English Heritage or National Trust annual membership?

[halfwitpicker]

Looking for a present for my brother and his wife. Which one do you recommend? They have young children, live in the North, if that's relevant.

Depends where in the North and what has stuff closer and what they are into. EH is more Roman ruins and castles, NT stately homes and parks.

yes, depends what's in their area, but generally I would say NT is better value for money as quite a few EH places are free or much cheaper anyway, and they don't tend to run random car parks.

I would have a look at what is near them and go for that.

Thanks for the replies.

Hmm, looks like NT then.

Has anyone seen any special offers? I had a look last Friday but nothing at all

But ruined castles are the best!!!

OP - have you checked out the area that they live in? I wouldn’t give certain people NT membership because there’s not much around them. I say that because you seem to have decided which to go for from this thread only. Both NT and EH will have maps on their websites.

NT every time - EH is (by its very nature) restricted to England - NT membership covers the whole of the UK so much more scope for use

I think NT is best for children. There are good facilities and lots of activities and events.

EH gives half price access in wales and Scotland for first year, then free thereafter.
EH is good when children are young as they don't have things to break like in stately homes and have frequent events that are really good.
EH is much cheaper, you can get it with tesco vouchers really cheaply.

Have a look at Art Fund. You can get into both English Heritage and NT places. Some are free and some art exhibitions are half price. Really good value

Check what is in the area. We are in the north and have both

NT won't do offers! They're mean as heck. Wouldn't let my 82 year old aunt quality for OAP membership until she'd been a member for 5 years! That said, we've had some lovely visits to their properties.

Their app is good - if you put in your brother's postcode it will show how many places are near to him..

Check what's available in their local area. There's loads of NT near me but not so much EH.

NT often do kids activities especially during school holidays (you have to pay but normally cheap) and quite a few now are building play areas. I love our membership

EH sites are not always free. You can take up to 4 under 18s in as a group, not necessarily related. If they have several places to visit locally (Yorkshire, Derbyshire, IOW, Hadrian's Wall, Kent/East Sussex coast for example) it may well be useful for days out.

Have you considered the historic houses association? I would always join them over the others.they cover quite a few expensive places too.

I dont think NT seem to do offers although ive often seen on other forums people talk about becoming a member in another place (NZ, Malta, Scotland) as it works out so much cheaper, but with the risks i think thats more when buying for yourself not someone else.

Iirc you can use EH to access some sites in Wales too and they also do events (1066 reenactments at Battle, Dover Castle in WW2).

Ooh! Instead of an offer, we got told by a friend to join National Trust Scotland as it's cheaper- you can still use it in the rest of the uk too. We had already joined by that point.

We have both (in North but travel all over)
Benefit of EH is that they have arrangements with lots of other visitor attractions and can get discounts on those as well.
We will stay with both but if had to choose would go EH

We use our EH on holiday to e.g. see castles.
We use our NT locally to go for walks at weekends.
NT places seem to do good children's trails.

Scottish National Trust cheaper than English National Trust.

Tesco club card points can be used against English Heritage membership.

I chose EH as there are more sites near me and they do lots of things for the kids in the holidays. There are lots of castles and grounds to run around in.

Completely depends on what's closest to them and/or what's on offer.

no view on nt vs eh, but you can sometimes get offers on nt. I got 3 months free this year (Though it was for us not a gift). also often do free £15 gift card

The inlaws live up north and have very little in the way of NT nearby. We live in the SW and don’t have much EH. Check what’s nearby before deciding.

I got a discount by getting a friend who works for the National Trust to fill a form in. Think it saved 20%.

Are you sure they are not members already?