Fantastic great value for money family day out (Monkey World)

Member Name: crispybacon

Product:	Monkey World
Date:	15/02/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value for money, really educational, family orientated

Disadvantages: Gift shop a bit of a let down

We went to Monkeyworld as a daytrip on a family holiday in Dorset last year. Having seen the park on TV and some of the facilities there we had high expectations and were not disappointed.

Getting to Monkeyworld is very easy, its really well signposted and there is plenty of well thought out parking with easy access.

There was little queuing to get into the park, even though it was summer holidays, and the cost for the whole family was a little over £30 which is a bargain!

Once inside there are lots of activities you can do to engage the kids (in addition to looking at the different primates in their enclosures which if it thats all there was you would be finished in a couple of hours) which meant that this really was a whole day out.

The enclosures themselves are absolutely fantastic and there are many different viewing points which means that even when busy you get to see the animals. Its obvious the animal welfare is the top priority here with education being the main focus everywhere rather than gawping. The kids learnt so much during the day and we did too!

Facilities such as toilets were really clean and a pleasure to use rather than thinking you need to hose them down before you use them! What was really impressive though was the catering facilities. The various cartering outlets were fairly priced with good quality food but if you didn't want to use these there were LOTS of places to sit down and eat your own food/sandwiches etc and also lots of picnic areas.

There was even an adventure playground which was huge and a great place to let the kids go off and let off any excessive steam that you haven't worn out of them.

The only negative thing I could say about the centre is the gift shop which was completely full of tat and a complete ripoff with stuff being way overpriced. I guess this is one of the ways they make money for centre but it did leave a slightly sour taste in the mouth and I would rather have paid slightly more in the entrance fee.

Overall though a fantastic place for a family for a day out. But only if you get a couple of the activity booklets and do all of the educational stuff with your kids otherwise you'll be a bit bored after a few hours and won't get the full value of this place

Summary: Great day out with opportunity to exercise those brain cells