my husband and i are leaving for great britian on june 17th. we have considered buying a great british heritage pass, does anyone know if these are a good value? this is our first trip to england.

The Brithish Tourist Board sent me a pamphlet that listed all of the sites covered by the Heritage Pass. I added up the admission prices (quoted in guide books) for the locations we would be visiting then compared it to the Heritage Pass price. In general, if you plan on visiting a lot of manor homes and gardens it can save money. I was also told that another main advantage is that you don't have to wait on line for tickets if you have a pass. Our trip will be mostly in Scotland and the Scotish Explorer pass made more sense for us.

The pass is a superb value and convenient to use, IF you are going to be there long enough to use it for the price it costs. The first time we used it, years ago, it was called Open To View and it was priced at $18.00. I think if you are going to be there at least two weeks and going to do castles, stately mansions, gardens, museums and gardens, it may pay you to have it. We are usually there 3-4 weeks and always use it.

Julie, I usally buy a heritage pass each time I go to England (I've been at least 10 times in past 20 years) and we usually pay for them in the first couple of days, although we are maniacs about seeing the historical houses, castles, gardens, etc. The only reason I would say don't buy one is if you are not travelling by car, many of them are harder to get to using public transport and we can often see two in a day when driving. Also if you are planning on staying in only one part of England and that part doesn't have the volume of things to see, may not be worthwhile, or if you or someone you are travelling with isn't that interested in the castles, etc. (the 'loaded' areas are the Cotswolds, Cornwall, Kent, north Wales). Some of my favourite places to see are: Stourhead Gardens, Lanhydrock, Trerice, Bodnant Gardens, Chartwell (Churchill's home), Warwick Castle, Sudeley, Hampton Court, Baddeley Clinton, Penhryn Castle.

I would generally agree with above, if you are going to visit a crop of the places listed in the brochure. I was a bit disappointed a few times that the pass was only good for a discount. One thing that's really great about the pass is that you can justify taking a quick look in a place. When you are paying per time you may skip by spots where you might enjoy just a peak. When you're driving through the country side, you can't spend half a day at every site or you won't make much progress.