Prices:

Free entry for National Trust members, Art Fund Members and under 5s.

Peak admission

Adult – £21,00
Child – £10,50
Family – £52.50
1 Adult Family – £31.50

Off peak admission

Adult – £19.00
Child – £9.50
Family – £47.50
1 Adult Family – £28.50

Parking

This is free.

Length of time spent here:

We arrived at about 10.20 AM and stayed until 2.30 PM.

My Review

We were babysitting our two grandchildren, Harry (5) and Olivia (3), so we decided to take them to Mottisfont to take a look at the Nutcracker Christmas. This particular ballet has become very familiar to us this year as Olivia’s dance show was based on it and Harry’s school Christmas play was also The Nutcracker, so Harry was fully aware of the story.

We arrived at about 10.20 AM and the first red flag was that we had to queue to park our car. I have a Blue Badge and so we were lucky enough to be able to park just at the entrance, but this was no advantage as the queue to get in snaked around the car park like the queue for a Disney ride! I must admit that when I looked at the website there was a warning that it could be busy, but I didn’t think it would be THAT busy!

So my advice would be to either go later in the day, perhaps Sunday morning wasn’t the best time to arrive or if you can, go during midweek.

Nutcracker Trail

We decided to follow the Nutcracker Trail which had miniature theatre scenes of Clara’s family home and the Land of Sweets. There was a also a chocolate boat that children could play on, a game where you had to throw bean bags at the mice and a Nutcracker puzzle.

Inside the House

After you have paid your entrance fee, then you queue again for some timed tickets into the house. They are for every half an hour and you can go in anytime during that half hour.

This is where the story of The Nutcracker comes to life. The story begins as you enter the house and you can see the German village where Clara lives.

Each room as you walked into it was more magical and more enchanting than the last. There were scenes from The Nutcracker: the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Land of Sweets and a duel between the Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King.

It was very well done and there was lots of attention to detail. Both of my grandchildren were captivated by it: there was ballerinas for Olivia and soldiers and mice for Harry!

Please take a look at the short video….

After looking around the house, which I would say took about half an hour, we went for a walk along the river. Even though there was a few people doing the same, it was still very peaceful and the kids loved seeing the ducks and playing Poo sticks on the bridge.

We did buy some hot chocolates and sausage rolls from the Coach House Café where there was a long queue but it did move quite quickly. It was a bit expensive at £35 but everything was hot and tasty!

This is the third time we’ve visited Mottisfont, it’s not very far from where we live and it’s nice to see it in the different seasons.

We all enjoyed our visit and even though there was a fair amount of queuing it was well organised. I would definitely recommend a visit to this beautiful place!