Great day out for families with children over 10 (Monkey Forest (Trentham))

Member Name: Laurenashley86

Product:	Monkey Forest (Trentham)
Date:	20/08/09 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get close to the monkeys, something you would never see in a zoo

Disadvantages: Smaller children get bored

Now I'm a little bit biased with this review because I LOVE monkeys. I totally adore them.

We live in Manchester and it wasn't very far, about a 50 minute drive away to get to. When we got closer to the Forest it was signposted which helped so much because the sat nav didn't take us to the entrance of the Forest. The car park is very close to the entrance which is good compared to some places where you have to trek just to get to the attraction.

When you first go through there are trampolines (strictly for children, I asked for a go and was refused :-( ) and apparently they have now added 2 new playgrounds which look amazing although these were not yet built when I went.

I went on a day trip with my friends little boy who was 3 years old. There's only so many monkeys a 3 year old can look at before he's going to get bored and he did eventually. On the other hand I loved it. Its basically a walk through a forest with beautiful scenery (that in itself is worth a walk around) and Barbary Macaques monkeys are everywhere. There is areas where you are not allowed to enter on the walk which are cornered off by small fences to stop you getting too close to the monkeys (especially the babies in which there was a lot) but the monkeys have free reign of the place so you can be walking along and a monkey will run in front of you, or you will be sat on a bench and a monkey will come and join you. There is also feeding talks every hour which I found really interesting, again my 3 year old companion didn't.

The walk is approximately ¾ of a mile long and it is mainly flat although I would go in comfortable shoes girls, heels would not work at all.

There is a picnic area on site and I strongly suggest that you take advantage of this and bring a picnic along with you. As with many days out the Jungle Café was very expensive and also was attached to the gift shop (in which my purse got abused).

The Monkey Forest is very reasonably priced in my opinion, at £6 for adults and £4.50 for over 3's and under 3's have free entry. There is also a discount for group bookings over 20 people.

I would highly recommend this day out but I would say that children over 10 would appreciate it much more than smaller children.

Summary: A great family day out at a reasonable price