Debbers

My husband and I are going to Scotland for 10 days and then on to Ireland for 5 days. While in Scotland, which is the better pass to purchase? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

janisj

AFAIK the main differences (other than the Heritage Pass must be purchased from a travel agent) is the HP is good for seven consecutive days while the Explorer Pass is good for 7 days within a 14 day period (or 3 days out of a 5 day period) and the HP also covers National Trust properties, which the Explorer only covers Historic Scotland sites.

Which is better for you depends on which particular sites you plan on visiting --- specifically, how many National Trust properties.

Debbers

Thanks very much for the response. I will obviously have to ascertain which sites we are going to visit.

sugarmaple

Yes, what janisj says...

We're going for 15 days in May. We sat down with our schedule, a list of what we would realistically see, both passes and compared that with individual entry fees.

We were surprised to find we would only save a bit by purchasing one or other pass. A change in plans, or someone ill would have eaten what small savings we got.

I suggest you look carefully at your interests and schedule, and entry fees, and do some arithmetic.

Debbers

Sugarmaple, I agree with your advice. I had already started to do exactly what you suggested. Not sure either if either pass is worth it. The only advantage to buying the Explorer Pass is we can purchase it in Canada and pay in Canadian dollars.

Thank you!

maitaitom

The Heritage Pass seems best to me for our purposes, however can you skip the line at Edinburgh castle the same as with Explorer Pass?

janisj

yes . . . you'll have to pass through the same security but no queue for tickets.

dwdvagamundo

I've just been looking at the Historic Environment Scotland website and comparing it with the National Trust for Scotland, and it looks to me like more of the places we'd want to see are on the Historic Environment list than on the other. We could get two annual passes for around 66 pounds sterling, so if we fell in love with Scotland, we could return within the year.

Last time we were in the UK, we got an annual membership for English Heritage and, even though we were in England and Wales for about three weeks, it worked well for us.

So, any reason not to go that route?

ESW

Don't forget if you have an annual pass for Historic Environment Scotland you also get 20% discount in the shops (and that includes post cards as well as books and gifts...)