Knowsley Safari Park 2018 Review

Reviewed by Julie Powell

So, this weekend our family were lucky enough to be invited to spend the day at Knowsley Safari Park. Having two little one’s ages 4 & 3 who are animal mad this was an amazing opportunity for us.

We arrived there mid-morning and were handed our safari drive map, foot safari map, guide book and stickers started our day with the safari drive. The boys thoroughly enjoyed putting the animal stickers onto the map as we spotted them throughout our drive round. They were amazed at the closeness of all the animals and enjoyed seeing all the animals especially the baby rhino. The big highlight though of the safari drive was the sleeping lions and we had to drive very slowly and quietly past them in order not to wake them! For those not brave enough to go through the baboons there is a by-pass route you can take to save your car from getting damaged – to our boy’s disappointment this is the route we chose to take but we could still see them clearly enough through the fences. After we had finished the drive through safari it was time to park the car up and head off for the rest of our fun packed day on foot.

I must confess the next part of our day was the bit that I was most looking forward to and I knew that boys would thoroughly enjoy themselves this was the new Amur tiger trail which has only recently opened.

It is a new walk round exhibition which allows visitors to see the two female tigers Sinda & Bira through multiple viewing spots. The exhibit sees you embark on a magical journey to the Far East of Russia – we started at the train station where we picked up our researcher notes, and which was a fact-based questionnaire we able to complete using the information that was on display to read around the trail. As well as completing the questionnaire you can stamp your notes throughout the trail once each educational section about the Amur tigers had been completed. The first stamp is at the train station once you have learnt about where the Amur tigers are from. To gain our second stamp we had to learn about the Amur tigers characteristics so we followed the trail and along our way we learnt about their camouflage, the size of a tiger, how the tigers communicate, there’s also picture of the tigers pugmarks (paw prints) and on your research notes is a ruler so that you can measure them and work out if they belong to a male or female tiger, once we had gained that stamp and completed our notes on characteristics it was time for us to learn about their habitat – onwards we went with our trail if you get chance stop at look at the engraving on the picnic table, its beautifully engraved with pictures of what several average meal times would be for the tigers. Just be very careful as you walk past the plague of the tiger with its tail in the air – it might have a lovely surprise for you our boys found it hilarious and we had to go past it several times! We learnt all about how the effect of poaching my eldest is only nearly 5 and the information about this was very informative and clear for him to understand as when we stamped his notes he informed us that when he was older he wanted to help rebuild the forest and fix things for the tigers as it was very sad. The last section for us to learn about the tigers was about their survival with us having to earn our tiger stripes by taking part in some family challenges in the training camp – this saw us measuring how far we could pounce, how fast we could catch our dinner! With our research complete we were then able to explore the rest of the Amur there is a tunnel you have to crawl through which leads you to a huge glass window which we were just able to spot the tigers sleeping through and an outdoor classroom which when used will be a great place to go! We were truly amazed at how informative and hands on the Amur Tiger trail and was most definitely the highlight of our visit and one that I would recommend to any family who is looking for a fun day out.

After the tiger trail we then spent another few hours at the park enjoying the rest of what Knowsley had to offer us – our boys enjoyed the many amusement rides, seeing the sea lions, giraffes and taking the little train.

All in all, it was a fabulous day out and we will most certainly be back soon! Thank you, Knowsley safari park, for a fabulous family fun day!!

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £13.50 (book online to save 10%).

For more information or to book tickets visit www.knowsleysafariexperience.co.uk.

Knowsley Safari Park, Prescot, L34 4AN