National Trust

[Methenyouplus4]

Best/ cheapest way to join? Our family pass ran out and we miss it hugely but can't afford the renewal. What's the cheapest way to join?

When we joined I think the offer was about £70 for annual pass- we could pay that much.

Have heard it's cheaper if you join Scottish (and apparently works for English Heritage? ) or am sure I heard something (that sounded too good to be true) that if you joined the Truse via some random country like Barbados/ Jamaica you get it for about £14? Or maybe that's an urban myth!

Any ideas?

I pay mine by direct debit. It's £8 pm I think

The 12 months for 9 have been pulled. So it is now £111 for a two-adult family or £69 for one adult and the kids. Paying monthly looks to cost the same.

There is reciprocal membership but unless you actually live in those places, I doubt you can make it work.

Ouch. Think we might have to give it a miss, we live in the north east and just not that much here (versus down south) to justify it.

Yes I think if you join the Scottish one it's cheaper, don't know that for sure I've only heard it on here.

I'm a member of the scottish one despite living in the UK. Mind you, I'm Australian, so that combination confuses the staff too much to question it!

I read something about the New Zealand national trust equivalent being cheaper, and giving reciprocal access to the UK one. Have a google of that.

We have the Scottish one, it's around £7 per month for family pass. You can use it on selected English properties but not everywhere.

You gave to join between march and may to get it for £77.

There's masses of national trust things in the north east!

But yes, join the Scottish national trust and it's cheaper. Family membership is £7 a month.

If you're in the NE it might be better to get English heritage membership? It's cheaper and there are loads of places up north

I've got the New Zealand one, think I paid £40 ish for the year.

Plain fact is I can't afford the uk one.

We have just signed up and for a family of 5 its costing £8 per month. We live in the south east though so have alot of places we can visit.

Also, discovered if you have a Barclays Premier bank account you get free English Heritage membership as a perk. We pay £9 a month for our NT membership, worth it for us

It baffles me how NT membership could ever be good value for money.

If there's only one or two places you are interested in, then go on the free heritage open days they have (usually September I think)

When I took out a membership, I took it out in early August so while still just 12 months it felt in practice like I had it for two years as I could visit places the rest of that Summer and also early next.

Neither suggestion helps you now though

You can also get English Heritage free on Tesco vouchers I think

Heritage open days:

www.heritageopendays.org.uk

It baffles me how NT membership could ever be good value for money.

It depends how often you go. I've kept a count this year; we're up to 16 national trust visits since January. We paid £77 for our membership.

We've had some good days and afternoons out for £4.50 a time for 4 of us. We would never have gone that often without it but it's great with it.

£4 is about the avg parking charge, ime. 4x17 = 68.
But yeah, I can't find reason to go more than about 5-6x a year.

We use ours loads,well worth it. You only need 2 visits somewhere really paying full price for house and gardens and you realise what good value it is.

Depends on how frequently you go, which will depend on whether you like NT properties. We like Osterley Park, a family ticket for the house and gardens is £26 plus £6 to park. Those are fairly typical prices for London and the South East, won't take long to recoup membership costs. We use ours a lot but are lucky that we have a lot of properties within easy reach.

Not just frequency -- I never go in the walled gardens or houses. They aren't suitable places for my children. . Actually, most our favourite places are only carparks, no walled gardens or houses on offer. We'd all be bored witless inside the antique burdened houses.

Running rampant on the wild grounds & climbing trees or treasure hunting to get a chocolate egg, is all good. I suppose all our NT options start at 20 minute drive away.

fluffy How did you go about getting NZ one?

I ordered it off their website, their called new zealend heritage. It took about two weeks to get here.

A very kind mumsnetter sent me a parking sticker but you can buy them off eBay too,

I used a credit card & they worked out the exchange rate. It was all very simple.

all rather not the idea with a charity...

Have a look at the Historic Houses Association too. Similar costs to the National Trust and includes entry to a lot of the Northumberland Castles (including Alnwick Castle), Castle Howard, Raby Castle, Newby Hall (including any gardens)...

I have membership to all 3 (NT, EH and HHA) and prefer NT and HHA. I think I am going to give the EH a miss next time around.