Review: Longleat Safari Park

Longleat Safari Park serves as a fun day out for family and friends with a range of activities to enjoy and wild animals to see up close! Read to find out about my recent visit.

Safari

After entering through the box office and collecting my ticket receipt and a handy leaflet on what I can find in the park, I kicked the day off with their drive through safari. The East African Reserve took me through a variety of wildlife, beginning with ostrich who weren’t shy to amble near the cars! Continuing on the smoothly paved roads I spotted Rothschild’s giraffe (which you can get out and feed!), Grant’s zebra, wildebeest, seagulls, flamingos, camels and ox. The drive through safari can take from 1.5 – 2 hours and you can customise your experience by certain areas being optional like the monkey reserve and moving between the two convenient lanes to use. Anne the elephant’s haven was seen next followed by a herd of southern white rhinos.

The highlight of my safari experience was deer park where I got a cup of deer pellets for £1.50 and fed a deer from my car window. This was so fun and unique with all the deer being very calm, even while they follow your empty hand while waiting for a refill of food! My exciting safari experience wrapped up with the big cats as a travelled through Tiger Territory, Cheetah Kingdom, Lion Country and Wolf Wood. I felt safe throughout the safari with clear signs all along the trail ensuring I knew the point I must stay in my car, when I could put my windows down. There were also Staff throughout the safari at gate entry points and in zebra striped trucks!

DinoROAR

I had the opportunity to walk through the Mesozoic era with Longleat’s seasonal event – DinoROAR! The Longhouse at Longleat has currently been transformed with roaring sound effects, colourful show lighting and of course huge, animatronic dinosaurs! Walking through dinoROAR was such a unique and educational experience, learning about a large range of dinosaur species. Each creature has a plaque in front of it stating its name, a summary and many fun facts like when it roamed the earth, its weight, diet and more! When running into a helpful employee, I was told all about the aquatic reptilian, the Plesiosaur – did you know there was a 500kg dinosaur in England? There are also activities visitors can get stuck into such as the calming colouring activity sheets while sat at the bench or the roar-some VR experience with the themes Jurassic Predators, Jurassic Extinction and Jurassic Fight!

Stars of the Park

Dotted all around the park in pop up stations, Stars of the Park allowed me to see animals up close and gain knowledge from professional animal keepers. At the walking safari, I had an interactive session with colourful Macaw parrots, Pumpkin the Prehensile tree porcupine, Monty the Burmese python, Bella the Nine-banded armadillo and Chunk the Argentine red tegu. It was so fun to see some animals up-close and gain knowledge of what they’re like.

Food

Seeing animals and dinosaurs works up quite the appetite! Luckily, Longleat had me covered with many food and drink options to choose from. I rounded up my visit in the Main Square, tucking into a southern fried chicken burger meal which came with perfectly-crispy chips and a water/soft drink – I opted for a Tango Orange. Having the sauce station at the final window of the kiosk allowed me to choose and add my desired amount of sauces. I then went to the next-door kiosk and treated myself to delicious warm sugar donuts with sweet and milky soft-serve ice cream.

I had a thrilling time at Longleat Safari Park and can’t wait to go back! Longleat have a bunch of seasonal events, like DinoROAR and Stars of the Park, to enjoy alongside their evergreen safari. CLICK HERE to visit their website and see what’s on.