National trust/english heritage which one

victory

Friends keep telling me to become a member to save money that the outlay of membership you reap back in the long run but my OH says no that if you become a member you become 'oblidged' to go and that increases the cost of petrol etc, if you become a member it is less of going out for days on spec depending on the weather, if you have the money etc and more on you have to go to warrant the membership?

What do you think?

Which one would be 'more money friendly'?

Quentin

If you want to go to NT properties, then consider joining the New Zealand Historic Places - much cheaper than NT, and it has reciprocal arrangements with the NT (as well as Scottish NT and lots of other countries).

vikingaero

Not only is there petrol but the costs of lunch and cream teas (I'm married to Hyacinth de Bucket who insists on cream teas!). It can easily be £20+ for lunch and £10+ for tea. What we now do is buy lunch for ourselves and feed the Vikingettes on a packed lunch, especially as the NT lunches are often too Bistro like for their tastes.

Otherwise we feel the NT & EH are fantastic value for money and in introducing the Vikingettes to houses and castles so young they actually prefer it to theme parks.

bap98189

We joined English Heritage a couple of years ago and went to loads of places we wouldn't have gone to had we had to pay for it. But that's not always a bad thing, it was very enjoyable and doesn't have to be expensive. OK there's no way around the petrol cost, but make sandwiches, take a flask of tea or whatever. Many of their properties have lovely gardens etc. and are a great place for a picnic.

Whether it costs a lot more is up to you, nobody makes you go or buy anything whilst you are there. And the real question you should ask is if you weren't going to see some of their properties on a day out, what would you be doing instead, and would that be costing money?

victory

True, good point, we do always take our lunch, my youngest is a thirst bucket and when we went the other day it was £1.70 for one drink and £7.50 for a hot dog:eek: we never bought the hot dog on principal, ridiculous price but we did pay £6 for a refillable cup and that was worth it, sure we ended up drinking for the sake of it but it was worth it:D

kateo

Which one has more properties nearer to you?

I've been a member of both - NT for 2 yrs (a few yrs ago), EH for almost 10 yrs. The main reason I wouldn't give up my EH membership is we have more EH properties near to us - so can really take advantage of the membership.

Have a look at both their properties & see which would appeal more to you & your family. NT tends to have more gardens, EH tends to have more houses/castles.

(Don't forget Quidco 30% cashback on NT )

smallblueplanet

NT as well as properties to visit also have lots of coastal (free) carparks that are in great places - check out the Cornwall & Devon coastal sites...

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-dccarparkmap.pdf (pdf)

eslick

we go quite often NT is definately worth it, EH dont think so most places in our area are free. try the scottish one as you can pay montly and until Monday 18 mths for 12mths

http://www.nts.org.uk/instant

Surfbabe

If you have children then we have always found EH much better geared for children in terms of activities, guides etc. But we belong to both (you can use Tesco CLubcard Vouchers to pay annual subs) so that if we fancy day out we only have to think about cost of drink or ice-cream and not £30-£40 to get in as well

Becles

We're in both and I pay for EH with Clubcard vouchers. I'm signed up for emails from both NT and EH and I get newsletters with events and stuff.

Recently the youngest had been asking a million and one questions about bees, and I saw an introduction to bee keeping event at a local property. She was absolutely thrilled to go and look in the bee hive and find out all about bees!

s_b

the wife and i (she paid:D,proper money saving for me see) joined nt this year apart from not sending the cards out for 3 months we are glad we joined,went on a trip to wales specially to go back to Powis Castle and gardens,as someone said free parking in coastal carparks too which we used plus we have use of a lovely nt property and park, near us too which is better than our local park clean and the grandchildren love it (free safe parking, no drunks, drugs or people that shouldnt be there)

purrfect