In these slightly more austere economic times, the best investment I have made is membership of the National Trust.
What is it?
The National Trust is a charity that acts to preserve a range of buildings and environments, ranging from stately homes to mills, coastline to hills, for future generations to learn from and enjoy.
How much does it cost?
Membership for a year costs less if you pay by direct debit, with the current direct debit prices being just £35.63 for one adult, £59.63 for 2 adults or £61.50 for a family. To put this into perspective, if you were to go as a family to legoland for just one day it would cost over £100, and an on-the-day ticket for one adult to Alton Towers costs £36 - more than a whole years membership of the National Trust!
So what do I get for my money?
As a member you get a flimsy cardboard members card, a car sticker, the handbook of places you can visit and a magazine every 4 months. The big selling point is of course all the places it entitles you to visit. Recently we've taken to planning our holidays around which National Trust properties we can visit, initially
as a money-saving plan but now because we've enjoyed the ones we've visited so much. For example, if you were to go to Kent for a weekend you would find you were within driving distance of a fabulous castle, Rudyard Kipling's house, a charming 14th century moated manor house and Winston Churchill's home, to name just a few. If you found yourself on the other side of the country in Cornwall you could visit several stunningly beautiful gardens, an amazing Victorian house and a tin mine, not to mention enjoy free car parking at lots of coastal locations. The other excellent thing about National Trust membership is that since all visits are free you can use visiting a National Trust location as a way to break a long journey if you plan in advance without worrying about it costing money - and as well as a pleasurable break to the tedium of driving it will provide somewhere to have some nice, reasonably priced food and use clean toilet facilities!
What can I expect to find on visiting a National Trust location?
Of course, this varies greatly from location to location, but in general on visiting an historic house you can expect to find basics such as toilets, picnic facilities, some form of café/restaurant and a gift shop. You can then expect the house itself to be wardened by a team of keen and usually knowledgeable volunteers, and if you have children more and more properties provide quizzes or activity packs to entertain and educate them too. The handbook that comes with membership is excellent at letting you know what to expect beforehand.
Am I too young/too old?
As already mentioned properties are making an effort now to cater for children and in general the majority of the children I've seen have seemed contented and amused by their visits (especially at the locations that have outside games/dressing up boxes for them!)
I myself am 26 now, consider myself fairly 'normal' and have been a member of the National Trust since I was 24. Recently I've started noticing more and more people my age at National Trust properties, including groups of young adults on days out, all of whom seem satisfied with the experience and don't seem to fall into any particular stereotype.
Moving to the other extreme, those who have more advancing years are also well-catered for. The National Trust website states that "Most properties have a good degree of access" and that "Unless otherwise mentioned in the relevant property entry, all properties have adapted WCs. Many properties provide manual wheelchairs for loan."
In short, I think the National Trust has something for the majority of different ages as their locations allow you to focus on different things depending on your individual interests.
Recommendations
As I wrote at the beginning of the review, membership of the National Trust is the best investment I have made recently. However, if you don't travel much it may be worth looking at their website first to determine if there are things near you that are of interest, as some parts of the country have more to do in them than others. Also, lots of locations are not well served by public transport so it may not be worth being a member if you don't have a car.
In terms of my personal favourites out of all the locations I've visited (and I'm now well into double figures) my top three have to be Lanhydrock House in Cornwall, Stourhead Gardens in Wiltshire and Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire... if you live near any of those they are probably worth the membership fee alone.
*Also posted on dooyoo under the same name*
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Jul 11th, 2009
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