| Product: |
Longleat Safari Park |
| Date: |
25/02/08 (634 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Clean, safari park and boat, spacious areas, passport tickey
Disadvantages: Old Joe's Mine
Okay then.
I am going to tell you about a place called Longleat.
Now have any of you ever watched a programme called 'Animal Park' where you get to meet the keepers and go behind the scenes. The one with Kate Humble and Ben Fogle? You seen it? Now I bet you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed it then come along here to the Safari Pakr-you'll enjoy it even more...
What do you mean what's there? You mean you want me to tell you about the Safari Park? And the other attractions? And what's good and bad? Well that is what's Dooyoo's for so here goes nothing.....
Introduction
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Now I am going to say something IMPORTANT Now.
That is...Longleat is the best animal attraction I have ever visited(although Tycross is probably joint). And Iv'e been to over 20. That is some recommendation. And that is against paces like Chester Zoo.
Anyway, a quick bit of hsitory. Lord Bath had already opened his home up to visitors to make money but now he wanted to get some lions. Not in bars or cages but in a big open space. And people would drive through it and pay tosee the lions. It was the first Safari Park outside Africa.
Of course many people hated the idea-the fence will not be strong enough for the lions and MP's called it 'lunatic'. Which I suppose it was for the time. Now the fences must have been high enough becuase it opened and thousands flocked to see it-at a pound a time getting Lord Bath quite a bit of income. Now after the very first lion cubs to be born ' free' in the Uk Lord Bath decided he needed some ore attractions.
So a couple of years after the opening (it opened in 1966) giraffes, zebras and hippos. The safari gradually grew bigger and bigger...
Many more attractions followed -pets corner, safari botas, in 1975, the railway, the hedge, the butterfly garden in 1986, Postman Pat in 1991, the Blue Peter Maze and its most recent addition-Old Joe's Mine in 2004..
So as you can see there's quite a bit to do. buT what is actually in those attractions ? Read on to find out....
Safari park
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The safari park is undoubtedly the most populaur attraction at Longleat. It is actually quite a good drive (10 to 15 minutes) from the car park through a very nice woodland. Don't worry about getting lost-its well signed. As it was a baking hot day crowds had flocked and there was a big queue. Thankfully, the staff at Longleat made it so we only had to wait about 10 minutes which isn't too bad.
Driving through the woodland your journey begins.
The very first thing you do is park your car. And get out of it. Now don't worry you won't get stomped on by an elephant(they don't have any anyway so it'd be difficult) or mauled by a lion this is a seperate area. You don't have to stop here-you can go pass but its worth it. The main attraction here is the Trading Post (more about that) and the paddocks next to it. The first one is home to the pygmy goats-you know the ones that eat your clothes. here they won't eat your clothes-they'll be too busy playing their paddock or should I call it'adventure playground'. Opposite them are two tortoises-one of which was sleeping the other well err..sleeping. One poor girl had to clean up the poo-yuck.
There is also a wallaby walkthrough. As the name suggests you get into (the very spacious I might add) paddock home to the wallabies who are very cute and adorable. A member of staff is on hand and we were lucky enough to see a (tiny) Joey in its mother's pouch...cute.
The other attraction are the tapir a short walk down(who also had a baby-there were lots) and the viewing point which has plenty of information and superb views over the East Africa reserve-the Giarffe haynet is right next to it so good views of them.
Get in your car and go in the East African reserve-the giraffes are the tallest and biggest animals-theyv'e got big tongues(and necks) and are very spotty. We also saw a baby giraff-eit still was taller than are car! Another animal are the zebra-stripoey and gorgeous we got some superb views of one right by the road with foal happily muching away. None of the animals are bothered by cars which is goo and let's them get on with natural behaviour.
Also in here are the llamas and ostriches-where there were some rather fluffy chicks. The reserve is huge-it covers 60 acres so theres planty of space for th animals.
Next up is Falmingo Valley which is inside the woodland. As the name suggests is home to a very beautiful and pink flock of flamingoes as well as the simply stuning sacred ibis, spoonbills and the very cute Whistling Ducks. They have a nice big pool.
