Longleat Safari and Adventure Park  is a great place to take children of all ages. For me this is one of the few animal attractions where you can get REALLY close to the animals almost all of the time.

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Great for:

• Getting close to the animals
• All ages
• Most weather conditions

Tip:

• Take some £1 coins, to take advantage of animal feeding opportunities.

We decided to take advantage of a sunny (but slightly chilly) Tuesday to head off to Longleat Safari & Adventure Park. I had heard that there were a couple of newish additions to the park; Stingray Bay  and Walk with Penguins, that we hadn’t seen on a previous visit about a year and a half ago, so wanted to check them out.

There are also many many opportunities to touch, stand next to or feed the animals. The Park is split into two sections. The Adventure Park and The Safari Park (the bit you drive around!).

I visited with a 2 and 3 year old and we started the day in the Jungle Kingdom area where we saw all sorts of animals including Meerkats, porcupines and a huge ant eater- although I’m not sure I’ve ever see one before so it could have been the usual size!!

We then went on the amazing jungle cruise open sided boat trip, which lasts about 15 minutes. This give you a great view of Gorilla Island, the hippo mud baths and a Gorilla Colony. What you see depends on the weather because on cooler days or earlier in the day the animals stay in bed! However you are guaranteed to see the sealions! They follow the host from the middle of the lake , calling and splashing their fins in hope you will feed them some fish.  The cruise is free but if you want to actually feed the sealions (which is well worth it)  you have to pay £1 per pot of 3 or 4 fish.

Another favourite area for us was the bird enclosure where you feed the parakeets, nectar (again £1 per pot). Watch out though they actually land on you!! The 3 year old was very interested and handled this well, even when she had a bird on her hand and shoulder. I didn’t buy a pot for the 2 year old and he was happy walking through and watching.

The Walk with Penguins area is fab and the penguins are so cute….and remarkably well behaved. There is an outside section where you can actually walk through a small area of the enclosure to watch the penguins and get REALLY close. Inside there are amazing glass sided tank areas and rocks , again you get very close to them so it grabs the children’s interest immediately. At the end of the indoor enclosure is stingray bay, again you get very close and the rays are friendly and come up to say hello!

The animal adventure area gives children a chance to handle and stroke animals and reptiles. There are different animals/ reptiles to pet depending on the day. Today it was a snake, in the past they have held  a tarantula and stroked an armadillo. There is also a magical butterfly area where butterflies fly free around you in a tropical atmosphere. This area is nice and warm if you need to defrost on a cooler day!

Near animal handling areas you will always find a place for hand washing with soap and paper towels which was really useful.

We had lunch in the tropical storm cafe, which is a canteen style self service restaurant serving simple but wholesome food such as lasagne, sausage and chips, fish and chips, jacket potatoes and burgers. A child’s meal (we had sausage and chips) costs £5.25 and an adults is only slightly more. The portions were generous!  I noticed there is a microwave to use which is useful for heating baby food.

There are other options such as ‘Costa Coffee’,  ‘Pizza Piazza’ and cakes are served in the truly BEAUTIFUL Orangery. There are lots of benches so you could always take a picnic.

After lunch we headed for the Safari Park. On entry you are given a CD which talks you through the animals you see. It takes about 45mins-1hr but I think it could take longer during busy periods.  There are a few places where you can stop and get out to get a closer view of the animals, however mainly this is an ‘in car’ safari where you drive through the enclosures and the animals wander around (or in front!) of you, whilst your little ones press their noses to the glass in awe!

You could easily spend a couple of days at this attraction as there is so much to do and we didn’t get everything done; other activities include the ‘Jungle Express’ train ride, the Adventure Castle play area, the hedge maze and deer walk to name but a few!

A great day we will definitely visit again!

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