Anyone got National Trust membership and wish they hadn't?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

I'm contemplating getting it for us this year. We only have weekends free, but also only holiday in the UK so would make use of it then too. We could stretch to the monthly direct debit but would need to feel it was worth it.

Anyone got it and just thought "meh"?

We are in the north east so there's maybe 3 or 4 sites within an hour or so drive of us.

It depends on how likely you are to visit the local attractions. I considered one but decided not to in the end as very few were within one hour of me and it made more sense to pay per visit.

How many visits would you need to make vs buying a membership? Are you likely to make it a worthwhile investment?

No, I love mine. I've visited the properties near me a million times. But it's lovely to know you can have a 'free' day out when ever you want.

I haven’t used it once

We've had some good days out with it locally and it has been really useful on holiday.

DCs are now bit reluctant to look round 'old dusty mansions' (their words!) but at their ages (10 and 15) I think I'd probably have felt the same.

We've kept the membership going though as DH and I plan to visit properties from time to time, and I figure that as long as we break even on the amount we're spending on membership it's OK.

It's only 10.50 a month and well well worth it. Also paying monthly you can cancel when you like afaik. So perhaps do that over winter if you wont use it.

I used to have it and never used it. We now have english heritage and used it earlier last year but haven't used it for months

Mine pays for itself within the first four months of the year. I just wouldn’t go to these places if I had to pay every time. I go at least twice a month to a local place just for the long walk in beautiful surroundings and to watch the change of the seasons. Snowdrops are up soon.

We use ours lots, both at home and on holiday as we tend to go to Cornwall, where there's s lot of NT sites and car parking on the coast.

We are lucky though as we have 4 NT near, 3 are within 20 minutes drive so we use the outside spaces, picnic with the kids and go to activity days too.

We find it useful while on holiday and there are places to visit not that far away. There are quite a few places which allow us to park free and just enjoy the surrounding area.

We use ours a lot. Have one that’s very close to us and have visited a couple further afield. The DC love the playgrounds and it has saved us a small fortune, especially during summer time.

No I love the National trust and we’ve had ours for years. We are fortunate though to have two great sites within 20 minutes and lots more within an hour. We also use it if we visit family in different places or to break up the journey.

The weather recently has been a lot worse than expected so we haven’t used it as much as we’d like. DD is only 18 months though and a pram refuser which doesn’t help!

It was also great during our trip to the Lakes.

Saved a lot with ours. I have one and my best friend has one - we did all the Xmas activities in December together with all the kids it was ace! On top of all the free parking and holiday visits the rest of the year. If you actively want to visit the sites it's a huge saving. We have dogs so loads of use is dog walks. We also have a caravan so use the memberships loads doee we n there too for beach parking and days out. I love it

Not National Trust but we joined English Heritage and have used it loads we love it! We are going to join National Trust when this one runs out.

We use ours a lot (Dorset).

Love ours, brilliant walks and days out.

We’re going today! We have lifetime membership and wouldn’t be without it. We made the investment about ten years ago as we knew we’d use it, and calculated that without annual price increases from the NT we’d ‘pay it off’ in about 17 years. Actually it will be more like 12 as they have put the prices up.

Sometimes we go somewhere for a whole day, sometimes ( like today) for a couple of hours. We use it more some years than others but it’s always worth it and every year we go to our favourite NT place on the closest weekend to my birthday. We love it. You won’t regret it.

I go through stages using mine. Sometimes it's used every other weekend for a few months, other times it doesn't get used for a few months.

It's great for holidays in the UK as you can have two/three trips out for the cost of lunch and petrol. Free parking at NT beaches is also a plus.

My DC are older 12-14 and they moan about getting dragged out but once we're out and having a walk around they're happy enough. They like taking photos and some properties are really interesting and have museums ect within them. They probably enjoyed it more when they were younger for the activities but appreciate the walk when we're sat in a cosy country pub eating lunch afterwards.

We use our membership every weekend. :)

We liked it for the first year but there's not many places near us and having to factor in fuel costs for a 50 min motorway journey each way meant we stopped using it enough. If we had more places / were closer to one really good place we'd get it again but not for where we are now.

Join the Scottish National Trust - same access, lower cost.

We used to have Beamish passes and the beauty of those was just being able to go for a wander on a day off. I'm thinking this is what we would get out of NT.

We use ours enough to justify it, we have one property about 20 mins drive away that the teen DCs are still happy to wander round the gardens of, several more within an hour and use it for parking and on holidays. We rarely go in the houses, just the gardens and grounds.

I have one for me and just the kids. They are only a few quid to add on. So we can use the car parks and grounds of places and we 3 can go in the houses. If DH is about we pay him in. That was a very cheap way for us

If you holiday in the Lake District you can use it for free car parking in lots of places. Definitely worth it for us.