membership of national trust - worth it?

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I am missing on events for kids organised locally and generally... how do you keep on tpc os this/ is it wort to becme a membe of national trust thank you

We are members and visit our local NT place probably every 3 weeks on average.

They regularly have trails for kids, a nice river walk, a woodland playground, and a tea room.

Great for exercising whatever the weather.

Then if we are on holiday in UK we may visit another place or two too. We don't generally bother actually going in to the houses though!

NT depends on whereabouts you live and whether you have transport. Where we used to live it was definitely worth it, but now we are in a bit of a black hole NT-wise. We have a few nearby, but they are free entry "open spaces" rather than stately piles, so little point in being members. If you are planning a trip to Jersey at any point, then join Jersey NT while there - it's a lot cheaper and you can visit the UK sites with your Jersey membership as they have a reciprocal agreement.

Now I keep an eye on www.bbc.co.uk/thingstodo and sign up to any email list going eg local WWT, local museums, council parks service, nearby-ish private parkland, Woodland Trust, local conservation/preservation projects etc. etc. Plus a quick glance through those many local family/primary school magazines full of adverts. I use google calendar and have a special colour just for noting anything free or almost free that might be worth a punt, even if we have something else planned that day (because when Grandma is ill and cancels last minute, it is easier to have a backup plan).

We love our NT membership and get good value from it. The best value we got however was from the Historic Royal Palaces pass that gave us a year of the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Royal Banqueting house and a few others - as we are in suburbs of London it was great for the year DD was studying Tudors, we didn't renew that as we used it a lot in the year we had it and that was enough.

I'm just coming to the end of my first year of membership but I don't think I am likely to renew. We joined last August after I realised I'd been to 3 nt places in 4 weeks and I got my entry fees for the 3rd of those refunded but then only went to one more place in the whole remaining 12 months so I haven't had my money's worth.

Yes we use ours loads. There is a property 15 mins away we go there a lot. We probably go to other properties as well about 3-4 times a year. Definitely value for money for us. We always do the Halloween, Xmas trails etc.

If you do get it, use the handbook to plan some trips to make sure you do at least 3-4 per year to get your use from it. When travelling we often stop at NT places rather than service stations and we sometimes pop in places just for an hour or so which you may not do if not a member.

I'm thinking of asking for membership as a Christmas gift for DH and I from my parents.
We have a 5 year old - I need family membership, not couples', don't I?

we use ours tons. I'd like to avoid the 100 odd renewal fee. We paid about half that under some special offer initially....

We go to local NT places at least once a month and more in the winter (mostly deserted but we don't mind the cold) so for us it is worth it. We just have couples memberships as the DTs are under 5 but i think family is only a few £ more.

We do have 5-6 within 45 mins though and another 10ish within 1-2 hours so it's worth it for the amount of properties we can visit.

Other than that i check out Mums in the Know and local papers for free kids events.

We were given lifetime membership as a wedding present and use it a lot, but I agree it hugely depends on where you live and what routes you travel! We factor in visits instead of to service stations, as a pp has said. To be honest we don't do that many of the free kids/family things but probably will start to do so now that our son is 2 and will appreciate that kind of thing a bit more.

Wow what an amazing wedding present LAquila!

It is, Future! My husband's grandparents did the same for all the "young people" in the family when they got married, which is great because it means we can also have a lot of free family get-togethers at different points around the country :)

We get membership as a present each year, and it's become really useful since having 2-3 dcs, for stopping off when travelling, as the cafeterias serve reliable good food with lunchboxes and scones and ice cream for the kids, as well as having space to run.
Does depend on what is near routes you travel - my nearest NT is open to all now, but near my parents is one with a playground that you need a ticket to use, so it was worth it to be able to go each time we visited.

I think it's worth it. Especially as so many friends have memberships as well, it tends to be the place we meet up in the holidays and weekends. We also like going to the places as a family. We are lucky though as we have quite a few places fairly close.

The children love running free in the open spaces, following trails to do walks and also looking at the inside of the houses (especially chamber pots and secret passageways). They absolutely love doing the trails too. It is a great way to have a lovely day out with friends and family!

Thats the sort of present I'd love to have the money to give! Its what my grandparents tend to give me each xmas. A lifetime membership when starting out is such a lovely thing :)

Leccy I believe under two are free anyway but check.