There are more birds next. Vultures. Apparently a flock of vultures i called a 'venue' so that's what the aviaries called-clever,eh? I feels sorry for the vultures-there bald but there not ugly. They have a trauly massive aviary but were mostly perched at the back-although one or two inquisitive ones did come closer.
Now we bypassed monkey jungle(new car) bu we could see it clearly from the viewing point( with binocs I must add!) and the monkeys which are called Rhesus monkeys were using cars as lavatories or were tearing off windscreen wipers and aerials. It was funny to watch (but not if you are the driver) and the monkeys have plenty of room and trees to climb up. They also share it with the massive Water Buffalo and the very shy Blackbuck( who often hide in an old air raid shelter).
Bypassing the jungle is easy-you just turn right before it then you enter the Big Game park. Its 35 acres in size and the road is long and windy with some loevly views of the surrounding countryside) . Now in here the main animal is the rhino. Now you can get really close to these chaps-which is quite scary they are huge, stocky and have a massive horn0who knows what damage it could do to you(or to some people there car). Thankfully they were happily munching away. Also in here are oryxes-an antelope with truly magnificent horns-thye are very long. Unfortunately these guys are extinct in the wild as are the Pere Davids Deer(also in thsi area) who were both sunning themselves. The ankole cttle could just be seen but the camels had probably gone to bed.
The deer park is next. Longleat has had deer since the 16th century but in 1987 (i think-the hurricane year) they blew down however know they are in this 'park.' This is the only area where you can feed the animals (by buying a bage of food which we didn't do) so lots of fallow deer and bambis came up to our window. The other deer are the more stunning and wilder red deer-they were at the other end. During rutting season this area is closed. I have seen these two species in the wild neumerous times so we didnn't spend too long herebut it is a nice experience for people who haven't.
Now you enter Tiger territory. This is basically a very large and spacious wooded area complete with pool and platfrom. No when we went(abit ago now) there was only one tiger-one had died a bit ago and the white one had died a week before but now there are some tigers here. They are truly magnificent creatures-big, strong, wonderful markings, orange(my favourite colour) and oddly cute although I am not sure whethere I would want to cuddle them...
Now comes my favourite bit-lions. These are African Lions-a species I had never seen before but to be quite honest there isn't really much difference. There are two prides here kepet separately. The first lot are in a very nice wooded area. Now apparently this area is covered in beautiful bluebells-it must be quite a sight to see alion in blubells. This lot were quite difficult to spotin the trees which we did catch a glimpse.
The second lot were in a slighlty bigger area-which was basically a big area of grassland presumably trying to recreate the Savannha. There's a big log at the end too-which is where mum and dad could be found snoozing in the sunshine. I call the mum and dad becuse in the tree were two very small and very cute lion cubs. A big aahhhh.....moment.
The final area is wolf wood-which is home to wolves. Canadian timber wolves to be precise. Now I hate people who think wolves are bloodthirsty killer-sthey are intelligent and wondeful beasts. As you may have guessed they are in a wood-avery big wood and there lots of dens dug under trees. And added bonus was some amazinlgy cute wolf cubs-they were so tiny and fluffy! Unfotunatley they were a bit dosy too and kept on wlaking out in fron of cars. Oooppss...
Well that's it for the Safari Park. Now for the other attractions. But first some rules in the safari park.....
Safari vans are posutioned in each reserve so keepers can watch what people are doing, check animals etc.etc.
Windows are allowed to be open in all reserves apart from the monkeys, tigers, lions and wolves which was a good thing as it was baking hot.
The only toilets are at the trading post.
Motorbikes, viny sunroom and soft topped are not allowed in for fairly obvious reasons.
You can slo take a V.I.P tour-in which you go in a 4x4 safari van and get to have much better views of the animals as well as a guided tour. You alos get a free guide book and passport ticket.
The other people at the guest house said it was excellent but it is £78pp.You also get a fast track ticket,
Now , do you like animals? You do? Well there's plety to keep you entertained.....
Pet's Corner
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As the name suggests this is an area for young ones. But dnt' expect it to be home to cuddly animals-there's some rarer animals here too.
