West Midlands Safari Park, Bewdley > Reviews (33)

Thanks to the Clubcard Vouchers....

The kids are on school half term holidays, so I thought it would be a good time to go to the West Midlands Safari Park, even though it has been my experience in the past that during weekends and school holidays the place is crowded to say the least. I was happy to have some Clubcard vouchers to cover the cost of entry into the park. Entry to the park used to be covered by the "days out" vouchers, but now clubcard do specific vouchers for the Safari Park.

Adult tickets cost £14.99 and Child Tickets cost £12.99, so I was glad that I got in free thanks to the vouchers.The voucher only covers the cost of entry to the park and not the fairground, as wristbands for the rides have to be purchased seperately. One of the benefits of visiting the park is that staff give you a return entry ticket that can be used any time until November, so you actually get two days entry for the price of one. We also bought two bags of animal food for £3 a box. You can feed the deer and goats as you drive around the park, and the kids loved the idea.

Planning Your Visit

As we arrived early, we went straight to the drive through safari. It tends to be busiest between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m, so it is best to either do it very early or very late to avoid queueing. I had an awful experience a couple of years ago, when my little girl had a "the runs" half way round the route, and I only had a carrier bag to catch it in! It was on the busiest and hottest day of the year, too!

The safari route is really interesting and has a good variety of animals along the 4 mile route. The kids really loved feeding the deer, and it was hillarious when a giraffe put his head in the window to see if we had any food! The white lions are beautiful, and there are many other animals en route that are endangered in the wild, such as the wild dogs. The park is working hard to help ensure the survival of these species. Currently, the park is also doing its part to help save the British snake species, the adder, by a captive breeding programme. Most of the animals had lots of space, but I did feel a bit sorry for others, who didn't seem to have a lot of room at all, such as the elephants and white tigers, who were restricted to a small area of grass by means of electric fences. A relatively new attraction was the Indian armoured rhino, which also seemed to have little space to roam about.

The route is well planned with a good variety of things to see. The animals are clearly visible and you can get really close to them, as they are used to humans, although the more dangerous species are behind discreet barriers so that they can not approach vehicles. There are rangers keeping an eye on things in their Land Rovers, to make sure that the animals are safe and not blocking the roads. Sadly, some visitors to the park are idiots who have no respect for the animals, such as the family in the car in front of us who insisted on feeding crisps and other inappropriate foods to the deer.

Fairground

After our safari, the kids were keen to get to the fair, which had a good variety of kiddie rides and a couple of bigger ones. There is not much for the adults though. The payment options for the rides seemed a bit odd, either pay £6 for 3 tickets, or buy a wristband for £10.99 for all ride access. I'm sure they could have though of some kind of middle ground here, as you are basically being forced into having a wristband! The clubcard vouchers can't be redeemed on wristbands, so we just got them for the kids, as we didn't think we would really go on many rides ourselves. The nice thing about the fair is the fact that it is child-oriented, so there are not many teenagers or older kids about, making it a safe and friendly environment. I was perfectly happy to let my kids go off and explore, as I felt that they were safe.

Despite the fact that the weather was awful, the fair was really busy. We had full access to most the rides, although a couple were closed due to the torrential rain. The rides cater from very small children with their own "cubs kingdom", through to bigger ones, with the Rhino coaster and Twister ride, which is a coaster with a waltzer style car! The ride staff were lovely, and very friendly and chatty. Nothing was too much trouble for them. I also like the fact that there is such a good variety of rides. My daughter likes the daredevil rides like the coasters, Pirate Ship and the big swing ride, the Blackfly. My older son prefers more middle of the road stuff like the log flume and the rapids, and my youngest likes the caterpillar roller coaster and the snake slide. It was great that there was something to cater for all of them.

The fair also has an amusement arcade, which we found useful for sheltering from the rain! The arcade has a good variety of slot machines and video games, as well as those annoying grabber machines with the teribly weak grips!

