Description: I hadn’t been to Beaulieu for about 25 years but when thinking of somewhere to take my teenage son for a day out over Easter the National Motor Museum seemed like a good idea. He is a bit of a Petrol-head and loves Top Gear so I knew that it would be the type of place he would enjoy.
The prices seemed to have increased a fair bit since I last looked at going with adult tickets being £19 and youth tickets (13-17) being £11.25. There was a discount for pre-ordering e-tickets so in the end I paid £17.10 for the adults and £10.10 for my son. There was also a family ticket which would cover 2 adults and up to 3 children for about the same total price which seemed good value. The ticket must be bought at least the day before visiting but you do not have to specify a date so it is definitely worth paying in advance and printing your ticket off. I was amazed how many people paid full-price on the day.
Like most places it asked me to do Gift Aid. I was happy to do this but what I didn’t realise until I got to the entrance was that my ticket would get us another days entry within the next 6 days to the whole site and my Gift aid signature gave us free entry to the National Motor Museum for a whole year so it was definitely worth doing. (The free entry doesn’t apply on Event days)
We were given a map of the venue, 50p vouchers off the Top Gear simulator and our Gift Aid pass and then we could enter.
There is a Monorail that has a circular route above the grounds. You can board near the World of Top Gear and do the full circuit or you can alight near the Palace to save having to walk across the site. The Monorail is not accessible to anyone in a wheelchair as there are a large number of steps to the entrance and no lift available. The Monorail carriages themselves have very low ceilings and even though I am only just over 5ft tall I still found them a little awkward to get in to. The windows are open so it was a rather chilly experience on the windy day we visited but it did provide lovely views over the kitchen hardens and was a nice experience.
There is also a bus that runs a circuit around the site as well. It is a recreation of a 1920s London bus which was made for the film The 39 Steps. It is open-top and there seemed to be great demand to sit on the top deck but since it was a chilly day I was quite happy to sit downstairs which was warmer. The steps are steep and a bit slippery so children had to be accompanied by an adult.
Both the bus and the monorail and included in the price of your entrance ticket and you can use them as often as you like but you do have to get off at the main stop and join the queue if you want to travel on them again.
In the centre of the site there was a large concrete area which normally houses Go-karts but these were not available when we visited which surprised me as it was during a school holiday. I know that these do cost extra but my son was looking forward to trying them.
Near the centre of the site is a rather ugly concrete restaurant with both inside and outside seating. This appeared surprisingly light and spacious when I walked through although we didn’t eat there so I can’t comment on the quality or price of the food on offer. The toilets were also in this area and they were very clean and well-maintained.
A visit to Beaulieu seems to cover a great variety of different interests. I found it an enjoyable visit but we probably only spent about 4 hours at the site. The cold weather didn’t really help as we got cold going from one part to another. This would be a much better place to visit in the warmer weather as the site seemed to have lots of attractive grounds and there was a walk to the Millpond that is opened during the summer months as well. It is certainly worth buying the tickets in advance and we may well visit again to take advantage of the free entry. Although the entry states it is only in to the National Motor Museum we will be able to access the whole site except for the house so it would be worth the trip.
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