Woburn Safari Park October Half Term Review
Woburn Safari Park
Bedfordshire
Reviewed by Nina Holmes
On Thursday (27th Oct 16), we visited Woburn Safari Park. The park was easily signposted from the M1. After an hours journey, we arrived at the park at 11am, we drove straight to the entry gates and were greeted by a pleasant lady who dealt with our entry quickly and efficiently, she gave us a map which detailed where everything was (car and walk safari) and the opening times, a talks and demonstration flyer and the Rules flyer!! I didn’t see any signs telling us were to drive but luckily the ticket lady had told us to drive around to the left after the black gates.
We drove around the Road Safari looking out for the animals, the children were very excited at every sighting. We happened to follow a car conga line around the park, which was quite handy as at some parts it wasn’t very clear as to where we should drive next.
We neared the end of the Road Safari just as our bellies started to rumble, perfect timing!! We followed the sign to parking and easily parked on a grassy area near the Swan Lake. We walked passed the Swan Lake Café to reach the Safari Restaurant. The restaurant was very busy but we found a table straight away with enough room for the 5 of us and a buggy. My husband and oldest children went up to queue, the queue was quite long and took a good 15 minutes, but it was half term so that was expected. There was a fairly good choice of food, none of us had trouble choosing something that we liked and we all enjoyed our food, I had curry, rice and poppadum – it was very good, yum yum. My husband was going to take the trays to the tray trolley but a member of the dining staff told us to leave them and that he would do it for us – very nice of him. Once we had filled our bellies we were ready to carry on with our day… We all used the bathroom facilities before leaving the restaurant, they were clean, stocked and smelt lovey!! There was a male member of staff in the ladies toilets cleaning them when we used them, he was even cleaning the mirrors!!
We headed outside to explore, we had decided that we wanted to go and see the penguins who were being fed at 2.30pm and there was also going to be a talk. It took a bit of searching as again the signposting wasn’t great, but we found them. We waited a few minutes and the rangers arrived with a bucket of fish!! The ‘feed and talk’ session was really good, they lady giving the talk told us really interesting information and was easily heard.
We then moved on around the outside part of the park, following as much of the foot safari as possible – the Deer’s, Lemurs, Sea Lions, Monkeys and so much more. We went to the Rainbow Landing, we all entered with our purchased nectar drink for the birds (2 for £1, good value), this isn’t a necessity but if you take it in the bird area, the birds will land on you. My husband and eldest son had birds landing on them, my son was even lucky enough to have one wee and poo on him (oops), I’m not a fan of birds but this was a fantastic experience!!
One very noticeable thing at Woburn Safari Park is the cleanliness, I didn’t see any litter anywhere which was lovely and often quite rare at some venues.
The children were desperate to go on the Swans in the Swan Lake before we left, so they did (no additional cost – which was nice) and they had a great laugh steering around the lake, trying not to bump into anyone else.
We didn’t manage to do everything and the children also wanted to go to the outdoor play area but we didn’t have time. We were hoping to be able to go around the Road Safari again, but we just missed out by about 10 minutes which was a shame (last entry at 4pm, close at 5pm).
Our day at the park was a very enjoyable one by all of us. All of the staff were friendly, the park and facilities were clean and we will definitely be returning for another visit soon. I would recommend Woburn Safari Park to anyone – young and old and anywhere in-between.
Rating: 4/5
Single Day Tickets cost from £14.99 to £22.99 (get the cheapest price by booking online in advance).
For more information or to book tickets visit www.woburnsafari.co.uk.
Woburn Safari Park, Woburn Park, Bedfordshire, MK17 9QN | 01525 290407
