Harry Potter Tours Worldwide and Good Hobbits

Driving north of Watford, Hertfordshire you pass the signs to the Harry Potter Tour opened earlier in 2012.  I was keen to go and thought I'd get a dinner date to take me and treat me - until I saw the adult entry price is £28. Maybe I can wave a magic wand and get a trip. The first step in any trip is to do research on deals. Either find a reduced price off season deal or get something else thrown in free.

From central London you can book a tour with tea or lunch or dinner at a de Vere Hotel (which has a swimming pool - might stay there one day). A hunt around the net shows pictures of the studio sets - at first sight it's a great day out for a family, with a family ticket for four (2 adults 2 children) costing about £83. What about a little souvenir from the shop as you leave? Add about £25 for a wand. I might treat myself to a stage prop, but I can see that if you've two or three children, it's a bit pricey, even if they share. ('Play nicely, childen!')
(What does the wand do? Light up? I presume something flashy, literally. With batteries? It's fourteen inches long and you wave it and it goes on. Wave it again and it goes off. Type in Harry Potter wand on the internet and you'll find them at all prices, literally more or less.
 You can buy a broom in Tesco Express for halloween. Prices should be down on Nov 1st. By next week you won't get one for money or love. I bought a broom for 24p. I shall only use it once a year in a speech and I need to store it all year but I could not resist the temptation of a bargain. Would a Harry Potter wand be a better investment?) 

If you are a tourist or want a holiday treat you might as well add a wand to the cost to the price of your flight and accommodation and meals if it makes your trip. For a day out with children, it compares well with similarly priced  Madame Tussauds and theme parks like Thorpe Park and Alton Towers.

Adults would probably think it's no more than a football ticket - as for the tickets for the Olympics- people were paying hundreds of pounds.  

Is the Harry Potter trip worth the money. Yes. Especially as you learn about film production as well as seeing sets of this film.
The latest I learned at WTM is that in November 2012 they added the ability to walk across the bridge you could previously only view from afar. What bridge? The one which Harry stands on at the end of the film as everything explodes around him.

Trusty wiki reveals that you could also visit the Harry Potter theme park in Florida; and they are building one in west coast USA near Hollwood. 

On one of the forums an adult said you can visit The Hobbit pub in Southampton for free. (Then buy a cocktail or tee-shirt - according to the pub's website.) The pub had a dispute about copyright which despite their arguing that the word Hobbit predates its use by the company. But they seem to have settled amicably on a fee of £65 a year. Last time I looked you paid a fee of about £25 for an amateur company or school to perform a copyright play or musical.

If you want me to jump around on stage in my wig it's £50 an hour for a family of four - or any number. See me at Harrovian Speakers in NW London (I'm President and open and close the meetings). I also appear for at other toastmasters clubs in the UK and Singapore.

Most years I'm at the World Travel Market in Edexcel in London.
HARRY POTTER and HOBBIT and HAZEL NUTTER websites
www.thehobbitpub.co.uk.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114972/Harry-Potter-studio-tour-review
booking.deverevenues.co.uk
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Wizarding-World-of-Harry-Potter
wbstudiotour.co.uk
www.harrovians.org.uk
https://sites.google.com/site/annalondon8/jewishtravelguideandquotations
http://www.wtmlondon.com/ (World Travel Market 2012 at Edexcel)