Its just next to the car park-good for little legs. After going in undernath a superb mural you will notice a few of the usual supects in a pets corner-rabbits and guinea pigs0cuddly and cute they are a hit with kids.
There's the cuddly but not quite so familair-a rat which are cuteand the feerrets. Now ferrets are absolutely gorgeous and mischevious . Here they have a big barn area complete with tunnels-. Some were playing others were snuggled up together. ferrets do pong.
Then there's the completely unfamilair. Tortoises -happily muching away at their greens( at least somebody will eat them) and there's also a tortoise who has no bakc legs which have been replaed by wheels-has to be seen to be eblieved! There's also marmosets here-a sort of tiny monkey and they had a reasonable area which was well planted and they were enjoying themseleves. The otters were here-squeaking away in their pool with underwater viewing. There's even a reptile house!
There are a few shows here-otters ( missed it) , a 'meet the animals'(which had a spider so I quickly avoided it) and a parrot show.
In this the parrot does many tricks i.e pushing a shopping trolley. Suprisinly it was very educational and the parrot enjoyed doing it. If parrots become bored they pluck feathers which they don't want to happen. There were plenty of seats and the parrot got a treat-excellent show don't miss!
Pet's Corner is okay and its worth going in fro the parrot show. It takes about 30 minutes to get around ( the safari pakr takes 2 hours) .
Old Joe's Mine
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Dissapointing.
The overall aim of this is to find out what eactly has happened to Joe and his gold. Along the way kids must find numbers which make a ode. Its very easy. Along the way there is a selection of creepy crawlies-spiders and scorpions and cockroaches which were scuttling all over their jam jars. The bat area is okay-just don't expect Chester Zoo its a lot smaller and is home to a differnt but bigger species of bat-the Egyptian Fruit Bat. Coming out you put in the code and the treasure chest opens up to reveal some gold -its a nice anamatronic.
Overall then Old Joe's Mine is a bit dissapointing rwally-if you have the passport ticket its worth going in but if you don't it isn't really.
Safari boats
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Now this was my second favourite attraction behin the safari park-which mean its got the longest queue. we went in the morning and the queue was 45 MINUTES long which is a heck of a long time.
However, I hereby salute whoever put the meerkets here-hwen Junior is moaning these critters will take his mind of it-theyv'e got a very nice enclosure -complete with waterfall and tunnels and we even saw the absolutely tiny meerkat baies-unbeliveably cute-I knwo you all love meerkats so your heart will leap when you see these guys.
Anyway eventually we got on the boat-its a nice boat , comfortable and fast-ish. Its guided and the tour was both informative and interesting. The lake is massive-and is home to the playful sealions who jump up and down just next to your boat-offering superb views. You can buy a cup of food for 50p then throw the fish to the sealioms-they alway s catch it!
Another resident in the lake (called Half Mile Lake) are the hippos which are truly ginormous -we could only see their heads as they slept-but when one yawned it had massive teeth! Hippos kill lots of humans but these guys just slept.
The final attraction are the gorillas-the very first ones I saw-they truly are amazing-the male was huge and they had very good sized area complete with climbing frame and were certainly not bored. When you get here the boats quitens down so as not to disturb the gorillas. Apparently they like watching cartoons! On the way out was a box for donations towards a gorilla appela.
Although the queues are long and it is only 10 to 15 minutes long it is certailny well worth it!
Butterfly garden
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This is the final animal attraction. Its basically a huge glasshouse next doodr to postman Pat. Its quite big but not huge and once you get inside the heat hits you. Its designed as a rainforest-lush and beautiful flowers , pond full of koi carp, lovely bridge across, free flying butterflies-the owl butterlf ywhich is truly massive, the zebra butterlfy and a whole range of butterflies in all shpes and sizes-some apttersn are beyong your wildest dreams! It is also amazing when a butterfyl lands on you. It takes about 15 minutes to get around and this is the best butterfly house I have been in -the only complaint I have is the tacky gift shop.
So you prefer achitecture, fun-youv'e seen the animals now what is there? Plenty more...
