Gold Star – Stretching Your Entertainment Dollars Painlessly

Everyone loves a deal, but did you know there’s a way to save on some of the very items in our budgets that we consider splurges. Well, now there’s a particularly easy way to buy discounted tickets for a wide variety of events online,www.goldstar.com. And some of the events are free! Comedy tickets abound as well as some tourist attractions that I did not know existed. Want a super fast on-the-water 30-minute tour of the Bay? Check out the RocketBoat. Don’t want to go so fast? There’s a two hour tour on a sailing vessel that serves champagne at sunset. Want a slower option in a more bucolic setting? How about canoeing on the Russian River?

Not all the events are local. I was forced to use a “more local” zip code than San Rafael for the San Francisco specific page. This is especially interesting since they list events for a small Marin county theater and culinary walking tours in Berkeley for the Gourmet Ghetto which are less obvious not tourist destinations.

Maybe you enjoy concerts and plays? You will find concerts among the event listings, but when I queried for “concerts” in the search box, nothing appeared. In the event listing I did find Chorus Line tickets were discounted almost 50% for the more expensive tickets. My husband and I paid $25/person plus service charge to sit in the orchestra at ACT for a play about an immigrant trapped in an elevator. I was dubious. Well, the production was amazing, and the crowd was standing and cheering at the end.

You need to bring your printed ticket to the performance, and you may not be seated in the best seats at the event. Since there are lots of inexpensive options, you might want to use the page for free events before you buy your Giants tickets there. It’s easy to compare the Goldstar prices with retail prices at the source and see what your savings might be. Goldstar also operates in other cities. We booked through it for New York tickets. Have fun, spend less and save more on your occasional “splurges” and next year’s vacation.