The Anvil is Basingstoke's local theatre. Located next to the Festival Place it can be slightly…read moretricky to find parking if coming to a show during the Christmas season. It is right across from both the train station and the bus stops, so taking public transit it also quite convenient. The Anvil itself has a wide variety of shows during the year. The acoustics are good, and the stage is large enough to host a number of different types of art. The pricing is also decent and there are really no bad seats in the house. The website is kept up to date so finding shows is an easy click away. If you want dinner and a show there are a number of restaurants on the other side of the Festival Place.

An excellent venue for music, dance, comedy etc…read more. With 2 bars it's a nice place to have a few drinks with friends before catching a show.

Our regular cinema (because all of the ones within 5 miles closed several years ago), Vue…read moreBasingstoke is conveniently located just off the M3 and near to plentiful parking and places to eat. The cinema itself is modern and comfortable although it would be nice to see a bit more clearing up after the show. Not really the cinemas fault when the people visiting it could be a bit more respectful and not drop food everywhere !! Aside from the good facilities (comfy seats, bugs screen, more than ample snack / drink provsion), we like the ability to book and choose your seat in advance together with the ability to collect your ticket anywhere i.e. not just at the kiosk. We would ask Vue, however, to not charge 50p per ticket as a booking fee. We think this is excessive given that it'll cost you less.

Exactly what you'd expect from a modern cinema. Lots of screens (about 10, I think), clean and…read moreairy. The seats are really comfy and are steeply raked, so it doesn't matter if someone tall sits in the seat in front. :-) Only downside - the cost of refreshments. I'd recommend you have a drink before/after. Other than that, gets a thumbs-up from me.

Play Days is a large indoor play centre which mainly caters for children from 12 months to 12…read moreyear's of age. It is quite a clean and tidy environment unlike JJ's and also reasonably civilised! There are two areas one for babies/toddlers up to 4 year's of age and another for the older children. The two areas are well catered for and have plenty of equipment to keep them entertained. There are very comfy sofa's if you can manage to get one and they each have a nice little wooden table and chair in front of them for the children to eat at. If you do not manage to get a sofa they also have the usual metal table and chairs to sit at. The seating is arranged to the sides and front of the play areas so it is reasonably easy to keep an eye on your children. The food is also quite good and they serve homemade chicken nuggets which are quite tasty as well as the usual fishfingers, burgers and sandwiches. Play Days also cater for children's parties and my 5 year old had his birthday party here recently. Your party can be themed such as Disney Cars, Shrek, Wall-e etc but you have to buy their party products. I was impressed with the quality of the party food and the party table but was not impressed with having to chase the staff up all the time for extra orange juice and missing party bags. On the day they seemed very stressed and had quite a few parties going on at the same time. They did apologise for this afterwards though. Some of the staff are quite young teenagers and are not very welcoming and helpful. The older staff (who I think own Play Days) are very helpful but always look totally stressed out!!

Playdays offers a nice environment for your child to play in…read more There's free wifi, the code is on the wall on the blackboard. Food is good and prices are reasonable. Entrance fee is about 3.50 for our 1 year old. From the adult seating area you can easily track your child if need be. The sofas are very comfy. Also I would like to complement them on the quality of the coffee which is as good as costa in my opinion. Few points that would give it five stars. Air conditioning units very visible and noisy. Not nice to look at. Also the entrance area could be modernised. Overall a nice place to go to.

This cinema is quite well laid out once you get past the entrance - which is of course on the…read moreground floor while the cinema is on the first floor, so you have to go up/down escalators to get in/out. There is a big lobby with large snacks/drinks bar, and big screens with plenty of trailers in case you're late :D

Vue Festival Place is a moderately sized cinema multiplex located near a number of restaurant…read morechains just outside of the Festival Place shopping centre. It offers a range of comfortable seats that are on staircase levels so that wherever you sit, your view of the screen should remain clear. The screens are large, with good picture quality. Vue offers a student discount, and with Orange Wednesdays this helps to combat the ever rising ticket prices, but otherwise in comparison to most cinemas, the Vue prices are reasonable. This cinema offers the standard variety of sweets, popcorn, icecream, soft drinks and hot dogs that are expected of a cinema, and likewise with most places they are very overpriced. If you want to save money, buy your own sweets beforehand and take them in yourself.