Longleat House
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The house is probably the second most populaur attraction here. Outside it is a truly magnificent building-a stunning piece of architecture. Although many people complain only 1/8 th of the house is open there are still plenty of rooms to explore...
Great Hall-The first room and easily the most spectacaculaur.
Lower Dining Room-Nice but it feels a bit plain
The Red Library-This full of wondeful bookcases full of books. There's also furniture which is you guessed it-red
The State Dining Room-A truly stunning room, very ornate, looks wonderful.
The Saloon-Very nice, lovely carpets and tapestries-amazing fireplace.
The State Drawing Room-Very ornate and beautiful like the other state rooms. Has a lot of paintings but I am not that interested in them, to be honest.
The Drees Corridor-Thsi corridor has a large selection of ornate and very beautiful dresses on display-I bet my Mum wanted some!
The Grand Staircase- A very orante and pretty spectaculaur staircase....
Now one thing you must see are Lord Bath;s Murals. You have to tour these and you have to book them in the Great Hall. They last an hour -its well wroth it. For us nosey people you get to see where the Lord lives-its quite nice but nothing special. For art lovers you get to see th murals-which are truly amazing and very beautiful-there weird but I think in a good way.The Day Time Mural is particualary impressive. The tours are fascianting and you egt time to look at them on your own.
The House takes about 45 minutes too look around-each room had a very helpful and informative guide which was good. You can have guided tours but in the Summer holidays they are only on the ground floor.
Grounds and gardens
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The grounds and gadesn are lovely. The parkland is truly huge -spacious green with plenty of wlaks and as well as that truly stunning views over the house, safair park and lake.
The gadrens are fairly small but are very beuatiful. The flowers were well planted and a lot of care is obviouslt taken into these gardens. Thye aren;t huge but they are spectaculalur. You could spend hours in the gorunds and about half an hour in the bgardens.
There are small, child sized and fairly simple mazes which are all in different shapes. They were quite good fun. Talking about mazes....
Hedge Maze
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This is huge. Its made up of over a MASSIVE 16,000 yews , covers one and a half acres and its pathways are 1.7 miles long. As we went alon each pathway about five or six times its perfect to tire little legs out (and old ones). Its is very diifcult-the main aim is to get to the tower in the middle. It looks dead easy at the start-but let me teall you it is amazinlgy difficult. There are planety of wooden bridges which are good as you can see tghe tower and work out the way-easier said than done. After getting to the cntre a huge sense of pride is in you as youy climb up the tower and are treated with aboslutely superb views over the maze and the surrounding area. It suddenly dawns on you how easy it really is...NOt
To do the whole maze I would say 45 minutes and if with little ones and hour.
There is no wheelchair or pushcahir access to this attraction.
The Railway
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I am a railway nut so of course I enjoyed this. Its a 15 inch minature railway and its truly delightful. The station (alos scaled down) is a a fiathful replica of a 1950's station. The railway is about one and a quarter miles long. It starts off by going on a enbankmnt over looing a marshy area home to some sculptures before going through a tunnel before going along Half Mile Lake -superb views of the pelicans and gorillas and of the grounds.
Its a lovely little line and I enjoyed it-kids will love it.
It takes about 10 minutes to get around.
Adventure castle
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The one for the kids-this is basically a huge play area. I don't like paying for this but as it was included in the passport I went and I probabaly would play-ot is superb.
The very first thing is a Blue Peter maze which was designed by a viewer. It is glas panels and is fairly easy but is nice for kids.
There are different areas for different age groups.
The main structure is a castle in the middle which contains a few climbing nets and slides . There are a number of towers/ turrets around and you get to cross a rickety bridge-its pretty scary. There's also a really big slide. Adults are allowed to join in too or they can sit down in the benches. For little ones is the soft play tent-designed for ages 18 months to 5 years its got a ball pool as well as small climbing facilities and looms good.
There's also a place where you can get sprayed with water -bring a towel. There's alos a spiders web-a huge climbing frame for older kids-looks fun!
The castle is a superb play area and is great for kids. Allow at leat an hour for it.
Postman Pat
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Postman Pat Village, Greendale, is one of our most popular attractions for younger visitors.
