National trust

[Fuschia]

Anyone have family membership? Comments?

Thanks

[Lochie]

We used to have family membership. At the time we just had a toddler. It was fantastic for visiting the grounds of some of the sites and having picnics in the summer e.g. Chartwell, truly stunning, and within an hour's drive. Our son was and still is (3.5 years now) too young to appreciate looking inside the houses. But I love all that stuff. For older kids it might be worth it. Because our son was young we could only really make use of membership on a warm dry day so we could explore the grounds.

Downsides - some of the houses close for the winter, so I found it a bit of a con to call it 'annual' membership. In an ideal world we would have membership this year but I'm going to look at getting an annual membership for a gallery as they are weather proof!

Would definitely recommend though. NT also v good at organising family events E.g. Easter egg trails

[Lochie]

Also might be worth looking at English heritage membership, it's a bit cheaper I think

[Dodo1]

Do it through Quidco and you will get 30% of the annual fee back!

[Grotty]

My mum gave us lifetime membership, and although we probably don't use it as much as we could we definitely benefit from being members. Most national trust properties are great for kids, from just generally running about outside to having adventure playgrounds, and there are always afternoon teas on offer. We also use it to break up long drives eg. went to a wedding in Manchester so found a nice national trust place half way and stopped there so the kids could pee/run around/eat something. We also seem to find it useful when husband goes surfing as there are lots of places on the coast where we get free parking!

I'm not sure I would have got round to paying for it/sorting it for myself, but we're very glad we have it...

[snowboarder]

I've just been given memebership for my birthday - looking forward to exploring the delights of kent with it this year. Where do people recommend - and where has adventure playgrounds?!?

[Fuschia]

I got a mailing offering 12 months for 9 ... So less than ?80

We have various places we stop to break journeys eg in our annual trip to Wales ... So it might be worthwhile for that alone

[Jennifer_gilwood]

We got national trust membership a few years back and it did make us go out a bit more further afield. The kids lived it and the husband enjoyed looking around the lakes many of the parks had to offer. Loads if picnic sites and adventure playgrounds. I would recommend highly.

[Gubodge]

We've had family membership for a few years. It's pretty easy to go to the three of four properties a year that make the membership worthwhile.

My daughters particularly like Chartwell and Ightham Mote. The both have lovely grounds for charging around, Ightham has a great activity treasure hunt around the house and Chartwell has a little wendy house in the corner of the kitchen garden that the kids could spend hours in (if it weren't for the fact that the loo is the other side of the grounds). And as others have said, NT properties are a great alternative to service stations when you're on a long drive.

[womanofdulwich]

we thought English HEritage was better for younger children- less precious buildings- more old castles, but we used to join something differnt every year, royal palaces is very good- even better if swap cards with a friend- which I am sure is illegal- same for tate etc.

[Fuschia]

Thanks all!