Longleat safari park.... a great family day out (Longleat Safari Park)

Member Name: nanomeyb

Product:	Longleat Safari Park
Date:	27/10/08 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: loads to see.... can do it over more then one day so you dont have to rush!

Disadvantages: go when the weathers going to be fine!

We went with some family friends, camping during the summer to wiltshire, I say summer...but it still rained the whole time!

We had previously converted tescos clubcard point vouchers into days out coupons especially for Longleat safari park and that was the main attraction to visit for the weekend.

We first visited Longleat on the day we arrived, we chose to do the main bits whilst it was not raining and decided to leave the drive round safari till the following day. The tickets you get are stamped off as you visit each section, and you can come back over the year if you wanted rather have to do everything in one visit.

The first thing we visited was the 'Adventure Castle' the children had been traveling in the car for an hour and a half so we thought it would be good to let them run free for a little while! They really enjoyed climbing up steps and walking high up on tree top bridges and then going down huge slides and jumping on mini trampolines.
We went into the soft play area whilst they shooted soft balls through tubes that seemed to fly everywhere! There was also various activities and puzzles to play with on the walls.
We gave the water pad a miss as we didnt want the girls to get soaked first thing into the day.

Next was the 'postman pat village' a lovely little walk round a little 'village' with tiny postman pat houses and various characters from the programme waving or moving when the little buttons were pressed. Then at the end a bench with pat on for you to take pictures.

We then decided to get the maze over and done...it was looking a little grey and we still had to set up camp!
We had a great laugh in here,
we oviously had to leave the buggy in a buggy park right next to the maze and i had to carry the baby.
The maze is huge and it took us proberly 25 minutes to find our way to the middle, which apparently is a really good time - some people take hours!

After having some lunch from the huge choice of places you can buy food from, we visited the animal park place where we watched a parrot show and stroked various animals.
The children really loved this part. There was alot of information being given on each animal.

The following day - which was a bit wetter! we rode on the train that gave us a lovely view of the park. Even though was a little cramped haha.
we walked through old joes mine, and through the bat room! Which I thought was really cool!! There were so many bats flying around you.

The butterfly garden was hot and you could take the buggy through but was amazing to see all the butterflys - I didnt knowthere was species so large!

we also did the boat trip, where we saw hippos and the gorilla on the island who watched sky tv! we bought fish to throw in for the sea lions who followed the boat the whole time.

Today was the day we drove through the safari, after getting our tickets stamped we were given a cd that we could play which told us about each closure.
we saw giraffes, flamingos, pelicans, rhinos, fed deer from the car windows and then got to the bit id been waiting for.... the monkeys!! we almost had to que to wait for the area where they were 'visiting people' .
The kids were in fits of giggles as they climbed on the roof and bonnet even sitting on the wing mirror! our friends behind us were laughing whist watching two baby monkeys peel off our number plate (what they didnt know was that there was a money who was meanwhile ripping off their rear wiper blade!! lol)
we swiftly moved on to the last area - the lions and tigers! There is nothing more stranger then having to stop on the road we were following to let a lion walk cross!! they werent shy....

A great visit and we are definatly returning next year... (although we are not camping.... we are going to try centre parcs in stead!)

Summary: we will defiatly be going next year.