The National Trust Touring Pass is one of the UK’s best prepaid pass money savers. Allows free entry to all National Trust protected properties. They are more than 300 buildings and gardens, 612,000 acres of country and 600 miles of extraordinarily beautiful coastline.
The Trust, a membership and charity organization, has been running it all for over 100 years. It’s non-profit, but the entrance fees, which help protect and maintain its special places, can seem a bit steep. Buy one of their prepaid tour passes and you can save on a package, recouping the cost of the pass by visiting just a few attractions.
What can you visit with this pass?
1. For openers, the pass gives you unlimited access to some of the best manor houses in the UK, including:
- Petworth can see paintings by Turner, Van Dyke, Reynolds and Blake, as well as a room carved with panels by wood carver Grinling Gibbons.
- Knole’s writer Vita Sackville-West was born here and her friend Virginia Woolf is said to have based her novel Orlando on the history of the Sackvilles in this house. And the 1,000-acre medieval deer park has some of the sweetest, almost domesticated deer you’ve ever seen.
- Waddesdon Manor – Built by Ferdinand de Rothschild to display his art collection and entertain his friends. And it’s a short drive from London. Every Christmas they put on a show of lights, music and decorations outside, inside and out, which is worth marking your calendar.
- Lyme Park Remember when Lizzie Bennet first saw Mr. Darcy’s house, Pemberly, in Pride and Prejudice? In the movie with Colin Firth, it was Lyme Park who actually passed out. The Library was completely renovated to display the Sarum Missal, printed by William Caxton in Paris in 1487, considered the most important book in the National Trust collection.
- Hardwick Hall – Built by the very married Elizabethan, Bess of Hardwick. The 16th century “It” girl was actually a competitor to Queen Elizabeth I in celebrity gambling. Luckily she kept her head. Hardwick Hall has so much glass that it looks like a lantern on a hill when it’s all lit up. The rhyme about it at the time was “Hardwick Hall, more window than wall.”
2. Below, you can see some of the most spectacular gardens in England. The National Trust has acres and acres of substantial gardens in its care. You can visit them all with the pass, including:
- Hidcote Manor Garden – An Arts & Crafts masterpiece developed by an eccentric American who scoured the world in search of exotic plants and created a very pretty garden.
- Sissinghurst Castle Garden, created in the 1920s, is one of the most visited and romantic gardens in England. Its White Garden is world famous. The garden was designed by Vita Sackville West, who, in addition to being a member of the Bloomsbury Ensemble, was a lover of Virginia Woolf.
- Stowe Landscape Gardens A visitor attraction since the 18th century, Stow covers 750 acres and boasts 40 historic monuments on its grounds. Between 1741 and 1751, the famous Lancelot “Capability” Brown, was the head gardener.
- Fountain Abbey and Royal Water Garden A 900-year-old abbey and striking garden that was the work of an eccentric Englishman, this is Yorkshire’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Nymans Garden Three generations of the Messel family created this garden, including Oliver Messel, a theatrical designer and rival of Cecil Beaton. The garden is suitably theatrical.
- Trelissick Garden – A striking subtropical Cornish garden with spectacular views of the Fal Estuary, plants you would never expect to see in England, plus an art gallery and fabulous Spode collection.
How to buy the National Trust Touring Pass
The pass is available for seven or 14 days, for:
- An adult
- Two adults traveling together
- Families, including two adults (parents or grandparents) and all children between the ages of 5 and 18. Children under 5 years old are free.
The pass must be purchased in advance online. Cannot be purchased from National Trust properties.
Buy online, priced in British pounds from The National Trust or priced in US dollars from Visit Britain Direct.
