After my post last year detailing which National Trust properties we'd visited during the period of our membership, I decided I'd keep track of where we've been and how much we would have spent again after renewing our membership. It's worth bearing in mind that during our previous membership we had Archie with us so we weren't able to go inside the houses, nor were we able to go in some gardens. This year we've been able to visit all areas, there's sometimes an extra charge to go inside the houses and the admission prices quoted reflect this.
Our joint membership this year cost us £160.80. Last year we broke even within four months, this year it took us seven months, a fair bit longer. National Trust properties were great places to take Archie for walks so we would often visit for that purpose. Our visits this year have been much fewer but more purposeful taking in the houses as well as the grounds.
Townend. Admission is £11 for non-members. £22 saved.
Hill Top and Hawkshead. Admission is £17 for non-members. £34 saved.
Hardwick. Admission is £21 for non-members. £42 saved.
Nunnington Hall. Admission is £12 for non-members. We visited twice. £48 saved.
We also visited Nunnington Hall when it was their Love Local event. The admission this day was free for all.
Clumber Park. Admission was £6 for non-members, it's now £6.50. We visited twice. £25 saved.
Fountains Abbey. Helios by sunset. Free for members £12 for non-members. £24 saved.
Nostell Priory. Parking is £5 for non-members. Garden or House admission is £9 or a combined ticket for both is £13 for non-members, though the house wasn't open on one of our visits and we didn't go inside the house on our second visit. We visited twice. £46 saved.
Dunham Massey. Park & Garden admission is £10 or House, Park & Garden is £20, though the house wasn't open when we visited. £20 saved.
Rhosili and South Gower Coast. Parking is £4 for up to two hours or £8 over two hours for non-members. £4 saved.
Pennard, Pwll Du and Bishopston Valley. Parking is £4 for up to two hours or £8 over two hours for non-members. We visited twice. £8 saved.
Woolsthorpe Manor. Admission is £15 for non-members. £30 saved.
Hardcastle Crags. Parking is £5 for up to four hours or £8 all day for non-members. £5 saved.
In total we would have spent £308 on admission to these places. That's £147.20 more than we paid for our membership, a lesser saving than last year but we expected that. Visiting National Trust properties was brilliant when we had Archie as we all got something out of it, nowadays we're not looking for places we can take a dog when we have days out so our visits have been fewer as we've tended to go elsewhere.
Again, we received the National Trust Handbook at the start of our membership and another one was sent to us at the beginning of this year. We also received three National Trust Magazines over the course of the year and there was also a promotion when we took out the membership of a £10 gift card which can be spent in National Trust cafes or shops.
The prices quoted in the post were correct at the times we visited. Some, if not all, of the properties have now increased their prices, and the price of joint membership has also now increased to £168 for the year.
Even though we didn't save as much as we did last year, membership was again well worth it. We visited some of the places we visited last time and visited new places too. We've been able to look inside the houses this time whereas we had Archie with us still during our last membership so that wasn't an option for us then.
We've decided not to renew our membership at this point in time, mainly because there's other, non National Trust places, that we've earmarked to visit soon. I'm sure we will in the future though, possibly later on this year. I think you get good value for money and there's so many different properties, there's always somewhere to go when you're looking for a day out.
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