Food

There were only 3 eating options: Botswana Burger bar, Hot and Spicy or Explorers cafe. In the past we have opted for Botswana Burger, which was located near the fair. The meals were "Mcdonalds" style, and cost about £5 each for a burger, fries and drink combo. I must admit, the food was better than Mcdonalds and the burger was first class. The staff were really friendly. The only problem was the ducks that kept coming in and invading the customers as they ate! A cup of tea will set you back about £1.80, which is pricey, but typical for these places. I have also tried the Explorers cafe in the past, but found the meals a bit expensive, although it is a nicer alternative to fast food. On this particular visit, we chose to bring our own food, which we had to eat in the car because of the bad weather, even though there are some lovely picnic spots in the park.

Other Exhibits

After lunch, we checked out the "discovery trail" which was a walk through exhibit. They had the usual reptile house and aquarium, as well as a large display of insects. The animals were housed in really big tanks, with lots of interesting plants and environments.

I particularly liked the leaf cutter ants, which I could have watxhed for hours! The trail also housed a "bat cave" and flooded forest. My husband was too scared to go in! It is a really dark tunnel, with bats flying around your head! There is a warning on the door that the bats may poo on you, which worried me, but we got round pretty quickly. You keep thinking the bats are going to hit you, as they zoom past! It does smell really bad in there!

The trail is also home to the Sealion show, which was really lovely. The sealions really looked like they were enjoying themselves, and there was lots of audience participation. Visitors also have the option to be star of the sealion show for the day, which is a nice treat for a child celebrating a special event.

More disappointing was the "reptile encounter". I was expecting to be able to touch the snakes, but the keeper kept them behind glass due to "health and safety". The reptile house itself is an interesting exhibit, with the animals housed in clean and interesting tanks.

A highlight for me was the pair of Amur Leopards, housed near the reptile house. They came right to the front of the enclosure. You felt as if you could touch them. They are extremely endangered in the wild. Such beautiful animals.

A new exhibit this year was the walk through lemur wood. This was located on the far side of the funfair. The area was lovely and spacious, in a great lakeside setting, but the lemurs were really hard to see, as they were huddled up in a tree. I prefer the exhibit at nearby Dudley Zoo, where you get a much better view of the lemurs.

There is also new "African Village" area, where you can see meerkats and walk around the goats and feed them. The village looks very authentic and is a great addition to the park.

There are several gift shops located in the park, selling a variety of goods ranging from sweets to soft toys. Most things are prety reasonably priced and it is easy to find a small souvenir within most budgets.

The park also has a few games and attractions, such as the climbing wall, which my kids love. They really enjoyed the kentucky derby game in the fair, which was a lion race, instead of the usual horses. The man running the stall was really enthusiastic and frindly and the game was only £1 a go, so it didn't break the bank. My daughter won a small monkey toy on the game, which she was really happy about.

New for this year is the penguin exhibit of Humboldt penguins, which were absolutely adorable. The side of the tank is a glass panel, so you can walk right up to the tank and see the penguins swimming about inside. My little boy realised that if he put his finger on the glass, the penguin would follow the movement of his finger and he stood mesmerised for ages just moving his finger up and down and watching the penguin swim up and down. The pengions are so cute, they make a great exhibit and are the first creatures you see on entering the discovery cove area.

The park also has a hippo viewing area which is a wooden raised platform where you can see the hippos in the lake being fed.

they are truly huge creatures and you can appreciate their size when you see them in action.

Summary

West Midlands Safari Park is a perfect family day out, with a good combination of up close and personal animal encounters and fairground rides.

The animals look happy and well cared for and there is a big focus on awareness of the plight of these creatures in the wild and efforts for conservation. There are posters dotted around the park encouraging people to text a number and donate £1.50 to animal charities working in Africa. Some of the proceeds from the arcade machines go towards animal conservation in Namibia.

The park is clean and facilities good. The toilets are always spotlessley clean and there are good facilities for mothers with babies and the disabled, with designated parking spaces next to the park entrance and good wheelchair access to most areas.

The park has won an award for the best visitor attraction in the West Midlands, which I feel is a well deserved accolade.

We visit the Safari park nearly every year. there is always something fresh and new to see and my kids never get bored of visiting. The park is easy to find and well signposted from the motorway and Kidderminster.

I look forward to using my return ticket later in the year, when we do it all over again. I would recommend using the clubcard deal to gain entry, as it can be an expensive day out when you add up the cost of entry, wristbands and refreshments. Also, if you can avoid Bank holidays and school holidays, you will find the park much quieter and easier to get around.