I’d been asking myself whether National Trust membership was worth spending money on for quite a while. With more than 500 properties, as well as their work caring for farmland and more than 780 miles of coastline, the National Trust is the biggest conservation charity in Europe. As a big fan of poking round old houses, you would think this would be right up my street, but still I hesitated.
What about that time I got English Heritage membership and used it precisely zero times?
What about the new and shiny Art Pass I keep seeing people talking about?
I did some research and realised that there were significantly more opportunities to use a National Trust membership in my area than these other two options, so this was likely to be the best value for money option for me. After some more dithering, my mum came to visit and dragged us to two National Trust properties in one day, so we decided to take the leap.
How much does National Trust membership cost?
| Membership | £/year |
| Joint membership | £139.20 |
| Individual (26+) | £84.00 |
| Individual (18-25) | £42.00 |
| Individual (5-17) | £10.00 |
| Family (2 adults plus children and grandchildren under 18) | £146.40 |
| Family (1 adult plus children and grandchildren under 18) | £91.20 |
There are also lifetime memberships available, but at over £2,000 these are the equivalent of roughly 20 years worth of annual memberships, so if you’re asking the question whether NT membership is worth it, you probably aren’t going to be confident enough to shell out for one of those right now. They also don’t do lifetime memberships for single parent families, which is disappointing.
You can join the National Trust at property ticket offices, or online. You can also pay monthly by direct debit for no additional fee. We joined in person at a property and it probably took about 15 minutes.
What are the benefits of National Trust membership?
Along with free entry to National Trust properties, you also benefit from free parking at properties. I believe you also generally get free parking at their coastal and countryside walking locations, too. Additionally, you’ll receive a book listing all properties and a quarterly magazine with interesting articles about special exhibitions or interesting discoveries at various properties.
How many properties do you need to visit to make it worth the money?
I knew that I would enjoy any visits I made, so my main concern with membership was whether I would break even for the year, or if I would have been better off buying individual tickets at each location. I decided to keep track of this over a year of visits, based on both single and joint membership prices.
| Location | Entry fee/person | Parking | Total single | Total joint |
| Bodiam Castle | £11.00 | £4.00 | £15.00 | £26.00 |
| Sissinghurst Castle Garden | £16.00 | £4.00 | £20.00 | £36.00 |
| Sheffield Park and Garden | £15.00 | £0.00 | £15.00 | £30.00 |
| Standen House and Garden | £14.00 | £0.00 | £14.00 | £28.00 |
| Scotney Castle | £15.00 | £4.50 | £19.50 | £34.50 |
| TOTAL | £83.50 | £154.50 | ||
| Membership | £84.00 | £139.20 |
So we can see a few things here:
- We’ve exceeded expectations and visited five whole properties over the course of a year. Go us!
- Our joint membership proved to the right choice as we saved £15.30 over the course of the year.
- If I was single, I’d be fuming over that 50p I’d lost out on.
As I expected, all of these properties were well worth a visit, and each offered something unique. I can see us visiting all of them again, as well as the other National Trust properties near us which we failed to make it to this year.
Aside from making me feel like a proper grown up, another thing I enjoy about having this membership is that it’s not a big deal to just pop to a local property for lunch in the cafe, peruse the second hand bookshop or take a stroll in the garden – it doesn’t need to be a big day out.
We’ve renewed our membership for next year, and we’re looking forward to visiting more local properties. I also ramped up the challenge and succumbed to Art Pass membership, which will be harder for me to break even on due to the lack of local options. Can I maintain my mediocre National Trust visiting record while also building some Art Pass adventures in? Stick around till next year to find out!
