Best annual tickets/ passes?

[BonnesVacances]

Our Longleat annual passes expired yesterday, so we're now in the market for annual tickets for somewhere else. It's just nice to be able to go somewhere for a couple of hours rather than having to spend a full day to get our money's worth from a full price ticket.

We've done Merlin and tbh although DC are teens, and DS in particular would love them again, I fear DH & I are coming to the end of our theme park rollercoaster days. I've so far resisted National Trust as I'm not sure DC would be persuaded to come and I don't think there are many English Heritage sites near us in the south.

It really depends where you live. Near me there is a country park with loads of off road cycle trails/woodland play equipment which is pricey to park at but an annual pass is good value.

I have had NT and EH for decades. Sometimes add Historic Houses depending on where I go but don’t think I get much use out of it.

I do join others if they are close to home and going twice is VFM, this year I have got Castle Howard, latterly had York museums for a few years.

I think you just have to go on what’s nearby that you might get your money’s worth out of.

We just about manage to get value out of NT still with teens, partly because you can get free car parking at various sites (mainly coastal but also some inland). As you say, it's nice to be able to just pop into a property for an hour without feeling as though you've wasted money. We have a nice local one that we often pop to for an hour to wander round the gardens. We ought to cancel EH, we don't use it enough (also in the south).

I don’t use EH enough either but it’s £5 a month so a coupe of parking permits and a couple of visits means it’s ok.

I am not far from Northumberland and a weekend at the coast usually means visiting three or more EH places/car parks
so I keep it.

Depending on where you live, Historic Royal Palaces is great - Hampton Court, Tower of London, banqueting Hpuse, Kew Palace

We had Merlin until our youngest was 11 ( and diagnosed with CFS) by which time everyone was over theme parks . Since then I’ve had EH and NT which we do use enough to make them worthwhile but we are SE so plenty of local places / dog walks .

We have had Portsmouth Historic Dockyards tickets for the last couple of years altho if you've got teens they might be a bit old, some of it is aimed at younger kids.

Thanks all. Some good suggestions. I'll have a look at the Historic Royal Palaces.

DD has CFS (ME) too which is why we like annual passes. Pre illness EH would have been perfect as DC have always preferred ruins to stately homes, so I'll have a look at how much that costs. We already have Portsmouth Historic Dockyard tickets, DS still loves it there.