A good day out - feed the animals! (West Midland Safari and Leisure Park)

Member Name: abi138

Product:	West Midland Safari and Leisure Park
Date:	06/06/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really good views of animals, can feed some of the animals.

Disadvantages: Walk around area not as good as it could be

--Where is it?--

The West Midlands Safari Park is in Bewdley, Worcestershire. It's not far from Birmingham. The postcode if you have a Sat Nav is DY12 1LF.

--Pricing--

An adult ticket costs £11.50 and a child's costs £10.50. Alternatively a family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children costs £40. There is also a discount for students and senior citizens. I think this is very reasonable compared to other safari parks I have visited.

--What to do?--

West Midlands safari is split into two areas, a drive through safari where you can drive around the free ranging animals and have the chance to get really close to them and a fair ground type area.

When you first enter there is the chance to buy food which you can feed to some of the animals such as the deer and giraffes when you are driving around and also the goats in the walk around area.

Drive through

There are a great variety of animals to view as you drive round, some which will come really close others which are further away. Depending on the time of year you go you may also see babies. The animals at the drive through safari included: rhinos, giraffes, deers, tigers, lions, wallabies, white lions, wolves, and more. There are signs around that tell you which ones you are able to feed.

The drive around was about 5 miles and took about 1 hour for us to drive round but this would depend on the amount of traffic and how long you spent viewing each section.

Walk around area

After you have driven around this area you can park up and walk around another area. Here you can see a sea lion show, seal island exhibit pool and the twilight cave, where you can see bats. There is also goats, a leopard, a fish area, and a reptile house.

There is also a fairground area that we did not use, you could buy tickets individually or buy a wristband and go on as many rides as you wanted. However, as we did not use this facility I'm not sure how much it costs. Feel free to comment if you know. Here there were rides such as a log flume, swinging chairs, a carousel and more.

--Opinions--

I loved the idea that you could feed some of the animals as I have never seen this at any other safari parks. I know it's not their natural behaviour but the animals were really friendly and came up to your car to eat out of your hand. Although we did steer clear of the ones with big horns so as not to get the car damaged. The best part of my day was having a girrafe eat from my hand.

We visited as soon as it opened in the morning so it was fairly quiet and not a lot of traffic was in our way however if you visit on a busy day be prepared to be there for a long time queuing in traffic.

The twilight cave was possibly the scariest thing ever! It is basically a big inside enclosure that you can walk through which is almost pitch black and has free flying bats! I don't know who came up with this idea, but I hate them. I really don't like the dark or bats, but I was intrigued, you could feel the bats flying past you, let's just say I wasn't in there for long!

I think the walk around area was spoiled by the fairground area, this space could have been used to display more animals. I think that if you have children this may be good but is also going to cost you more money if your children want to ride lots of things. I feel that I wanted to visit a safari park not a fairground and this space could have been better used.

I felt this was a good day out as you could drive around as many times as you wanted and there were also things to see in the walk around area. You can easily have a nice day out here.

--What else to do?--

We visited Birmingham for the weekend, staying in the Hilton in Bromsgrove. We also visited Cadbury World (see review). There is also the Bull ring for shopping. There is lots to do in the area if you fancy a weekend away.

Summary: Very good day out would recommend