Longleat Safari Park

Longleat Safari and Adventure Park – AD gifted tickets

disclosure:  we were given free entry into Longleat following a Jungle Dogs event

We were lucky enough to be invited to a Jungle Dogs launch party at Longleat Safari and Adventure Park earlier in the week.  After lunch we had the rest of the day to enjoy what the Safari and Adventure Park had to offer.  The perfect place to spend an afternoon with my nearly 4-year-old son.

I hadn’t been to Longleat for a very long time, it’s set in wonderful countryside in the heart of Wiltshire and is over a 2-hour drive for us, but I knew my son would find plenty to keep him amused and it would be worth the trip.

My top tip:  arrive early, the park opens at 10 am.  We arrived at 11 am and it took 30 minutes before we got to the ticket kiosks to get access into the park.  Worth taking into account if you have small children.  I do have to say that all the staff we encountered during the day were very helpful.

Longleat Safari and Adventure Park

It was 1.30 when we left the Jungle Dogs event, we thought that the Safari Park drive would probably be at its busiest, so we decided to explore the Adventure Park first.

My son had spotted something as we queued to get into the Park and was very eager to meet the person in question!

Longleat Safari and Adventure Park, Postman Pat Village

We made a beeline to the Postman Pat Village, my son, a big PP fan was very excited.  The Postman Pat Village is a wonderful miniature Greendale village, home to Pat and his neighbours from the series.  There is even a station for the Greendale Rocket.  If you ask at the shop, you get 5 envelopes to post around the village – he loved doing this, again and again!  There are a number of interactive buttons to press around the village, with moving characters and vocals.  We visited the village 3 times during the afternoon!

Longleat Safari and Adventure Park Postman Pat Village

When I finally convinced him that we really should explore the whole Park!! we figured that the Jungle Express train would be a good way to get our bearings.

Longleat Safari and Adventure Park Jungle Express train

My son loved the train ride and it was a great way to see the sights.  We headed off to look at the smaller wild animals ……

Longleat Safari and Adventure Park  Jungle Kingdom and more

We saw lots of lovely animals in the Jungle Kingdom – porcupines were a new experience for him.  He decided he didn’t want to meet any other monkey’s (my son’s nickname) so we missed the Monkey Kingdom!  We saw the penguins but he didn’t want to go inside the Penguin Island – a shame, as you can apparently now see above and below the waterline with large viewing windows.  There is also a Stingray Bay which reminded me of our visit to the Sea Life Centre in London – I find stingrays fascinating. We also visited the mini beasts in Animal Adventure.

By the time we’d had a good look around it was time for well-deserved ice cream (not overpriced either!).  We found a tranquil spot in the Secret Garden and settled down to enjoy our iced delights.

Longleat Safari and Adventure ParkIf Daddy P had been with us I might have headed for the various attractions in the courtyard – King Arthur’s Mirror Maze, Meet my Ancestors, Family Bygones Exhibition and Your Link to History.  I would also have loved to visit Longleat House but will save that for another visit.

It was now time for us to do our Safari Drive, I was a little nervous, as this was going to be my first time doing the driving!  I removed his sunscreen from his window and we were off.  We’d picked the perfect time of day – it was 3.30 pm and the Safari Park was much quieter than I’d expected.

As we entered the Safari Park we were given a brilliant, FREE, CD with a running commentary from Deadly Safari host Steve Backshall.  As he is still quite small we’ve not really come across Steve Backshall or the Deadly ….. series before, although I have heard other bloggers rave about it, so will have to investigate further.  I think the CD is a great idea, especially for children – we really enjoyed listening to it.  You can take part in a Deadly Challenge throughout the Safari Park, but we gave this a miss this time.

I didn’t want to risk some real monkey’s wanting to get close and personal to my son and our car, so we took a detour around the Monkey Driver Thru!

We had a wonderful adventure – the highlight for both of us being the beautiful Tigers – we were treated to 4 tigers, all wide awake and roaming close to our car – it was such a treat.

We spent over an hour in the Safari Park and we both enjoyed the experience.  There was no pressure to move on, and we could spend time gazing at the Deer, Lions, Tigers, Rhino, Camels and Giraffe.  We both love seeing these kinds of wild animals as you’ll know from our Whipsnade post earlier in the year.  This was a real treat, to get so close to all these formidable beasts.  Photo’s just don’t do them justice.

We parked our car again, and headed back to the Jungle Kingdom and made our way to the Jungle Cruise – my son was convinced we would see Andy from the Cbeebies programme Andy’s Wild Adventures.  Sadly, we didn’t but we had a great trip around the lake – saw some hippos, gorillas, pelicans and sea lions.

Longleat Wildlife and Adventure Park

Before we knew it our day was over and it was time to head home.  It had been a memorable day and I’m sure we’ll be back again.  There are certainly a number of areas that we either just didn’t get to or that I felt Monkey was too young to fully enjoy.

To find out more about Longleat Safari and Adventure Park – visit their website here.

 

 

17 thoughts on “Longleat Safari and Adventure Park – AD gifted tickets

  1. Oh it looks fab there – I haven’t been but would like to go. The Postman village looks cute too! Popping over from #CountryKids xx

  2. We’ve not been to Longleat for a while. It’s our nearest safari park. Mine are a bit old for the Postmas Pat. Shame. I like the idea of posting the letters. Must put it on our list for next summer. They used to do a ticket where you could spread the visit out over several visits, which suited us. Glad you enjoyed your visit.

  3. There was no post man Pat at Longleat last time I visited but I bet it is a big hit. The safari park itself looks every bit as lovely as I remember and the animals always look like they have a good amount of space too. Thank you for joining me for Country Kids.

    1. No there wasn’t the last time I visited either. Yes, I agree that the animals have plenty of room to roam around whilst still giving us an amazing opportunity to get up close to them.

  4. What smashing pictures Mary and what a fabulous day out, I bet you were both exhausted. Longleat is one of those places that I would love to go to, I always watched the tv programme when it used to be on. I’m with you on the stingrays too, they are magical, almost like watching some Jim Henson made up creature.

  5. Longleat is very local to us (mere minutes!) and a lovely day out but SO expensive now, it has put off many locals from visiting. The grounds are fab for picnics and Shearwater just the next road over has a lovely woodland walk. Beautiful pics, I’m glad you enjoyed your day out x

    1. I was a bit surprised by the prices as I hadn’t visited for years. Would be a ‘special’ day out for us if I couldn’t find a deal. I know they offer annual passes but yes, still a lot of money. But at least once you are in you know everything is included. Must cost a fortune to run. We live local to Blenheim Palace – annual ticket is £20, actually £5 if you use Tesco voucher and we live up there. Still spend money on drinks and ice creams, but obviously less ‘attractions’ thank Longleat.

  6. I haven’t been to Longleat since I was a kid.We live near but I don’t drive and as Mama Owl said it’s very expensive 🙁

I'd love to hear from you and try to reply to all comments