We had the pleasure of going to Longleat Safari Park for a day trip with the family and had the most wonderful day. I've actually never been to a safari park and had always wanted to go, and I have to say that Longleat definitely exceeded my expectations.
We started out by going for the safari drive through. When we drove up to the ticket booth I was very surprised to be handed a CD to listen to whilst driving around. It's such a fantastic idea as you can listen to the CD and learn loads about the animals as you're driving around. It was a great way to teach the kids more about the animals and you can also listen to it again at home to pick up more facts.
Near the beginning of the safari drive is the African Village which you park your car at and can explore further. This is where you can feed the giraffes at set times of day (we missed it and I really wish that we would have checked the schedule!) and you can also go on a walking safari with lemurs and wallabies.
The highlight of the safari drive for me absolutely had to be going in with the monkeys. You always see photos of monkeys climbing all over the cars and I wondered if that really happened all of the time, and it definitely does! The kids were howling with laughter when the first monkey jumped up onto the car and were fascinated watching it as it climbed all around. Now a word of warning, these monkeys do get into everything and they were all chewing on our antenna which now needs replacing, but it was absolutely worth it!
Driving through the areas with the big cats and the wolves was also a fantastic experience. It's such a rare privilege to get close to tigers, lions and cheetahs and we were so excited to see them walking right beside the car. We turned off the CD at one point because we could hear the lions roaring as if they were communicating with each other, it was amazing. Another word of warning, please keep your windows closed and follow all of the guidelines set out in each area, we saw some cars driving through the lion enclosure with their windows open and taking photos, these are still wild animals and you do need to be careful.
Next we brought the kids on the Rockin Rhino ride for a bit of fun, it's a great addition to the park to have a few rides that they can do as well as all of the animal activities.
Then onto the Monkey Temple to walk amongst the monkeys this time and to meet some adorable little creatures.
We then went in to feed the lorikeets which definitely took a lot of bravery as those birds are very keen to get that food! Ethan held the little cup for a little while, but then we left it to Daddy and just watched all of those birds flock to their food.
Another great little area for a break and a run around is the new Little Explorers Garden which both kids loved. It's got trampolines, climbing areas and great features like this big rainbow xylophone.
We also played in the Adventure Castle which has separate areas for older and younger children to play and explore. Ethan loved the big slides and climbing frame whilst Ivy played indoors in the ball pool and the fantastic balloon play area.
We ended our day with a trip on the Jungle Express train to see around the park and reflect on all of the fun that we had during our day at Longleat.
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* This is a review post, we were provided with tickets for Longleat Safari Park in order to visit and write our honest opinions about it.*
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