We’ve had National Trust membership for about 5 years now. We think it’s great for families and I’m going to share with you in this post why you’ll love the National Trust for kids. Many of their properties make great UK family days out. Wide-open spaces, family-friendly walks, fantastic play areas and school holiday activities are just some of the reasons.
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Why you’ll love the National trust for kids
Do you love family days out? Family-friendly walks in stunning locations? Do you like to visit new places and also return to old favourites too, that tick all the boxes for family-friendly days out? Are you always looking for ways to make days out more affordable? Then read on as I think you’ll love the National Trust for families. If I’ve already convinced you, scroll to the bottom to join with my link and get a free e-gift card with your membership.
Family-friendly walks
The grounds of National Trust properties are usually really accessible and perfect for prams and little legs. Obviously at many there are longer walks that aren’t always easy to navigate with pushchairs but there is always a map with accessible routes highlighted for you.
During our pushchair walking years, we had many happy days out at National Trust properties. We visited local ones a lot but if we were on holiday we also knew that we were guaranteed to find suitable walks at a National Trust.
Our pushchair days are behind us now but we still love National Trust properties for walks. Find my favourite National Trust walks North West here.
Amazing playgrounds
There’s one thing that ensures a happy family walk in my kid’s eyes and that’s a good play area! There are some amazing play areas at some of the National Trusts we have visited. There are different types of play areas at many National Trust properties. We love Natural play areas like the ones at Dunham Massey where you can build stick dens and balance on logs. My girls also love traditional playgrounds. There is a very large and impressive one at Fountains Abbey which is not to be missed.
We love * Cliveden for its play areas too. There is a huge den and woodland natural play area at one end and a large fairy tale themed play area at the other.
Erddig is another great National Trust for play areas, * find out more here.
Do check before you visit if there is a play area if that is an essential part of your family day out as there are some that don’t have any. We still love some properties without play areas as they often have other great kids activities which I will talk about more below.
Great value family days out
National trust children’s membership is very affordable. Adding kids on to the individual or joint membership costs very little (about £6 a year at the time of writing). A family membership costs as little as £6 a month. Under 5s go free too. Find out more and * buy your membership here.
Unlimited family days out and parking for these kinds of prices is in my opinion is great value. There are over 500 days out to choose from as well as 780 miles of coastline.
Find all the great National Trust North Wales days out here.
Fun National Trust children’s activities
I know how difficult it can be to find things to with the kids in school holidays especially without spending a fortune. Our local National Trusts have always had amazing and free or low-cost activities on every school holidays. Things like craft activities, children’s outdoor theatre or storytelling, welly walks, forest school style sessions and so much more. My kids love them so we usually have at least one National Trust visit a week in the holidays (these sessions didn’t run last summer but hopefully thing will be back to normal soon). One of our favourites is Quarry bank mill. We’ve had so many great summer holiday days out there.
Kid’s walking trails
You can count on the National Trust to put together a great kid’s trail in their gardens. These are fantastic for encouraging little legs to walk and they make a great day out. We have loved many Percy the park keeper walks at * Dunham Massey over the years. Another that stands out in my mind was a lost words outdoor art trail at * Lyme Park.
We love the fairy trail at * Acorn bank.
Save on car parking costs
Members park for free at the majority of National Trust car parks. As well as at the National Trust properties, there are car parks at many UK beaches and countryside locations. You can find a full list of all the National Trust car parks, broken down into counties here.
As you can see, you can easily save a lot of money by becoming National Trust members. We use ours all the time for family walks, local days out, days out on UK holidays, car parking for beach trips, school holiday activities and breaking up long journeys with picnic stops. * Join here.
Perfect stops on long journeys
There are so many great National Trust properties around the country. We love using them to break up long journeys. They are so much better than stopping at a service station. They usually have plenty of space to stretch your legs, let the children run off energy, picnic spots and cafes too. And because entry is free for members, it doesn’t matter if you only stay a short while. You don’t need to feel like you need to see everything in one visit.
One such perfect stop is * Shugborough which is a very short detour from the M6.
New member offers
Have I convinced you to join yet? If so I have two promotional offers for you. I’m sure you’ll have loads of great family walks and days out ahead of you.
* Join here and get a £5 M&S ecard
or
* or join here and choose a £5 e gift card of you choice here.
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