playing! That was really something else and it feels special. I can imagine the atmosphere before a match.  Dylan loved the tour and got himself  into pole position at the front to take it all in.  Our group consisted of about 25 people which was great as everyone could hear well and we were not rushed about.

The tour lasted a good two hours and we were entertained with stories of players and celebrity fans by our tour guide who was very friendly and a fountain of knowledge about Villa Park, its players and its history. As the tour came to its conclusion we were given a small gift which Dylan liked and he got to see the trophy cabinet – it didn’t have the Premier League Trophy but we are hopeful it will be there come the end of the season. We obviously ended up in the shop where Dylan proceeded to want and need everything! He had his shirt printed after much deliberation over who to choose for the honour!

Once we had left Villa Park and as we were Erin free we decided a lunch out was called for. The vouchers came in handy as we found an Ask restaurant where we received 30% of our mains. Other places with similar deals include strada, Pizza Express. Therefore it proves to be frugal!

Disclosure: We had a great day out thanks to VoucherCodes who provided the budget for a family day out.

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