Cheapest way to do National Trust?

[confusedofengland]

We're just on our way back from a lovely break (in Devon) & keep noticing lots of National Trust properties around & about, so we are thinking of joining up! There aren't so many near to us, but quite a few in an hour/hour & a half's drive, so hopefully we'd use it a lot.

Does anybody have any tips on how to get the best value membership? Is there a sale at certain times of year, for example? We are a family of 5, but I think only 1 adult & 3 DC (5-10) will pay as DS2 gets DLA & qualifies for a free carer at most places we go to.

Thanks in advance!

Have a look at Halfords, they've got a deal at the moment that if you buy something (not sure what, might be something very expensive!) you get a family membership free.

When the dc were little, I had single parent membership, even though I was (am!) married. We used to use it during the week, and had the parking sticker for parking, and just paid for DH to get into to the properties when we all went together at weekends/holidays.

The New Zealand one will let you join from the uk and you get nt and English heritage.

The Halfords offer is only for a day pass, not annual membership.

Sometimes you can get free or discounted NT membership via work discount schemes, especially in the public sector.

Or you might be able to get 15 months for the price of 12 plus free binoculars - leaflets offering this sort of deal often fall out of the weekend papers.

Often you can get 15 months for the price of 12. But remember they are a charity so need the money.

Get the individual adult family. That’s the best way. It’s a charity donation, the free entry is the bonus!

Seriously it’s a bargain whichever way. Unlimited days out. If you add up all the entry fees per property per person you’ll get your money back in no time. When I added it up it took us 6 weeks.

The DC love NT properties. You are doing your bit to help preserve them for the future.

There's cash back via Top Cashback, but the deals you used to find with discount and extra months' membership don't come up like they used to.

Which is why I wouldn't do the 'join the New Zealand, Scottish or Malta NT and use it in England because it's cheaper' ruse, because it's defrauding a charity.

But taking up a widely advertised introductory discount is fine. Obviously they hope that you will be a member for ever and ever, and you may be, but then again, if you find after a while that you're not going as often, and you cancel, they've had the income in the meantime.

It's great value, not just the properties but free parking at lots of coastal car parks. If you've got membership and live near a nice property you can just pop in for an hour without feeling you've got to make a day of it, lots of child friendly seasonal stuff (treasure hunts etc).

I think I read somewhere that if you join through the Scottish website it is cheaper.

We used to buy for a year, go mad on trips, then stop. Rejoin a few years later again.

Last time we did that was about 10 years ago and we then just carried on paying annually as we have a lot of places locally to visit plus we could then afford it.

We think its very good value when you consider the cost of family days out.

The New Zealand people seem to me in on this now and the price for non residents has gone up a lot

Yeah New Zealand are onto it now. We legitimately joined in NZ but there is now a non-resident price; and some of the NY properties are really difficult about letting you in. No one has refused yet, but it does make it more awkward!

They've also introduced charges for sending the card and letters abroad, and you have to opt out of the NT magazines or you get charged for those too.

We have the Scottish membership despite living in England as we got it while on holiday when we were at Culzean Castle.

I think it’s about £15 than English cheaper so not a fortune

It’s a charity - so I would feel a bit uncomfortable about trying to trick the system to get it cheaper. We have family membership for £10 a month. We only have to visit our local one 4 times a year to make our money back, and we’ll be visiting 2 different places this half term alone.

I certainly wouldn't want to defraud them, just would like to get the best value membership I can. I may email & ask if we're eligible for a 1-adult family membership.

You will be eligible for an individual family I’m sure. I think it allows 5 children under 18 in on the same card.

Little plea. If you do decide to join, do it at the next property you go to, it will get a big chunk of the membership and it will directly support that property. If you do it via website it will go to Head Office, into the big pot. A property will be really appreciative of your membership. It doesn’t take long to sign up and membership is valid instantly. Only 5 mins for the form, it’s simple.

I’ve checked and it’s £78 for individual family. So one adult and up to 10 children under 18.

We have a family membership (2 adults, 2 children) and we do it by monthly direct debit, so pay about £10 a month

Last summer we went to a few places during our holiday and individually they would've cost over £200.00 in entrance fees. That one week made membership worth it alone. We go to local ones regularly, as well as on the way to see my parents as it's way better to have an NT runaround than stop at services!

We pay £10 a month for a family pass . Really good value