Within this fantastic feature you can visit Pat, his loveable companion, Jess the Cat, Mrs Goggins, Reverend Timms and all of your other favourite Postman Pat characters.
Over 20 years on, and with a BRAND NEW series, Postman Pat remains a firm favourite in the heart of youngsters from around the world. He can boast coverage in over 60 countries worldwide, from the UK all the way round the world to Australia
This was taken of the webiste as I have never been in ti but it looks nice for little ones.
It is closed till Summer 2008
Simulators
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these were great but since I went they have both chnaged shows so I can't really comment. When I went there was a racing car one and one where you go on an expedition in a jungle to fing gorillas-I went on both and they were both excellent-the gorillas one bing narrowly better.
They are 10 minutes logn and your passprt ticket allows you for one ride on ONE.
Tea Cupr Rides
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Don't remember them but are nice for little ones.
Don't fancy splashing the cash? There's plenty of free attractions too...
My favourite was the Kinga Arthut Mirror Maze. As you may have guessed its a maze made of mirrors. You can see reflection. You will see many mythical things including Excalibur. Can you find the grail. Look closely it is hard to spot...
There is an exhibition on lord Bath which I skipped.
The Family Bygones exhibition is quite nice and has some nice displays.
The Mythcical garden was good-the topiary being excellent it was a nice place to go for a quite stroll. look out for the dragon that's squirts water though...
There is also an excellent model of the House and a Chariot.
Well that's it-here are some basics for visting....
Prices
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Paspport ticket
Adult £20.00
Child £16.00
This is superb value -you svae £20. In case you only want to go to some attractions here are the prices for those.
Attraction Adult Child
(3-14yrs)
Senior Citizen
(60yrs+)
Safari Park £11.00 £8.00 £8.00
Longleat House & Grounds £10.00 £6.00 £6.00
Grounds & Gardens £3.00 £2.00 £2.00
Adventure Castle * N/A £3.00 N/A
Butterfly Garden £2.00 £2.00 £2.00
Old Joe's Mine £2.00 £2.00 £2.00
Longleat Railway £3.00 £3.00 £3.00
Motion Simulator ** £2.00 £2.00 £2.00
Pets Corner £3.00 £3.00 £3.00
Postman Pat Village * N/A £2.00 N/A
Safari Boats £3.00 £3.00 £3.00
Tea Cup Ride ** N/A £1.00 N/A
Longleat Hedge Maze £3.00 £3.00 £3.00
Summer Show (26th July to 31st August 2008 only) FREE FREE FREE
*-Access to children under 14 only
**- Minmum heigh for simulator 1.2m. Max height for tea cup ride 1.2m
Longleat accepts credit cards wich is a good thing.
Opening times
------------------
Longleat House:
Open daily from 1 January to 31 December 2008 (excluding Christmas Day).
Opening times as below. At all other times, Longleat House open 11am to 3pm with tours on the hour every hour (Monday to Friday) and every half hour (Saturday and Sunday)
Safari Park and All Attractions:
Saturday 16 to Sunday 24 February 2008 inclusive
Safari Park:
10am to 2.30pm
Longleat House:
10am to 4.30pm
Pets Corner & Safari Boats:
10.30am to 3.30pm
All other Attractions:
10.30am to 4.30pm
------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------
Saturday 1 / Sunday 2 March plus Saturday 8 / Sunday 9 March 2008
Safari Park:
10am to 3pm
Longleat House:
10am to 4.30pm
All other Attractions:
10.30am to 4.30pm
------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------
Saturday 15 March to Saturday 29 March 2008
Safari Park:
10am to 3.30pm (10am to 4pm on weekends, Bank Holidays and during state school holidays)
Longleat House:
10am to 5pm
All other Attractions:
11am to 5pm(10.30am to 5pm on weekends, Bank Holidays and during state school holidays)
------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------
Sunday 30 March to Sunday 2 November 2008 inclusive
Safari Park:
10am to 4pm (5pm on weekends, Bank Holidays and during state school holidays)
Longleat House:
10am to 5pm (5.30pm on weekends, Bank Holidays and during state school holidays)
All other Attractions:
11am to 5pm (10.30am to 5.30pm on weekends, Bank Holidays and during state school holidays)
Where is it?
