Maudie

We will be touring the UK May and June 2011 for 6 weeks and of course trying to get value for our money like everyone else.

We will have 1 week in London, 2 weeks in Ireland then the last 3 weeks will be split between the Yorkshire Moors, the Lakes District, Snowdonia and Cotswolds. We would love to see gardens and stately homes, go on long walks and just enjoy nature. Any suggestions on whether to join the National Trust or buy a GBH pass.

The GBH seems fairly expensive as you have to determine the number of days you will be using it? I would appreciate your thoughts.

Maudie

GregY2

A good idea is to visit the respective organisation websites and see what properties each organisation has in the areas you will be touring.
On a recent trip to the UK we bought a 14 day English Heritage pass half-way through our week in Kent; we used it that week and during the next week in Cambridgeshire, and part of the following week based in Shropshire. We had very good value for the pass - especially in Kent & Sussex. Some areas were not well represented with EH so we did not buy a pass for those areas. Depending on where you live you may find that your local heritage/national trust organisation has reciprocal rights with the UK National Trust. For example, our Australian National Trust membership - cost A$76 pa for the two of us - gained us free admission to many UK NT properties that would have cost us around 300 GBP.

avalon

If you are in the USA, join the Royal Oak Society. It is the American branch of the National Trust. In addition to free admissions to all National trust properties, you get special invitations to events, a magazine and a great collection of rental properties. It's also tax deductible!

avalon

The link

http://www.royal-oak.org/

Maudie

Thanks for the info GregY2 - hadn't thought of joining our Aussie National Trust - I will look into that. If we purchase the EH I would do so from here before we go on the visitbritain website. I will have to do a lot more reading but sounds like you had good value with your 14 day pass.

avalon, thanks for sharing your information but I am not in the USA though I have been reading about the Royal Oak Society will I have been investigating our options.

GregY2

Maudie, you can see where we went and what we saw on my trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-in-the-uk.cfm

I see that we saved 94GBP for our 46GBP EH pass.

The Australian NT membership is a bargain for touring in the UK, there are hundreds of properties through England & Scotland (works for Scottish NT as well). Also gives you free parking in NT sites. Greg

Maudie

Hi again Greg, I have just read and enjoyed both of your trip reports. Had a giggle to myself reading that you planned a trip to Italy and went to the UK instead as the same thing has happened to us. We were planning 4 weeks in Italy and 4 in the UK but a good deal on the Oriana from San Francisco to Sydney in October caught our interest so we have had to reduce next years trip and decided to stick with one destination.

Yes it sure does sound like a good deal, thanks so much for telling me about it, I am very glad I posted my question.

You seem to find some great places to stay, I have found a dear little cottage in Helmsley (Yorkshire Moors), it is the old gardeners cottage in a walled garden, really looking forward to staying there. Also have our eye on a cottage in Bisley (Cotswolds). I think for the Lakes we will stick to a B&B and we have found a small self catering apartment in Betws-y-Coed (Wales) but it sure has taken hours and hours of research to find these gems. We prefer to self cater, as it give us the choice of "eating in", no way we would want to eat out every night for 6 weeks. And simple breakfasts suit us instead of a big fry up.

Interesting to read about your experience with Malaysian Airlines, at the moment they are the cheapest from Perth to London but the timing isn't all that great for us. Think we will stick to Singapore again.

Thank you again for your help, we really appreciate it.

daveesl

The thing I really like about the British pass system is that the funds are used to help maintain all of their locations. There are a ton of spots that almost nobody goes to, so without being part of the trust, they would have little or nothing for maintenance and operations. Whether it saved money or not, I like the idea for this reason alone.

dave

janisj

OKAY - I have done them all GBHP, Nat'lTrust (I belonged to the Trust when I lived in the UK), Royal Oak, National Trust for Scotland, English Heritage pass, etc etc etc.

By far, the best deal for the typical 2 or 3 weeks in England, Wales, even Scotland -- is the Great British Heritage Pass. No question.

The Trust and Royal Oak are great- but they only cover Trust properties. English Heritage and CADW only cover their sites in England and Wales respectively.

But the GBHP covers ALL of those org's sites PLUS many privately owned Stately homes, Castles, Palaces, Gardens, etc.

Even though it costs more --it delivers much more too.

janisj

To clarify the reason I said 2-3 weeks -- is you get either a 4, 7, 15, or 30 day pass. It is no longer all that useful London since the Tower and Windsor have dropped the GBHP (but St Paul's and HCP are still in)

So mainly for 2or 3 weeks in England/Wales outside of London. For a 5 or 6 week trip I'd usually get a 30 day pass even IF I was spending time in London.

PalenQ

And helpful to repeat something Janis once said here is that you can buy the GBH pass at many participating properties - so no mailing fees, advance time to get it, etc. - if that is correct and if janis says it is IME it usually is

ElendilPickle

I'll second janisj's recommendation of the Great British Heritage Pass.

Lee Ann

Maudie

Excellent advice as usual everyone, thanks so much. It certainly sounds like it will be worth getting the Pass then. I really have no idea at all what we will see, I just like the idea of having it so I can say STOP I want to go in there and see this place. There are so many places on the GBH list, its a bit mind blowing

I can buy the Pass here in Australia before I leave and download an E-Voucher so postage etc isn't a problem.

Yes I can see that the 30 day pass is probably the way to go, at least we can use it at St Pauls.

Thanks again everyone, you have been most helpful.

texasbookworm

Yes, we loved the Great British Heritage Pass, too. Had a 7 day one. And you don't pay for parking at the sites that charge for parking with the pass, either, so that was an unexpected savings. (Like at the White Cliffs, admission is free to every one, but there is a parking fee, but the Pass eliminated the parking fee, too!)

Maudie

Ah well you just answered my next question, texas. That sure is a bonus, I will now have to decide how long to get the pass for.

Thanks heaps.

janisj

You don't validate the pass until your first uses (don't enter any dates on it - the first property will do that). And it is good for consecutive days. So you will want one to cover your 3 weeks in England. A 30 day GBHP might pencil out, but a 15 day pass and then paying for a few properties might also work. It mostly depends on if the beginning AND end of your 3 weeks in England are "site heavy".

Then you could get a separate 7 day pass for the week in London. But w/ the GBHP not covering the Tower and Windsor - the Days Out 2-for-1's could possibly be as good a deal for your general sightseeing.

Probably in the end -- you'll do best w/ either a 15 or 30 day pass just for the 3 weeks after returning from Ireland.

Maudie

Thanks janis, I think you are right, it would either be the 15 or 30 day one. We have seen some of the major sites in London before, this time we want to visit St Pauls and the Tower but the rest of the time we will just be wandering around, enjoying the parks, gardens, taking in a show or two and we might even take a day trip to Paris! So I don't think it is worth validating it in London, we will use the 2-for-1's as you say.

Thanks for your advice, its greatly appreciated.

susan4

To anyone else reading this, The Great British Heritage Pass was discontinued at the end of 2011.

English Heritage pass, Historic Scotland pass, National Trust pass, and Cadw (Wales govt historic properties) are available.