Am a 33 year old mum of one. Am a Floor Manager for McDonalds (you wouldn't believe the studying)....
Am a 33 year old mum of one. Am a Floor Manager for McDonalds (you wouldn't believe the studying). Married for 13 years to Mike.
Member since:19.12.2000
Reviews:197
Members who trust:36
We have been members of the National Trust for 2 years now, and we have more than had our money's worth.
Current rates per year are:
Individual - £31 plus each additional member at the same address £21.50
Family - £58 for 2 adults and all children or grandchildren under 18
Family plus one adult - £44 for 1 adult and all children
Child- £14.50 for under 13's
Young Person/Education Group- £15 must be 13-15
When you join you get a brilliant handbook giving you details of every bit of National Trust land, property, cliff, coastline, field, car park etc that the National Trust own. It lists all the directions, addresses, phone numbers, opening times etc. Everything is listed under the county that they are in, plus there is also an index by property name in case you don't know where somewhere is.
We pay a family membership and we worked out that we only have to visit about 8 properties a year to have broken even (that is not even counting child admittances).
We find it useful as we like to go out on a Sunday as a family, and it is a way of being able to visit lots of different places nearby, or countrywide and not having to pay admittance
charges.
The Trust have lots of different properties and many of them appeal to children. We are lucky perhaps that our 4 year old son does not require a play area to have fun in, a nature trail, ducks, deer, trains etc amuse him, and all our local properties have combinations of these things. Over the past year or so, the Trust are trying to become more family friendly, they have a little children's club called the "Trusty" club. Trusty is the children's mascot and you will very often find him on treasure hunts around the grounds. Children also get sent their very own Trusty newsletter 2-3 times a year through the post.
We have noticed that they are putting more climbing equipment into the gardens for children to play on, and lots have small animals that can be petted.
All the big properties have their own restaurants which serve delicious home made food and cakes. They all try to use local produce so the menu can vary from area to area. I still think they need to add a few more appealing food items for children. They do produce a children's meal box, but is very limited and have very often run out. They don't provide, crisps, fruit or cakes for little ones which is a great shame. Some don't even sell orange squash. Saying that the food that they do serve is lovely, fresh, but a little expensive. They do lovely cakes and tea's in the afternoon which are a little more reasonable.
The gift shops at the properties are very nice. We purchased a National Trust passport that means that everytime we visit a property, we get it stamped and it is a nice reminder to see where we have visited and when.
We like to go to Wales and Cornwall for holidays and these places alone are so rich in National Trust properties. St. Michael's Mount being one of our favourites down in Cornwall that we visit.
The National Trust do lots of other work like preserving the coastline. They have volunteer holidays where volunteers stay in hostels and help them with conservation work. I don't know enough about this to be able to write much on the subject.
Darkchild has asked why I thought some children may be bored at National Trusts.
Basically I think because some children are not happy unless they can play in a playground. When you go inside the buildings/exhibitions etc, it is obviously not the place for children to be running around, sitting on the furniture, climbing etc as I am sure some children would do given the chance.
A few of our friends who are also members have young teenage children and they are don't enjoy walking around "boring stuffy buildings with nothing to do" - their words not mine.
Also, because you still do tend to get some very upper class members of the National Trust that seem to think that children should be seen and not heard, I think you do tend to be more aware of any noise your child is making. Thankfully, this is getting less and less the case.
My 4 year old is fine looking around, we try and make it interesting for him, and I encourage him to ask questions to the assistants if there is something I can't answer. We count candlesticks, paintings etc and as long as we don't spend hours in the rooms, he's fine. Only once did he stray into a room he shouldn't have. It was a library and he thought that he could go and look at the books. He was about 3. I had to go and get somebody to climb under the barrier and get him as I was scared I was going to set off the alarm.
Hope this answers your questions.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I purchased an annual membership for a colleague and his partner, as a retirement present. I was
very impressed with the customer service from the National Trust, and I know that my colleague
was delighted as well.
RobinLawrie 01.05.2001 23:17
Nicely written. We have been members of the NT for years and consider it value for money....Robin
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Advantages: Free entry to expensive properties, lots to do and see, educational, somewhere to visit all over the country Disadvantages: Membership is a big expense every year
Advantages: Free entry to expensive properties, lots to do and see, educational, somewhere to visit all over the country Disadvantages: Membership is a big expense every year
Advantages: The National Trust is committed to saving as much of our heritage "FOREVER, FOR EVERYONE". Disadvantages: Looking after lots of national treasures is expensive.
Apr 29th, 2001
very helpful by (95%):
helpful by (5%):
