I visited Longdown activity farm last week with my son for his pre school trip. It is only 15 minutes from where I live but had never been there before.
It is located just on the edge of the New forest, 10 minutes off the M27 motorway which is south coast.
There is no direct buses or trains there so car or taxi is the main options.

There has been one previous review written on this place which they rated 1 star. I would like to clarify they weren't happy about 3 year olds running riot and the costs of snacks. Now at places like this the parents or carers are responsible for the children so this could happen anywhere really. As for costs I purchased 2 ice creams and it cost £1.45 It would cost that for one in my local co op store.

Here are the opening times and prices for this year.
Daily - 13th February
to 31st October
Weekends in November and December plus daily
from 11th to 24th
December incl.

Open from 10am - 5pm
10am - 4.30pm Nov/Dec
Last entrance at 4pm

Here's the current prices
Adult - £7.25
OAP - £6.25
Child (3-14 years) - £6.25

Now something I discovered before our trip which is not well advertised on the site is a competition. You will find it under the what's on tab and colouring comp. You print out a picture and get your child to colour it in which then allows them free entrance with 1 full paying adult to the farm. Needless to say I choose this option rather then pay the school price. You are then into a draw at the end of the season to win a family ticket.

On arrival at the farm the car park is one side of the road and the farm entrance is the opposite side. Now it isn't an overly busy road and has a 40 mph limit but I'm dam sure each car was going faster then that and was stood there several minutes until both sides were clear to cross.

I handed over my son's picture and paid for myself and we each had a guide leaflet to help us around. It isn't a huge area but the leaflet showed you what times different animal feeding was on and where about it was on the map.

Our first port of call was the calves feeding, My son didn't want to get involved so I went in with a friends daughter, by the time I had my camera ready the calf had gulped down the whole bottle already.
All the feeding and handling sessions were well organised and any queues quickly went down.
I didn't touch any animals myself due to being pregnant and lots of signs about being careful especially with the kids, (as in baby goats).
There were hand wash stations and cleaning gel area all around the farm. Also a germ buster machine which you put your hands underneath and it showed up the germs still on your hands.

There were a couple donkeys and horses and a huge shire horse in the stable area. Some chickens and ducks and some alpacas. We looked at all these on the way to them trampoline area. This was set in a barn with straw on the ground and 6 trampolines. Some had signs on saying under 3's only under 90's only and over 4's over etc...And nope that wasn't a typo me saying 90's and under lol.

After a while in here finding it rather warm we headed to the picnic area with our own picnic. This was a nice area set on a slight slope with a children's play area at the bottom. But honestly I'm not sure who's idea it was to place the pigs sty's at the top of this area as every now and then the pong from pigs would pass us.

After we'd finished lunch and the children had been playing 1pm was tractor ride time, so we went and joined the queue.We got on the second ride, Well actually my son who went on with my friend and her daughter got on the ride. Being pregnant and seeing the bumping of the trailer decided against it. Then I read the sign saying anyone with back, neck, hip problems, piles or are pregnant or overdue, If you are planning to complain or sue us after this ride don't go on it....
It was amusing when they were coming off saying ohh my bum hurts now lol.

Some of the last things we done was kid feeding again the baby goats, which was quite amusing. The children were all sat with bottles of milk and the they opened a gate to let the kids out and they all went to a bottle and gulped it down quickly. Some kids weren't happy with just the milk and went and started eating the hand towels from the dispenser.

There was also an indoor soft play area and a straw indoor play area, neither of which we ventured into as plenty of other stuff to do. I was shocked when I heard a mum say they'd been bored for ages. We could easily spent another couple hours there but I was getting tired and my feet were really aching.

I would go here again one day.

On the way out there is a farm shop with some fair prices on nice fruit and veg produce. Also the gift shop was small but had plenty packed into it.
The prices were some good some not so good. I brought my son a tractor in a box for 95p but the tractors sold separate of a slightly better quality were £3.95.
I also brought a lovely feather pen for under £1.00

Here's the link so you can take a look.
http://www.longdownfarm.co.uk/index.asp