Travels with our membership

Blogs• December 1, 2023

Journeys with INTO Places

We were delighted to hear from National Trust member Paul, who has taken his membership far and wide!

On a recent holiday to Canada, my partner and I took the opportunity to use our National Trust membership cards at a site run by the National Trust for Canada, the PEI Museum and Heritage Trust.

We visited the splendid Victorian treasure that is Beaconsfield House, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The guide was excellent and we were made to feel very welcome.

We arrived just after the last official tour had set off but the very friendly woman on the desk offered to take us around on our own tour. We had just set off, when 4 people from Alberta arrived, so they joined us on an informative and personal tour, delivered by a really engaged guide.

An historic house withe a veranda and vivid yellow walls

Beaconsfield House, Prince Edward Island

On the stairway were two large china vases which contained peacock tail feathers. I asked them if they knew about the English tradition at that time, of not having peacock feathers in the house because they were supposed to be bad luck.

According to the story, peacocks were guarding the entrance to Paradise, the gates to Eden, but because they were showing off their tail feathers and strutting about, they didn’t see the devil sneaking in and we all know what happened next!

A large cast iron kitchen range with pots and pans arranged on the surface

The rather splendid kitchen range in Beaconsfield House, all singing and dancing and the best money could buy at the time apparently! My partner is an ex-chef so kitchenalia is always of interest.

Visiting Malta

We’ve used our cards in Malta too and found that with a bit of forward planning, taking our cards has added to our holiday enjoyment. We visited two sites run by Din L’Art Helwa at Wignacourt Tower, St Paul’s Bay and Sainte Agatha’s Tower (the Red Tower) at Mellieha. The volunteers were really friendly.

3 images of historic towers in Malta. 2 have vivid red brick and the other is pale stone.

The Red Tower and Wignacourt Tower, Malta

Not to mention we also visited Jersey to see the watermill, Le Moulin de Quétivel. We were welcomed with free entry with our National Trust membership cards.

Experience international heritage

It’s been such a pleasure to travel and have these experiences with international heritage. All thanks to so many heritage trusts in the world being part of INTO Places reciprocal visiting. We are packing our membership cards everywhere we go!