GREAT FOR A DAY TRIP BUT WHY NOT MAKE A HOLIDAY OF IT? (Longleat Safari Park)

Member Name: skintbuthappy

Product:	Longleat Safari Park
Date:	06/07/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All attractions located centrally, great value for money, something for all ages

Disadvantages: You can't possibly do everything in one day, though you can pay just for what you want to do.

Our family absolutely love Longleat and it really does have lots to offer for all ages.

There are many attractions including:

* the well known SAFARI PARK - where you can opt whether to go through the monkey enclosure (and potentially get your car wrecked) or not AND you can stop and have a picnic in the East African Game Reserve overlooking the animals,

* PETS CORNER (you can handle small animals and watch the parrot show in here),

* HEDGE MAZE (longest in UK I think),

* VIRTUAL MOTION SIMULATOR RIDES,

* SAFARI BOAT RIDE where you can feed the seal lions as well as glimpsing the hippo's wallowing and Nico the gorilla on gorilla island,

* TRAIN RIDE

* SUPERB PLAY AREA with small water play area (with sensor activities water fountains etc.. - fab on a sunny day),

* POSTMAN PAT LAND,

* summer SHOWS,

* TEACUPS RIDE - great for tiny ones!

* LONGLEAT HOUSE - fascinating if you have got the time and your little ones can cope with the long route round and possible boredom for them!

* GROUNDS AND GARDENS - which are just perfect for lazy picnic lunches and playing games with the kids

AND EVEN MORE ....

If you are visiting for just one day then you can't possibly fit everything in and depending on what you want to see/do it may be better value to pay individually for the attractions you want to see.

However if you are planning to visit for longer than 1 day - or you plan to re-visit at some point within the same season (which runs annually each year up to the 1st November) then you should purchase Passport Tickets instead.
These are tickets which give you entrance into all 11 attractions (one time only for each attraction per ticket) but you can visit as many or as few of them as you want on each occasion.
The adult passport ticket is £23, the child's (aged 3 to 14yrs) is £15 and there is a Senior Citizen rate of £17 for those aged 60+. These passport tickets mean you pay approx half the total cost of paying for each attraction individually.

Although there only 11 attractions many of them can easily take a good few hours to half a day to do properly - plus there are gift shops, café's, ice-cream parlours etc.. all of which are brilliant to visit if you have the time, so if you are there for more than one day you really can make a holiday of it.

If any of you out there are caravanners then you may be interested to hear that there is a campsite on the longleat estate, which is where we have stayed (and will be staying again this summer) for the last 2 years.

It really can be quite magical at night when the crowds have gone home because you can hear the lions roaring in the distance as you sit out bar-b-cueing or drinking your glass of wine.

Staying on this caravan park also means that you can wander in and out of the longleat estate as and when you wish (during opening hours only) and avoid those long queues for key attractions - by getting to those first thing in the morning before the crowds arrive.

I believe you have to be a member of the caravan club to use this site (although this only costs approx £37 for a whole year) and then site fees are really reasonable. For a family of 4 this year we will pay just under £200 for 7 nights, and therefore including the cost of our Passport Tickets our one week holiday will cost us only £275 - which surely must sound attractive.
Please Note - only touring caravans are accepted on this site - they do not accept tents, although if you have a caravan you can a pitch your awnings and pup tents to provide extra sleeping/living accommodation for your family.

If you are a Tesco shopper - you can also use your Tesco vouchers to pay for your passport tickets - which means you can get even more of a bargain holiday if you plan ahead. Our passport tickets this year have been purchased this way and have cost us £26 in Tesco vouchers for all 4 of us.

Summary: A great day out but even better if you can stay longer - if you have a caravan why not stay?