They're just big pussy cats really. (Longleat Safari Park)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Longleat Safari Park
Date:	18/02/05 (2460 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: animals, conservation work

Disadvantages: driving through Bath to get there

My children don’t spend hours in front of the television during the school holidays but one programme they rarely miss is Animal Park as they love watching all the animals of Longleat safari park. So when Granny offered to take us for the day over half term, no one was about to say no!

Longleat is dead easy to find, provided you look at a map first but take the A36 out of Bath heading towards Warminster and you soon pick up the signs. The first time I tried to go with my husband I tried to remember the way from when I was a kid, it’s a long story but suffice it to say we ended up in Stonehenge – also worthy of a day out, but that is somewhat irrelevant.

Now living only an hour away, I have visited the park on a number of occasions, the first being way back in the 70’s with the school and I can honestly say that yesterday was by far the best, for a number of reasons, the main one being that as it is February it is fairly cold so for the first time I actually saw the lions move more than just a twitch of a tail whilst lazing in the summer heat. More of that later but the second reason, again stems from it being February, it was very quiet and we didn’t have to jostle for space to see the animals, or queue in the shops or for anything it made for a very relaxed day.

So what is there to do at Longleat?

Safari Park
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Every time I have been to Longleat, we have always visited the park first, however, they do recommend that during busy times it is probably better to go in the afternoon, because everyone goes first! Naturally to go around the Safari park you do need a car, that doesn’t have a soft top but this is not a problem if you are a pedestrian or soft top owner, there is a bus that leaves from Pets Corner at a surcharge of £4 per person. It used to be available to everyone, but is now limited to these groups only. Pets are not allowed in, but they do offer free kennels for any dogs that you may have with you.

One additional service that Longleat now offers to Safari park customers is a free CD or tape giving a commentary on the way around which you can either keep, or give them back so they can be reused.

The first stop is the Wallaby walk, gorgeous little things that the kids adored which is then followed up by the East African Reserve, this was wonderful, they have quite a few young giraffes in here at the moment and they are truly beautiful. They also have zebras, camels, ostriches, there is also a picnic area overlooking this reserve, what better way to spend lunch!

You leave the reserve through Flamingo Valley, which also has breeding Pelicans and then follow it through to the monkey enclosure. Now these monkeys are infamous, on my first trip with the school the coach wouldn’t drive through as insurance companies had stopped paying out and the week before they caused £150 (a lot of money in the 70s) worth of damage. They are however, undeniably cute so we did go through, and you do have the option of bypassing this section. As we entered there was a rather ominous rubber sealant of a car window on the road and one of them was playing with a windscreen wiper. The key seems to be to keep moving, not easy when the cars in front of you don’t needless to say I do have monkey paw prints on my car this morning, but my car is in tact. There are also loads of baby monkeys around at the moment, so cute but very cheeky.

The next park is another spectacular one, the Big Game park. Dromedary camels and the amazing beautiful, but seriously endangered White Rhinos, and they do have a very successful breeding programme with them. This is followed by a deer park, which was sadly closed but we did see them in a field on the way in.

Up until this point with the exception of the monkey enclosure you have been allowed to keep your windows open (sun roofs strictly closed though) but now, everything must be firmly closed as you enter the main attraction, the big cat section. The first cats are the tigers, including the most gorgeous white tiger. Close by the cats in each of the enclosures there were wardens sitting in their jeeps, just in case. I’m not sure this was related to an incident with a friend of mine when he visited, but the tiger took a chunk out of his bumper (Longleat paid up with no question, but the garage were a little surprised when he explained what happened) They were pretty dopey looking on the day of our visit, just lying down having a rest.

My absolute favourite of all though has to be the lions, as I said earlier visiting when it was cooler meant they were more active. A couple were having a small spat which was incredible to see. They then walked right up to the cars. I have never been so close to a lion and you could see the power in every muscle and I know exactly the feeling described by CS Lewis in the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe when Lucy and Susan buried their hands into Aslans mane, it looked amazing.

The final visit of the safari park is wolf wood, beautiful, but I was still thinking about the lions.

Longleat House
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Longleat house is owned by the Marquess of Bath, a rather flamboyant character, and going around the house you can certainly see his influence in some of the modern art. They also have a display of his murals available. The house is very beautiful inside, they also let me play the piano, a grand Bechstein. They weren’t very happy when I said it needed tuning though, but to play in those surroundings was a fantastic experience.

Safari Boat
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The lake safari has always been one of my favourite sections the sea lions follow the boat and you get to feed them whilst watching the gorillas on gorilla island and the hippos. Talk about spoiling your pets, not that gorillas are your average pet! But they have always had sky tv, they have now been upgraded to sky +. Apparently gorillas see in full colour like us and their favourite programmes are Scooby Doo and the Tweenies!

Pets Corner
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The next obvious place to visit is the pets corner, where there are all the smaller animals, always a bit of an anti climax after the safari park, but they have parrots, reptiles, more monkeys and the kids absolutely loved it.

Mirror Maze
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This is a bizarre maze which always reminds me of that scene in ‘enter the dragon’ the kids love it and I took some great photos.

Postman Pats Village
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So they decide to close down the Dr Who exhibit but still keep this open, some decisions are best left unquestioned, but we didn’t go in.

Maze
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I remember watching them planting this yew maze on Blue Peter in the 70s and the first time we visited you could step over the little hedges, not so now, it is huge and I believe one of the biggest in the country. It was closed yesterday as they are putting a large bridge from the centre out. I think they may have made it a little too hard.

Dolls House Exhibition.
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Great if you like dolls houses!

Butterfly House
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Not a lot to say about this, it has butterflies in!

The great thing about the passport ticket is any bits you don’t use you can go back and use another day. Great if you are staying a Centerparcs next door.

Where to Eat!
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I honestly thing the best place to eat in any place like this is at a picnic table, but they do have a couple of restaurants offering the usual tourist option of burgers, pizzas and jacket spuds

How much does it cost?
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As with any paid for entertainment, it can work out expensive, there are plenty of attractions at Longleat, each with a separate entrance fee but they do offer a multi activity passport which gives entry to all of them, current prices are £18 for adults, £14 for children and senior citizens (which my mum seemed delighted to qualify for at last) However, any Tesco shoppers amongst you may be interested to know the clubcard deals, include Longleat – so the whole day, for the 4 of us cost £15. To check out the up to date prices and opening times try the website www.longleat.co.uk.

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