Is National Trust membership worth it?

Purple_kitten

Does anyone here have a national trust membership, do you recommend it?


I'm mulling over the idea of the membership.

Purple_kitten

I have just been searching about on the forum and would delete this post if I had the option.

Tom99

Who can say, give it a try for a year.
I am not a member now but one of the reasons I joined was free parking at some sites suitable for walking, rather then a historic building or grounds.

building_with_lego

I did it a couple of years ago and went all over the place- did everything local and a lot of places on holiday too. The following year I let it lapse, but have rejoined this year and made good use of it again.

Have a look on the Days Out board and you can consider the ethics of joining Scottish NT, or New Zealand NT instead

THIRZAH

Depends where you live. We do quite a lot of walks from places like Lyme Park and Mam Tor so take advantage of the free parking.DD lives in east Kent and reckons it's not worth her joining as there are so few NT properties there.

nanatoo2

if you are going to join look at the scotland national trust as its cheaper than the english national trust and can be used in england as well as scotland

CapricornLass

OH and I have joint life family membership, thanks to a bequest that he received. For us, it has been worth it, especially as we were still relatively young when we bought it. We used it as somewhere to take the children when they were small, and visited all sorts of properties, both at home and when we were away in the UK. We still use it now to provide cheap days out. We also use it when we are on long car journeys, when we will look for a property en route to visit to give us a break, stretch our legs, and get refreshments.



As a life member, I'm afraid that I don't keep an eye on the cost of membership anymore. However, one of our friends reckoned that she would have to visit four/five large properties to break even costwise.

VfM4meplse

As others have alluded to, it depends on your location and your available time because you want to max out on value whilst spending the least possible on travel costs - living on the South Essex coast for me most attractions are quite far away. Pore over a map of the sites before you commit - I found that Cumbria and Scotland offered the best value and planned holidays around this. I'd avoid any years you're planning trips abroad as you just won't get best use out of it.

English heritage might be another option, again start with the map of attractions.

VfM4meplse

THIRZAH wrote: »

DD lives in east Kent and reckons it's not worth her joining as there are so few NT properties there.

Agreed. I can think of Chartwell and that's about it.

carolbee

THIRZAH wrote: »

Depends where you live. We do quite a lot of walks from places like Lyme Park and Mam Tor so take advantage of the free parking.DD lives in east Kent and reckons it's not worth her joining as there are so few NT properties there.

I agree, I live near Margate and everywhere is a bit of a hike. We did go to Sissinghurst and Chartwell a couple of times when we had overseas visitors. We had the Scottish membership. Closest to us is White Cliffs at Dover

thriftwizard

Depends on what you like doing! We joined when the kids were young, to get free parking at the beaches & coast we live close to, and that was very cost-effective. Now, we visit our local stately home & gardens on a virtually monthly basis, as the gardens are amazing & there's always more to see or do or take pics of, DD1 being a keen photographer. (Plus an excellent secondhand book stall, and cheap organic fruit & veg from the kitchen garden.)

But we also love visiting the properties & gardens wherever we go, so if we're in an area we always have a look to see what's around & try to fit in a visit. It's been well worthwhile for us, and the kids have all joined in their own right now they're adults, so for us, yes. But we happen to like that kind of thing; I can quite see that not everyone would!