National Trust Young Persons Discount.
Let me first just admit here that this post is basically a way of me including more holiday photos that I couldn't fit into my photo diary (which you can read here.) I am not ashamed to admit it, let's be honest nobody wanted one photo diary to include upwards of 80 photos did they.
Instead I thought I'd split my photos and in this post, include some of the beauties from some of the National Trust properties I visited whilst I was away.
FYI I went to Petworth House in West Sussex, Mottisfont Abbey in Hampshire and Uppark House and Gardens in West Sussex whilst I was away but I have also included photos of Dyffryn Gardens which is my local National Trust property.
If you don't know a lot about the National Trust they are a charity founded in 1895 and they essentially conserve British heritage and open spaces. Most famous for their properties, houses and castles they actually own farmland, coastland, woodland, moorlands and even carparks and they have 4.5 million members.
They protect and open 350 historic gardens, houses and castles to the public and you don't have to be a member to visit - they have 20 million visitors for paid for properties alone, let alone open air visits.
Personally, I think it's a huge benefit to this country and really important to support because they do so much for conserving British history and we've always paid to go to National Trust properties and donated to the charity.
This article on 10 Things You Might Not Know About The National Trust is super interesting.
So, having gone to National Trust properties my whole life, my parents finally thought maybe we should be members. It sounds mad but we've been going and paying day entrance prices for however long we almost automatically turned down offers to join.
In all honesty, we didn't think we'd use it enough over the whole year because we only have one National Trust property close to our house and every other one we visit tends to be in 2 weeks in the summer. But then my niece was born and we started taking her to Dyffryn Gardens more regularly and my Mum started adding up how much it was costing us over time.
Let's be clear here - National Trust properties are not cheap to get into if you aren't a member. They have to be to keep the charity running but after paying entrance for more than one of you plus a cheeky cream tea in the cafe and a browse in the gift shop - it can really set you back.
So, the Young Persons discount. My Mum and Dad signed up to join the National Trust last October and found they very quickly went to enough places to make the discount worthwhile so when the weather improved and we fancied taking my niece to Dyffryn Gardens my Mum looked into signing me up too.
A Young Persons discount is for people aged between 13 and 25 and is £31.50 for the year instead of the £63.00 for adults which is a huuuuuge saving. In all honesty I'm pretty gutted we only realised it now because I will only get a years worth of discount but hey, a year is better than nothing.
Your membership gives you unlimited access to National Trust properties for a whole year and you don't pay a single thing to get into any of the attractions. It's actually really easy to make up the price of your discount, even if you only use it a few times over the year.
For example, I bought my membership (they send you a fancy orange card too) in July of this year and have already been to enough properties to make my money back.
It cost me £31.50 for my membership and so far I have already saved on:
Dyffryn Gardens twice - £7.80 (£15.60)
Petworth House And Park - £13.50
Mottisfont Abbey - £13.60
Uppark House And Garden - £10.00
That means if I'd paid full price on the gate I'd have already spent £52.70 on entrance - you cannot deny that in a single month I have more than made back my membership fee, and now I just continue to save for the rest of the year. Winning.
So, to conclude, reasons why you should think about getting a National Trust Young Persons Membership;
- It's a lot cheaper than the full adult price - make the most of it while you can!
- You're supporting a British charity who do a very very worthwhile job.
- It's doing an amazing job for maintaining British history.
- You learn A LOT. National Trust properties are full of information and helpful chatty guides.
- It lasts a whole year and there are SO many properties you don't even need to revisit.
- You make your money back insanely quickly.
- They're beauuuutiful.
- If nothing else IMAGINE the Instagram opportunities and ootd locations?
Visit the National Trust website here for more information, more inspiration of where to visit and to sign up for your membership.