Should I renew my National Trust subscription?

I’m at the point where our NT membership is almost ready for renewal. Shall probably renew, but out of habit really. Hardly any NT properties within 60/90 minutes of our house and those that are, we’ve already been to and we prefer to go to places we haven’t already visited, if poss, although many of them are definitely worthy of a second/multiple visits. I do love going to an NT property. Never thrilled with the cafe food, but it’s passable and the cakes are good. I also like the concept of keeping the NT properties going for the future. That is until every bit of our lovely country is gobbled up with more and more housing.

Recent correspondence from NT Scotland. You don't get the England handbook, but all the info needed is online. It's about £104 per year for joint senior membership, £66 pa for single senior membership, so not a lot of difference. English Heritage seems to be much better value if you have these located nearby - and you can take up to 6 children with you free!

With a National Trust for Scotland membership you have unlimited access to all the places in our care. You can also use your membership to explore places cared for by National Trust organisations around the world with the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO). This includes National Trust properties in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Italy, Ireland, Canada, Australia and more. Link: www.nts.org.uk/support-us/become-a-member/membership-faqs

When visiting a National Trust property worldwide, it’s recommended that you bring both members’ membership cards if you have a joint or family membership. Without both cards you may either be charged or refused entry.

lolarabbit

You might be interested in the Art Fund pass. It's not a dissimilar amount of money from memory but we get a lot more value from it. Several of the National Trust properties near me are included along with some English Heritage places and a huge array of galleries and museums such as Chatham Dockyard, some free, some half price. I'd never heard of it before but am a real convert now.

Me Too !
Art Fund subscription is definitely better value and I use mine all the time. As for the National Trust, English Heritage et al , their political posturing and misdirection really puts me off , too much talk, too little conservation.
After some investigation I’ve decided to concentrate on local charities , the big beasts pay their directors insane amounts but treat their ‘front of house’ mainstays appallingly .

I have just renewed mine more out of habit than anything else as didn't use pass at all last year. Probably should not have bothered.

How timely! Thank you for pointing out the discount I've just told my husband and he came back happy saying our payment was due in 4 days time and we have our discount! Of course, we could have had it years ago if we'd known

We don’t seem to get our money’s worth from ours. However we have used it more this year as we holidayed further north. I do look on it as a Charity donation though, and we are more likely to just go for an hour, rather than a big effort ‘day out’ every time. I think they do fantastic work.

I cancelled my EH membership when I was no longer in a couple. I just couldn't afford the individual membership and like others have said, I had visited all the sites so often I got bored with going.

I saved a lot of money as I've only been to NT and EH sites a few times in three years- the membership just isn't worth it for me...

We cancelled our membership this year as we now have a dog and most NT places were not friendly. Fair enough, but when I phoned up to cancel our membership I was very surprised that they didn't ask for any reason why we were cancelling. I would have thought feedback would have been useful.

Our DD cancelled her membership as most properties operate a no dogs policy, Even those which say dogs welcome only allow dogs in the car park. I know it is not appropriate to take dogs into a house but there should be some consideration for dogs in gardens /countryside
I assume that NT members are responsible dog owners and would not allow dogs to damage a garden
The post has made me consider our membership. We have a senior, joint membership. We do live about an hours drive from any NT property and quite often use it for car parking as due to health issues now we do not go far or walk far. Has anyone else found a lack of seating in NT houses.?

NO. They have lost direction and have become far too "woke". They are not fulfilling their original remit & people who donated their estates to them in good faith must be turning in their graves. It is the same reason why I now refuse to buy a TV licence. I am not giving a brass farthing to the BBC. Their behaviour is atrocious. And, no, I am not a complete Luddite, otherwise I would be writing this using a quill pen!!

You might be interested in the Art Fund pass. It's not a dissimilar amount of money from memory but we get a lot more value from it. Several of the National Trust properties near me are included along with some English Heritage places and a huge array of galleries and museums such as Chatham Dockyard, some free, some half price. I'd never heard of it before but am a real convert now.

We have lapsed - too much politically correct focus on the sexual pasts - I also can't get a decent meal with their current menu - revisionist histories. Just don't enjoy visiting any more. Will Pay as We Go for exceptions.

