Lovely animals but mostly for the kids! (Longleat Safari Park)

Member Name: icklepickle

Product:	Longleat Safari Park
Date:	07/09/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic animals, feeding the deers,

Disadvantages: Queuing and expensive food

Myself and my partner booked tickets on line to Longleat back in March, but on the day we were supposed to visit, i was unwell. Since then we havent found a perfect day to visit until the 4th September.

I have never been to Longleat before but its always somewhere i have wanted to visit. I am a huge fan of animals and i was really excited.

We purchased passport tickets which are usually £23.00 for adults, £15.00 for children and £17.00 for senior citizens. These give you access to 11 attractions and you will get them stamped at each attraction you visit. We only paid £19 for our tickets each because we booked during a special offer time.

Under 3's visit for free.
Children at 3-14 years old.

You don't have to purchase this ticket as every attraction can be paid for separately, but if you plan to visit each one this will save you money!

The safari park (prices without passport ticket adults: £12, children £8 and senior citizens £9):

I have been warned about long queues entering the safari park but on arrival at 11.15pm there wasn't many cars queuing at all so we were quite pleased.

We drove to the pay kiosks and were greeted by a very happy cheerful lady who took our ticket booking confirmation and gave us 2 passport tickets in return. She told us about the safari park, asked if we wanted a program (£5) we declined and she also gave us a commentary cd to play on the way round which is narrated by Kate Humble.

We drove to the first part of the Safari park which is where you can park up. It is the last opportunity to visit the toilet and buy some refreshments.

Here they have a cafe where you can buy some basic hot food like bacon rolls, sandwiches, drinks, crisps etc! All i can say is BRING YOU OWN! This places takes the mick and costs a fortune! The thing that makes me laugh is theyre charging the earth for a cup of tea but in the shop next door you can get one for £1!

In the shop next door they have various gifts etc and much cheaper drinks.

There is a toilet block which was very clean and have the new dyson power hand driers.

There is a picnic area with quite a few tables.

Also from here you have a fantastic view of the giraffes, zebra's, llamas and some camels.

Once back in the car you can start on your journey!

If you are given the cd to play you can start it here, it has some interesting facts about the animals you will see.

Throughout the park you will see signs about what to do if you break down and also about having windows open or closed!

Throughout the park you will go through the following sections:
- East African Game Reserve

- Flamingo Valley

- Vulture Venue

- Monkey Jungle: (this has been closed all year which has something to do with the monkeys having herpes. There is more information on their website) you are warned that this area is optional because you car is very likely to be damaged by the naughty monkeys lol! Enter if you dare...

- Big Game Park

- Deer Park: Here you can buy some deer feed for £1 a cup and feed the deers through your car window. They are very tame and it is a lovely experience.

- Pelican Pond

- Tiger Territory: Here began the fun of all the queues, it seemed there was a car parked observing the tigers for Longleat. It was parked with its hazards on so it was causing a lot of traffic. We were slow moving for about 45 minutes.

- Lion Country: There are two seperate lion areas for the two different prides. Both very nice. The lions were sunbathing when we arrive and it was a lovely view.

- Wolf Wood

The safari park was a lovely experience and it is fun getting so close to the animals. But i will be honest i wasnt that impressed by it all.

The waiting around and the idiots who just keep stopping in front of you randomly and also the selfish ones who sit there for ages taking a million photos holding everyone up can get a little tedious.

I think i do definitely prefer to walk around a zoo!

Once you have left the safari park you reach the area where the other attractions are.

There is adequate parking and overflow car parks too.

Longleat house:

Even though we had a passport ticket we were too tired to look around the house after doing everything else so we missed this attraction. (Also i have seen most of it on the animal park program)

Safari boats(prices without passport ticket £4 each for all ages):

The boats take you on the river showing you some more of Longleat's animals.

There are two boats, called the lady bath and the lady Lenka. Both have someone commentating for you and adequete seats for quite a few people. So if there is a queue dont be put off as it does go down very fast.

In the queue you can watch the meer cat attraction, this can keep most people occupied.

On the boat there are red fold down seats, which are basic and plastic, but the whole trip only takes 15 minutes so it is not too bad.

During the boat trip you will see Spot and Sonia the two resident Hippopotamus, the Californian sea lions which are fed during the trip and also the beautiful lowland gorilla Nico.

Pets corner (prices without passport ticket £3 each for all ages):

Here you can walk around and visit some of the smaller animals of Longleat. The children can hold and stroke rabbits and other various animals and different times.
There is also a bird show every hour where they have parrots doing various tricks. We didn't see this but did hear laughter and a lot of sqauking later on.
There are also guinea pigs, snakes, spiders, chipmunks and other animals.

This section is great for the kids but i wouldn't have visited it if i didn't have it as part of the passport price.

Longleat railway (prices without passport ticket £4 each for all ages):

There was no queue for this as we arrived so we jumped straight on the train.

The journey takes you around some of the beautiful grounds, along past the river and you see some unusual sights along the way.

The journey is fantastic for the kids and adults too and lasts about 10 minutes.

The longleat hedge maze: (prices without passport ticket £3 each for all ages)

Again i am not sure i would have done this without the passport ticket but thought why not!

I am not sure if it was pure luck or it was just easy but we were to the middle and out within about 10 minutes. Others said they took an hour! lol

But it can be a laugh, i probably would have gone back in if it had been free to go again.

Other attractions that we didn't visit were:

- Adventure Castle (for 14 years and under)
- Old Joe's mine
- Motion simulator x 2
- Postman pat village
- Tea cup ride

All in all my impression of longleat is mostly its for children. The animals were amazing but in my opinion they could have a few more available.

I think we were lucky as i have friends who have said they hardly saw any animals due to the weather, or queues have been even longer.
We went when i think a lot of kids had just gone back to school so i think that helped!

I would however suggest taking a picnic because the price of any food is terrible just like most attractions.

I probably wouldn't go again until i have kids.


Info:

Website: www.longleat.co.uk

Longleat
Warminster
Wiltshire
BA12 7NW

Summary: A great day out for the kids but only if the weather is good