Ad disclosure: We were provided with complimentary tickets to the park for the purpose of this review.
Yesterday we spent the day at West Midland Safari Park, which is one of our favourite local attractions. We’ve visited several times both before we had kids, and with the children, though we hadn’t made it over in the last few years since we moved a bit further away. I was looking forward to seeing the latest exhibits, particularly the Land of the Living Dinosaurs which is especially suitable for us at the moment as Georgie has been studying dinosaurs at school.
We had a really enjoyable day out, and were there from around 11am till 4:30pm, so we were entertained quite easily for hours – and we didn’t even visit all the exhibits before having to head home due to the cold weather & tired little legs.
All four of us really enjoyed the trip through the drive through safari. The lions were really active and we all sat for quite a while watching them play. The elephants were out & about munching on grass, and we saw so many different animals roaming around the paddocks despite the chilly weather. We were given a free park map on entering the park which had a map of the drive-through safari and the rest of the park, and we paid £3.50 for some animal food so we could feed some of the animals.
Once we had spent over an hour driving through the four mile safari, we parked up the car, and headed into the rest of the park. The Explorers Base Camp was set up near to the main entrance and was easy to find, so after a quick hello to the penguins we headed in to receive our instructions and grab a couple of log books. A missing dinosaur egg needed to be found!
The “on foot” area of the safari park has been expanded a lot in the last few years, and they are adding more new areas and renovating others this year – the Explorers Restaurant (which was starting to look dated last time we visited) was shut for renovation, and a new children’s attraction is “coming soon” – Lydia is really excited as it features one of her favourite characters – it will be a “Boj Giggly Park”. This summer a new “Safari Academy” will be opening which is going to be a sustainably built education facility for visiting school groups of all ages.
We ate lunch at the Burger Co. restaurant which is in the Adventure Theme Park area, and really enjoyed our meal. They have a simple but tasty menu primarily made up of burgers, fish finger sandwiches, and chicken nuggets. James and I both enjoyed a cheese burger, while the girls had chicken nuggets. All four of us really enjoyed our lunches, and the quality of the food was great. I loved the decor of the restaurant, and the service was very good too. We paid around £30 for the four of us to have hot meals & soft drinks.
Once we were all fed, we headed to the Land of the Living Dinosaurs, to find the first step of the Little Explorers trail. Armed with their Dinosaur Explorer Log Books, the girls wandered around the different dinos, amazed at them. Lydia was so excited that the dinosaurs were moving around, and roaring! Georgie really enjoyed seeing all the different dinosaurs that she has been studying “in the flesh” and was really proud of herself when she was able to name them and tell me things about them.
Both girls enjoyed the little dig site they have set up in the Land of the Living Dinosaurs area, so we spent a bit of time uncovering dinosaur bones. It wasn’t too long until we reached the quetzalcoatluses which are new for 2017, and discovered that they were the dinosaurs whose egg had been lost & needed recovering. We answered the first question in the log book, and got our first stamps.
The girls loved the Lorikeet Landing exhibit, which was Stage 2 of the Dinosaur Explorer trail. The adored the brightly coloured birds, which were flying around their heads and perching close enough for them to see them clearly. This opened up at the end of 2014 so was new to us this visit, and all four of us were charmed by the beautiful birds, one of which seemed to enjoy posing for the camera!
Stage 3 of the Dinosaur Explorer adventure had us headed to the Reptile World, where the girls had a great time spotting snakes and seeing all the different reptiles. Lydia loved the alligator and crocodile.
Stage 4 was the Hippos Lake but unfortunately the viewing platform was closed due to the bad weather. We pushed on to Stage 5, which we found in the African Village. Lydia’s favourites, the meerkats! We spent a while watching them, and then hunted around until we found the missing egg and got our final stamp. The girls both really enjoyed the trail and finding out more about the quetzalcoatlus, as each stage had a different fact that answered a question in their Log Books.
Before we headed home, the girls had a go on a few rides in the Adventure Theme Park area, and had lots of fun. We bought 4 ride tickets for £6, but when they are a little older and able to go on more ride we will treat them to a wristband I expect, as there is a great selection of rides at the park, and I can imagine that local teens really enjoy visiting for the rides and amusement arcade.
We stopped by the Lost City Plaza shop on the way out of the park, where the girls showed their completed Log Books and received their prizes. They had the choice between a Little Explorer medal or a Jurassic World dinosaur activity book – they opted for one of each after some discussion! We let them choose a small souvenir each (and I may have bought a quacking duck LED torch keyring for myself) as a memento of their day, before we climbed in the car cold & tired but happy.
All four of us really enjoyed our day at the Safari Park, and there were plenty of undercover areas to visit when the weather got too drizzly. The half term activity was a lot of fun and the new dinosaur is pretty amazing to see. We highly recommend it as a day out for families. You can get decent discounts buy purchasing tickets ahead of time.
Sounds like you had a great day despite the weather! I have great memories of going there with my primary school – the monkeys stole the rubber round the sunroof on the coach, everyone was convinced they would get inside!
Sounds like you had a great day despite the weather! I have great memories of going there with my primary school – the monkeys stole the rubber round the sunroof on the coach, everyone was convinced they would get inside!