WE all know rail travel across the UK is expensive – but did you know you can go on these five city breaks for less than the price of a train ticket?
TravelSupermarket has found five two-night holidays – including flights and hotels – that all cost less than the £193 single walk-up train fare from London to Manchester.
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You can stay in Krakow for just £129pp – explore the bars and see Wawel CastleCredit: AlamySee the canal-lined streets in Amsterdam from just £149ppCredit: Alamy
Krakow, Poland
Starting with Poland’s southern city of Krakow, two nights at the 4-star Q Hotel Plus Krakow costs just £129pp.
This includes flights departing London Stansted on March 7.
The hotel sits in the heart of Krakow City Centre, from there you can walk to some of the most famous attractions like Wawel Castle and the Old Town.
It’s also just a 15-minute walk to the buzzing Kazimierz district with plenty of pubs, cafes, museums and art galleries.
Krakow is nicknamed the ‘jewel of the Baltic’ and one Sun writer who took a city break there late last year described the city as a “medieval fairytale”.
To make it even better, they also discovered the average price of beers was just £1.50.
Budapest, Hungary
The capital of Hungary is just two and a half hours away from the UK.
The modern hotel is close to the Museum of Fine Arts, Hungarian Art Gallery, Zoo and the famous Heroes Square – so you can see it all.
Budapest is known for having quirky ruin bars, Neo-Gothic architecture and thermal spas – the grandest being Szechenyi.
The spa has multiple swimming pools, saunas, steam rooms, a restaurant and even a beer spa where guests can pour themselves as many pints as they like from the side of the hot tub.
A day ticket to Szechenyi start from €36 (£31.33) a full-day ticket at the spa with a 45-minute Beer Spa session is £79.
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague has always been a great choice for a city break thanks to having plenty to do and flights taking less than two hours.
For beaches and city head to Barcelona for £189ppCredit: Alamy
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Two nights at the 4-star XO Hotels Blue Tower found in Amsterdam West with flights leaving Manchester on March 3 starts from just £149pp.
From here you can explore all aspects of the canal-lined city. Take a 20-minute tram ride and you can get to the Anne Frank House, Rijksmuseum and dig into a stroopwafels along the way.
She said: “Start in Runstraat, known as the ‘9 Streets’. As well as picturesque canals and bridges, there are lots of cute boutiques and shops to browse.
“I could spend all day here just grabbing coffeeand nipping in and out of the stores, soaking up the laid-back Ditch vibe. If you want abeer, there are lots of funpubstoo.
“It’s here you will find the viral Fabel Friet chip shop – chucky fries topped with truffle and garlic mayo.”
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona is the best of both worlds when it comes to beaches and city.
Make sure to check out Gaudí’s masterpiece at Park Güell, tapas bars, and the beach that’s a 15-minute walk away from the hotel.
When it comes to shopping, the Sun’s Assistant Travel Editor Sophie Swietochowski said: “I’ve never understood why Barcelona’s Las Ramblas gets more attention than the Gothic Quarter when it comes to shopping.
“The maze of narrow streets that make up the Gothic Quarter, however, are so much fun to explore, flanked by pokey antique stores and one-of-a-kind boutiques.
“You’ll find lots of little tapas joints and bars, too. Nevermind Bar has outrageously cheap drinks and nibbles – beers will set you back €3.50 while a hefty portion of chips costs €1.50”.
California’s ticketing industry could be undergoing some major changes.
On Thursday, state Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) introduced a new bill, the California Fans First Act, that would impose price caps on tickets sold in the resale market, limiting prices to no more than 10% above the ticket’s face value.
By making it illegal to sell overly expensive tickets, AB 1720 is aimed at making resale tickets more affordable for fans. If the legislation becomes law, it would apply only to shows in California and exclude tickets to sporting events.
AB 1720 was introduced weeks after a similar bill, AB 1349, reached the California Senate. The latter aims to ban speculative ticket sales (tickets that resellers don’t yet possess) in the state. If enacted, the proposed legislation would require sellers to have event tickets in their possession before listing them for sale and would raise the maximum civil penalty for each violation from $2,500 to $10,000.
Both bills aim to better regulate the state’s resale ticketing market.
Over the last several years, high ticket prices have been a recurring complaint among concertgoers. Rising demand for tickets has spurred a secondary resale marketplace for all kinds of high-profile live events, including music tours and sports games, making it harder to get tickets on the primary market.
Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation have been at the center of this issue for years, as the major ticketing vendor sells around 80% of tickets through its website. The company is currently facing lawsuits from both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, alleging monopolistic practices and illegal ticket vendor practices.
“We’re trying to convince the federal government and state governments to get on the same page of recognizing where the problem is, which is overwhelmingly in the resale industry, and trying to do something about it,” said Dan Wall, Live Nation’s vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs, in a previous interview with The Times.
In a statement, Live Nation said it supports “efforts to protect concert fans and artists” and that the latest bill “targets a core problem in live music: predatory resale sites.”
Similar legislation has been popping up nationwide and around the world — the U.K. recently announced plans to ban the resale of tickets for prices higher than their face value.
A resale cap was successfully passed in Maine last year, with tickets only allowed to be sold at 110% of the ticket’s original price. Other states like New York, Vermont, Washington and Tennessee are also considering ticketing regulations.
Some critics see this surge of ticketing legislation as a way to distract from Ticketmaster/Live Nation’s legal troubles and single out the resale market.
Diana Moss, the director of competition policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, said that by capping resale ticket prices, AB 1720 “puts consumers last, not first.”
“It buys into the false narrative that the secondary market is to blame for all problems in ticketing, deflecting attention from the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly,” said Moss in a statement to The Times. “Caps will decimate resale, the only market with competition, and hand Live Nation even more power to jack up ticket fees.”
Win-win might be overstating the outcome. But when the Dodgers emailed their roughly 55 tour guides Wednesday to say they were getting the pay raise they sought during a failed attempt to unionize, there must have been more smiles than frowns.
The Dodgers and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees reached an agreement in October, but ratification of the pact by the union failed by one vote. A second vote also narrowly failed. Then in January the tour guides voted to decertify the union, meaning the pay raise and increased stadium security on non-game days IATSE and the Dodgers had agreed upon were off the table.
Not for long. The Dodgers bumped up the guides’ pay from $17.87 to $24 an hour — the same increase they would have gotten under the scrapped union contract.
That’s hardly Kyle Tucker money: The Dodgers’ new right fielder signed a contract for $240 million over four years, an average annual value of $60 million. The Dodgers will pay the tour guides a grand total of about $650,000 in 2026 — $170,000 of that reflecting the raise of about $3,000 per person. Tucker will make 92 times the entire tour guide payroll annually.
Dodger Stadium tours have become increasingly popular — generating more than $1 million a year in revenue — because of recent stadium renovations, two consecutive World Series championships and the signings of Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
“The tour program has grown so much in the age of Ohtani,” said Ray Lokar, a veteran Dodgers tour guide whose full-time career was as a high school coach and athletic director for nearly 40 years. “The visibility and security responsibilities have been amplified. It’s grown from a mom‐and‐pop operation of a dozen people showing folks around the stadium to a multimillion-dollar asset.”
Tours now take place every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. The burgeoning demand has caused breaches in stadium security, with guides flagging instances of tour participants entering the top deck with backpacks and even rolling suitcases going unchecked.
The union agreement included a promise by the Dodgers to beef up security. Some guides worried that the decertification would mean the team might continue to ignore their safety concerns. However, the letter to tour guides announcing the raise also addressed stadium security without offering specifics.
“I want you to know that we hear you, team, and we see you,” wrote Kayla Rodiger, Dodgers senior manager of tours. “Your concerns are valid, and I’ll be working closely with our front office colleagues to ensure we make a sincere and meaningful effort to address them.
“That being said, we are actively discussing security issues around the stadium, and I hope to have an update for you on your Top Deck concerns soon.”
Nicole Miller, president of IATSE Local B-192, led the union negotiations that fell short of a contract but likely nudged the Dodgers into addressing the pay and security issues on their own.
“Make no mistake, our IATSE Local B-192 bargaining team’s efforts were crucial in the tour guides obtaining a significant wage increase, and we hope they follow up on their promise to increase security,” Miller said.
The letter from Rodiger also said that the Dodgers’ longtime practice of offering tour guides comp tickets would continue. The perk of four reserve-level tickets for each of the 13 homestands in a season is worth $2,600 assuming the tickets are valued at $50 each. Miller said that in 2024 only three tour guides took all 52 tickets; on average, each guide took 32.
