Drusillas Park
Alfriston, East Sussex
Reviewed By Cheryl Wesley
We arrived at Drusillas Park in Alfriston, East Sussex (regarded as the best small zoo in the country) bright and early where there is plenty of room for cars to park. There was also a small play area for the children that just can’t wait to get through the entrance gates.
There are two lines to queue up in to enter the park and the pre-paid blue line went a lot faster than the yellow line, where payment was still needed.
Once through the entrance you are immediately in a walk through area of iguanas and snakes. Hidden in this area are site maps and also a couple of booklets for children, one is a stamp booklet showing about 20 different animals for the children to stamp as they spot them around the park, the other booklet is for older children called ‘Zoolympics’, where they can record their scores from various activities around the park, a pen in your bag will be needed. To be honest we walked straight through this part rather quickly as everyone congregates here following the queuing to get in and as its enclosed we felt we needed space, luckily one in our group of 4 adults spotted the booklets.
Afterwards everything calms down a bit and you can enjoy looking at the animals and reading all the information dotted around the animal enclosures, the information was given in a variety of methods including, light, sound and hidden clues.
The Meerkat tunnel for children to stick their heads up in a bubble in the middle of the area was a major hit with the little ones, along with the penguins and feeding the Rainbow Lorikeet birds (additional £1 needed for this).
There was a good variety of animals with no overload of monkeys, and we did not come across one enclosure where you could not see the animal that lived there!
Once pass the zoo part of the park you arrive into a massive play area for small (and big) kids! There are different areas for various ages, but our toddler was not going to be stopped going on the big slides! There where swings, trampolines, slides and sandpits for all ages. A fabulous time was had by the children who did not want to leave this area.
We packed our own picnic for the day and made our way to the picnic area about 11.30 as the toddlers tummies rule our days. There were plenty of benches, with a few specific children ones, set on fake grass which meant no mud on your shoes. It was spotless, no mess and very clean. The only downside to this area was the amount of activities you could pay an extra £2-3 each on, including gold digging and a massive slide. It’s very hard to say no to a young child but on top of the admission fee it equates to a lot of money.
Then you come across Thomas, which is a free train ride! My children must have gone round on Thomas the Tank engines little track about 7 or 8 times! They loved it. It’s a cute little set up which shows lots of Thomas friends as you go along the track, the ride in total only takes about 5 minutes so it holds the little ones attention perfectly.
There are a good amount of toilets dotted around the park, so with a toilet training toddler we had no problems. They were all very clean, even by midway through the day.
Although there were only 4 designated smoking points throughout the park, we felt this was too many and in really obvious places where you had no choice but to walk right past them i.e. picnic area and play area.
The staff were all polite and very helpful, encouraging questions in the various locations where you could walk around with the animals.
There are enough activities and animals in the park to fill up a whole day, but it is also small enough that you can easily walk back through and visit your favourite animals again!
On the whole we feel the day is good value for money and well worth the visit. To us it felt the park is more suitable for junior school aged children and younger. When booking your tickets for your trip it is well worth going online and buying your tickets a few days in advance as you save quite a bit of money. We will definitely be going back.
Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost from £10 to £82.50 (family of 5), tickets prices are set into 3 bands: Discount Days, Off Peak Days and Peak Days. You can save money by booking tickets online from www.drusillas.co.uk.
Drusillas Park, Alfriston, East Sussex, BN26 5QS | 01323 874100 | info@drusillas.co.uk