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Directions by Car
Click to enlarge and print
Longleat is just off the A36 between Bath and Salisbury (A362 Warminster - Frome road)
From the South East: M3 (J8) - A303 - A36 towards Bath - Longleat is just off the A362 between Warminster and Frome
From the South West: A303 in a London direction - A350 towards Warminster - A36 towards Bath - Longleat is just off the A362 between Warminster and Frome
From the North: M4 (J18) - A46 towards Bath - A36 towards Salisbury - Longleat is just off the A362 between Warminster and Frome
By rail
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Directions by Train
The nearest train station, Warminster, is approximately 5 miles from Longleat. Warminster is on the Cardiff to Portsmouth line.
Westbury station is approximately 12 miles from Longleat and connects directly with London, being on the Paddington to Penzance line.
Both train stations are serviced by taxis which will bring you directly to Longleat
Taxi
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Starline Taxis: +44 (0) 1985 212215
AAA Taxis: +44 (0) 1985 846674
DJ's Taxi's +44 (0) 1985 215151
Satanav
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For Visitors using Sat Nav...
Points of Note...
Longleat address: Longleat, Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 7NW
For visitors using Sat Nav, please IGNORE the directions as you approach Longleat and follow the brown tourist signposts for Longleat House OR Longleat Safari Park (whichever is your preferred entry point). A number of Sat Nav providers are currently directing you to a dead end (!)... we are in the process of contacting them but in the interim, please ignore the 'voice' as you approach Longleat and follow brown tourist signs instead
That is taken from the website. Hopefullt it was helful to you.
Food
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There are two restauraunts at longleat-Cellars Restauraunt and wessex Pavillion. Cellars is in the vaults of the house and has steak pie, cakes, kids boxes, a self service area, sandwiches with locally made bread and Cream teas.
wessex has Roast Lunches, fish and chips, soups and sandwihes. Wessex is self service.
I have not personally tried the food so I can' honestly comment on the quality but it look pretty nice but it is a little expensive-like most!
Shops
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Lord Bath's Shop is home to jewlery , autobiographies, accessories, books and postacrds. Its expensive but not bad quality.
The Victorian Kitchens shop is in the old kicthens and is home to lots of cooking accesorries as well as jam and biscuits-yum yum. Nice but expensive.
The trading Post stocks lost of safari pakr things- nothing tacky, educational books, sculptures and paintings-oddly reasonably priced.
Noah's Ark Gift Shop- Abit tacky but it is one for kids plenty of soft toys of lost of animals and I suppose for kids its quite nice.
The Railway Shop has postacrds as well as lots of other things railway related. It also has a mail delivery service.
Dogs
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Dogs are allowed in the grounds on a lead but are not allowed to atractions and there are free kennels for safair park visitors.. Servive dogs are welcome but not in the safari park and motion simulators for obvious reasons.
Parking
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Plenty of it
Wheelchair access
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There is wheelchair access to all attractions aprt from:
The Maze
Motion Simulators
Tea Cup Ride
Family Bygones
Model of House
Only six wheelchairs at a time are allowed in King Arthur's Mirror Maze.
Pushchairs can also not get in the safari boats and railway.
Toilets
---------
There are toilets and handwashing facilities in most attractions and all are clean and tidy.
Webiste: www.Longleat.co.uk
Colourful and informative now has video podcasts.
Overall
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We have fianlly come to the end of my mammoth review-I never realised it'd be so long.
Longleat is a superb day out-the animals are well acred for and look after and have spacious areas to roam. everything is spotlessly clean and the whole place t is just wonderful.
The safari park is the highlight but the safari boats and the house rank uo there.
The only dissapointing thing is Old Joe's Mine-but that doesn't detract from the enjoyment I got from other attractions.
Simply put, longleat is an absolutley stunning day out which you can't go on with-its educational fun and informative-Iv'e said enough now -just go out an d see it for yourself-you won't be dissapointed I promise....
Thank you for reading and I hope this review has been informative to you.
Willx
Summary: Absolutely brilliant
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