The Dodgers refused to mention free tickets in the union agreement because they said other part-time union employees would demand the same perk. Still, the uncertainty surrounding the tickets kept several guides from voting for union representation.
The contentious negotiations and near 50-50 split among the membership prompted veteran tour guide Cary Ginell to retire, sending a letter Jan. 23 to several of the Dodgers’ top executives.
“I’m writing to let you know that the tour program has become a dysfunctional battle between pro and anti-union factions with resentment and animosity on both sides,” wrote Ginell, a Grammy-nominated author of more than a dozen books on American music. “As an executive, you should be concerned about this, because it reflects on the entire Dodger organization.
“Above all, I wanted what was best for the tour guides, especially the younger ones who struggle to earn a living by working multiple jobs, but come to work afraid of who will be reporting on them and what threats might occur due to the absence of building security.”
Less than two weeks later, the Dodgers responded.
“Over the past two years, our department has thrived, earning recognition across the Dodgers organization, the league, and the City of Los Angeles,” Rodiger wrote to the tour guides. “Your ability to stay focused and uphold our standards to continue to give World Champion level tours has not gone unnoticed, and I promise you all that your contributions to this organization are not taken for granted.”
It will now cost visitors two euros ($2.36) to get close enough to the Trevi Fountain to toss more coins into it. Officials say the new fee will bring in up to six million euros ($7.1 million) to help preserve the historic landmark in Rome.
A year ago, Colorado firefighters Rick Balentine and Tim Cottrell were driving trucks carrying donations from Aspen to Los Angeles for victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires.
As they headed west, they planned to stop in Las Vegas and, while there, made a spontaneous decision to see the Eagles’ residency at the Sphere. Balentine and Cottrell bought resale tickets on StubHub for around $400 each. Cottrell used his credit card and received a confirmation email. But once they arrived to the venue, they weren’t allowed in. The seller failed to send the tickets.
All Cottrell could find was an email that said his tickets had been canceled, moments before the concert was to start. Other than getting their money back, there was no further explanation.
“We knew they were aftermarket tickets,” Balentine said, “but never in a million years did I think that tickets could get canceled.”
“I was very disappointed. There needs to be more protection out there, both for consumers and for artists, so people aren’t getting ripped off all the time.”
The rising demand for tickets has spurred a growing marketplace for all kinds of high-profile live events, including music tours and sports series like the upcoming World Cup. Whenever fans are unable to secure tickets on the primary market, through sellers like Ticketmaster or AXS, many will turn to the secondary market for resale tickets. Those tickets are typically sold through platforms like StubHub, SeatGeek and Vivid Seats. Customers who bought their passes directly from Ticketmaster can also resell them on that platform.
The majority of secondary-market transactions can be easy, leaving both the reseller and the customer satisfied. But with the rise of speculative or fake tickets, like the ones Balentine and Cottrell bought, securing valid tickets from the resale market has become more challenging.
What are speculative tickets?
Speculative tickets are offered by resellers who list concert passes they don’t yet have in their possession, with the intention that they will ultimately acquire the tickets and deliver them to the buyer. According to 2025 data from Live Nation, one in three Americans has fallen victim to a ticketing scam. But under California’s bill, AB 1349, selling speculative tickets could be banned on all resale platforms in the state. On Monday, the bill passed in an assembly vote and is headed to the state Senate for review.
Thousands of fans enjoy Shakira’s performance at SoFi Stadium in August.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Speculative tickets usually pop up as soon as a major artist announces a tour. Most recently, K-pop boy band BTS announced a world tour that includes four stops at SoFi Stadium. Before the general sale began Jan. 24, some sellers on Vivid Seats had already started listing tickets for over $6,000. Listings like these usually create a greater sense of scarcity, which can drive up ticket prices even more.
If enacted, the proposed legislation in California would require sellers to have event tickets in their possession before offering them for sale. The listing must include the location of the seat and specific refund rights. It prohibits a person from using software that automatically purchases more tickets than the specified limit, and it would raise the maximum civil penalty for each violation from $2,500 to $10,000.
The live music industry is a vital part of the state’s economy, contributing over $51 billion to California’s GDP and supporting over 460,000 jobs, according to the database 50 States of Music.
