Every year at the end of May, the English city of Birmingham gets to experience 3 days of nerd fueled chaos at the UK Games Expo, which is held at the National Exhibition Centre or NEC as it is often called, conveniently located right next to the airport.

If you have ever been to a gaming convention, you should have an idea of what this is like, but if your experience is just general nerd conventions like Comic-Con, this offers a slightly different experience. The focus here is very much on gaming, with 1 of the 3 halls dedicated to play space, which means that many people come, not to shop, but to play board games, TCGs, miniatures war games and TTRPGs all weekend in a gamer’s dreamland.

Now, it is not all gaming. There are 2 halls for exhibitors, which can be vendors selling dice, games, art and a wide range of other nerd merch, but it also plays host to developers and publishers showing off their new releases or even some that are there to show something that has not even been released yet.

Ok, I hear you. You clicked on this blog post to find out the cost of actually going to the expo, and that is what I intend to get into, with a full breakdown of how much it actually costs to attend, and that includes everything from travel, to accommodations to dinner.

Before we start, there are a few things of note. I am based out of Manitoba, Canada, which means I use Canadian dollars, though I will be posting pound sterling prices as well and giving a conversion. This does mean that if you are based in the USA or elsewhere, you may need to run a currency converter (Google is your friend).

Additionally, this is based on my own experience as an attendee at the 2024 UK Games Expo. Technically, this was a business trip, but I didn’t have a booth, so if you are considering it as a vendor, just be aware that I don’t have information on logistics costs for shipping product to the expo.

First things first, your ticket. It was £46 or $78 when I purchased it in February. The bad news? …yeah, that’s the cheap part.

Next, let address the overpriced elephant in the room. I have to drive 4 hours to get to the airport, but that likely won’t be the case for most of you. The flights, however were around $1,600. It is also important to note that I didn’t fly direct. Because I was doing other business around the UK, I flew from Winnipeg to London, then on the way back, went from Belfast to Winnipeg. Your prices will vary based on where you are coming from. Finally, I had carry on baggage only, so no fees for checked bags.

Accommodations are not as expensive as flights, but they are still notable. I stayed in a hostel, but did opt for a private room, at a cost of about £65/$110 per night. I also showed up 2 days early to get my bearings and left a day later, to avoid the rush. I could have stayed at one of the hotels next to the expo centre, but those were $300-400 per night, and meant be far from the city center. If that appeals to you, great, but for me it was a hard pass.

The hostel was located just outside the city center, which meant every morning I had a 15 minute walk to the train station, then a 15 minute train ride to the expo. That also meant paying for train tickets. A return ticket cost me £8.90/$15.90 per day, so factor in $50 for the weekend, which is still far less then the expensive hotels.

Finally, you gotta eat, and you should be getting 3 meals a day. At the absolute bottom end, the shops at the train station had a cheap breakfast of a fruit cup and a drink for £5/$9, though most days I would suggest spending £10-12/$18-20 on a good breakfast. Lunch can be had for £10-15/$20-25. Finally, dinner to round off your day. Expect to pay at least £15/$25, but it could also be £20-25/$35-45 if you want to have a beer, and I do suggest doing the fancy dinner for at least one evening at around £40/$75. Birmingham has some great restaurants and pubs, and I encourage you to check them out,, even if it seems a little expensive. And because alcohol is part of British culture, a pint of beer was £5-8/$9-15. My average for both lunch and dinner was £15/$25 each, over the course of a 5 day trip.

Before we get into the total cost, some of you will be thinking that you will just buy all your food at a grocery store to save money, and to that I say …you are missing the point, but lets go over it anyways. Groceries were a little bit cheaper then in Canada, but I also live in a small town with limited options, so if you are coming from a big city, expect to pay about the same as you would back home.

Now that we have a breakdown, lets put the pieces all together and calculate the cost of a trip to the UK Games Expo, remembering that this is all in Canadian dollars.

Tickets: $78 for 3 days.

Flights: $1,600 for a round trip.

Accommodations: $110 per night. 4 nights = $440.

Train Tickets: $16 per day for 3 days comes out to $48.

Meals: Breakfast = $15, lunch = $25, dinner = $35. That gives us $75 per day, so 5 days is $375.

Total Cost: $2,541

And there you have it. The expected cost for a Canadian to visit the UK Games Expo.

If you pinch every penny, get cheap flights, stay in a dirt cheap hostel and only eat grocery store food, you could get this under $2,000, but on the other hand, if you want to have that one really nice dinner and plan on buying stuff at the expo, I would suggest that you budget for at least $3,000.

I hope that this was helpful and if you start planning now, maybe I’ll see you at UK Games Expo 2025.