We aren't going to renewing our English heritage membership, not enough in our area and we have seen all we can

Romolo where in Italy can you use it please?

We need all the protection possible for our countryside and houses...the NT is one of the few ways we can enjoy it..

Redrobin51

We took out Life membership many years back whilst on holiday in Cornwall as we had toured a few of the houses down there and enjoyed it. We rarely go on holiday now and then to the same places so we have already seen the properties here regularly. We have to travel over and hour from where we are now so haven't bothered in several years.
I must say the last few times we went we were very disappointed in he taste and range of foods. We also have a rescue dog now so one of us has to wait outside whilst the other one goes in alone and that makes a visit very long winded.
We also haven't been happy with some of their policy decisions but as the membership is already paid for we haven't resigned from it but if we were paying yearly we would have done.

Some properties do have a dog sitting service eg Lindisfarne but I wouldn’t dream of leaving my lock down clingy dog with anyone. At least I spoke to my partner tonight and we are thankfully paying the reduced membership.

J52

We’ve been NT for Scotland members for years, it’s cheaper. You can also use the membership for NT England properties.

Us too!

We took out Life membership many years back whilst on holiday in Cornwall as we had toured a few of the houses down there and enjoyed it. We rarely go on holiday now and then to the same places so we have already seen the properties here regularly. We have to travel over and hour from where we are now so haven't bothered in several years.
I must say the last few times we went we were very disappointed in he taste and range of foods. We also have a rescue dog now so one of us has to wait outside whilst the other one goes in alone and that makes a visit very long winded.
We also haven't been happy with some of their policy decisions but as the membership is already paid for we haven't resigned from it but if we were paying yearly we would have done.

I don't think they've changed the rules, best to check but I know some years back when we visited Scotland regularly they were happy to let us in.x

It's just me now, but I wouldn't be without it. I often visit NT properties. I meet family members and friends for lunch at halfway places
It works in Italy, by the way, and I gather in the US too, should anyone want to go there.

TerriBull

We're in Devon, South Hams at the moment we were going to visit Agatha Christie's house today, but it's so gorgeous weather wise we went to the beach instead. I hope we will see her house before we go. Other than that in the last 12 months have used the beach car park on the Isle of Purbeck, visited Nymans fairly close to where we live, where the scones were disappointingly hard and Snowshill when we stayed in the Cotswolds. That's about it! We've done much of the places in a 50 or so mile radius, Surrey, Sussex bits of Kent. I've made a note to go and see Virginia Wolfe's house in East Sussex sometime it was mentioned in one of my recent books. When we first became members on my husband's retirement we got our money's worth, but our visits fell off after a while. We deliberate whether to keep our membership going, hum and hah and then end up paying the annual subscription, full of intended prospective visits, that don't happen.

We visited lots of places when I first retired, but there are only two that we go to these days and even then only go round the grounds not the houses. Then again, if I cancelled our membership I wouldn’t go to the local one at all. So it would be another thing on my growing list of things I no longer do .

We don’t go as often as we used to for various reasons but it’s still excellent value for money.

We're in Devon, South Hams at the moment we were going to visit Agatha Christie's house today, but it's so gorgeous weather wise we went to the beach instead. I hope we will see her house before we go. Other than that in the last 12 months have used the beach car park on the Isle of Purbeck, visited Nymans fairly close to where we live, where the scones were disappointingly hard and Snowshill when we stayed in the Cotswolds. That's about it! We've done much of the places in a 50 or so mile radius, Surrey, Sussex bits of Kent. I've made a note to go and see Virginia Wolfe's house in East Sussex sometime it was mentioned in one of my recent books. When we first became members on my husband's retirement we got our money's worth, but our visits fell off after a while. We deliberate whether to keep our membership going, hum and hah and then end up paying the annual subscription, full of intended prospective visits, that don't happen.

They used to provide nice casseroles during the winter, now it is only the basic of food in the cafes. The cakes are ok.

We use ours a lot. We do get the 25% discount. For us, it’s worth having as it comes into its own on holidays too.