Ticketing fraud tends to affect more than just the consumer. Whenever an unknowing fan shows up to a venue with a fake ticket, it often falls on the venue and its staff to deal with the situation. Stephen Parker, the executive director of the National Independent Venue Association, said that if speculative tickets are banned in California, venues could save up to $50,000 in staffing expenses.
Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, where many concerts and ticketed live events are held.
(Icon Sportswire/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“They have to deal with fans who are crying, who are angry, who are upset because they thought they were going to go see their favorite artists that night, and they paid [over the] ticket’s face value only to not get a ticket that works or to not get a ticket at all,” said Parker.
Fighting ticket fraud and reining in a ticketing giant
There are currently dozens of legislative bills throughout the U.S. focused on event ticketing issues. Some states like Maryland, Minnesota and Maine have already passed restrictions on speculative tickets.
The action comes after both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission sued Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, in 2024 and 2025. The DOJ’s lawsuit suggests breaking up the company, which it accuses of engaging in monopolistic practices. The complaint also alleges the company forces venues into exclusive ticketing contracts and influences artists to use only its services.
Founded in 1976, Ticketmaster has been the industry’s largest ticket distributor since 1995, with around 80% of live concerts sold through the site. The company merged with Live Nation in 2010.
Ticketmaster has also acquired a growing share of the resale market, under the platform Ticketmaster Resale. The site allows consumers to list, sell or find tickets to live events. The business functions similarly to other resale sites, but Ticketmaster does not allow speculative ticket sales on its platform.
The Federal Trade Commission is currently suing the company on accusations that it engaged in illegal ticket vendor practices for its resale business, like misleading artists and consumers with so-called “bait-and-switch pricing,” where advertised prices are lower than the actual total. Following the FTC’s complaint, the ticket seller made changes to its policies.
Additionally, Ticketmaster is no longer allowing users to have multiple accounts, which made it easier to purchase more tickets than the specified limit, and it is shutting down Trade Desk, the controversial software that helps resellers track and price tickets across several marketplaces.
Hundreds enjoy a performance by Banda Los Lagos during Jalisco Fest at the 2025 Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“The FTC case against us is very frustrating because we think they’re sort of blaming the victim here. We’re the ones that are dealing with millions and millions of bots attacking us every day,” said Dan Wall, Live Nation’s vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs. “We’re trying to convince the federal government and state governments to get on the same page of recognizing where the problem is, which is overwhelmingly in the resale industry, and trying to do something about it.”
“We’re a much more artist and consumer-focused company, and so we don’t engage in the different kinds of business practices that are sketchy and unfair to the fans. We try to be a much more honest, legitimate outlet for getting resale tickets,” said Wall.
Critics find that the surge of anti-speculative ticketing bills around the country is a way for Ticketmaster to divert attention from its own legal troubles and shift attention onto the resale market. Live Nation is a key supporter of the California bill. Diana Moss, the director of competition policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, called AB 1349 “overkill” when it comes to the provisions and restrictions it places on the secondary market.
Fans cheer Sexyy Red at the Rolling Loud concert at Hollywood Park in March.
(Michael Owen Baker/For The Times)
“A lot of these bills in the states are a vehicle to disable the resale markets and hinder how they operate. Resale markets are important to consumers,” said Moss. “If you disable the resale market, then fans have no place to go — but back to Ticketmaster. That’s the whole game, disable the resale markets with legislation and regulation, and then everybody has to go back and deal with Ticketmaster and pay their monopoly ticket fees.”
Provisions in AB 1349 deem a ticket a license. The question of whether a ticket is a right or a license is an ongoing controversy in the ticketing world. Opponents of the bill are fearful that this change would give more power to Live Nation, as they could impose restrictions on how the ticket can be used, such as whether you’re allowed to sell your ticket on other platforms or if you can transfer it at all. Meghan Callahan, from the Empower Fans Coalition, a group that opposes the bill, equates this licensing change to taking a lease out on the ticket.
“Ticketmaster’s goal is to create less competition. This bill imposes restrictions on everybody else but themselves,” said Callahan. “They are trying to use consumer-friendly concepts and sneak in these other provisions to embolden their monopoly.”
Wall at Ticketmaster said that nothing on the consumers’ end would change if this bill were to pass, adding that tickets are already licenses “from the venue for you to come on the property during the time of the show and sit in that seat.”
“Honesty doesn’t favor one person or another. That’s what this [bill] is about,” said Wall.
