Longleat safari - £175! Is it worth it?

[SiSiSi]

We have the opportunity to be passing by Longleat on our way back up north.

We have four kids, an 8yr old & three high schoolers.
For a family of 6 the entry price is showing as £175 which is realistically just a base price because we always seem to spend a small fortune on "extras" and food etc

Is it worth it!? Our kids are wayyyy past the point of being easily pleased, the teens can be grumpy wee bastards when they want to be, so I don't want to regret the outlay

Please advise!

[MeanMrMustardSeed]

My advice would be to go to the Cotswold wildlife park instead! Much cheaper and so much better.

[Floralnomad]

I wouldn’t think so at those ages . The boat is good as you can buy fish to feed the sea lions but the safari drive thru is not that exciting especially at busy times when it can take an age . I prefer the West midland safari park as you can feed some of the animals on the drive thru so tend to get a better look at them (love the giraffes) .

[SiSiSi]

Thank you for the recommendations, I will look at both

[Themeparklover]

Buy merlin passes next time can go anywhere in the country ie sealife, chessington, alton towers, blackpool , london eye all included gold is 150 for an adult and well worth it

[BarbaraofSeville]

If you think the teens are going to be unimpressed and you're basically going to be paying the best part of £100 for them to sit in the car staring at their phones while you go 'oooh a lion' then maybe give it a miss.

But that sort of money is standard for a day out for 6 people and I'm surprised you've got to this stage without routinely incorporating the standard cost cutting measures.

Either, like a PP says, buy passes so you have a year's worth of access to Merlin attractions, or look for 2 for 1 vouchers that seem to be permanently available on cereal packets etc, that should get at least two of you in for free.

For food, I'm surprised that anyone bothers to be honest, it usually involves paying well over the odds for poor quality food that you have to queue for ever to obtain. Just go to McDonalds or a supermarket before or after or get a £3 meal deal from a nearby supermarket to take in. If you're on holiday, you'll have a coolbox with you won't you and the food will be fine for a few hours, especially if you have air con in the car (maybe avoid chocolate and meat or fish if it's a hot day).

On the matter of 'extras' whatever these are, just tell them to buy them out of their own money if they want anything.

[GiantToadstool]

We love it and last time we went did 2 days so we could do it all properly. We cant fit it all into 1 day now.

Our favourites are feeding lorrikeets and the parrot show. There is so much more than the drive through bit. We like the boat ride too.

Depends if you all like that kind of day out though? We have Merlin Passess too but I do love Longleat. It's quite different to a theme park.

We don't tend to spend much on food inside a park as often overpriced/not nice/queues. Find a nearby pub or mcDs for on the way home if you want to eat out. We take lunch with us!

What other extras? Just have similar rules to other days out! If they want to spend their money in a gift shop fine, but you needn't.

[GiantToadstool]

@Themeparklover The only Merlin pass currently available is a midweek only one!

[Wester]

Definitely recommend Cotswold wildlife park for a cheaper alternative.

It's is just animals in enclosures , no 'extras' so to speak, but much more budget friendly and you can go round the place in 2-3 hours so good for just passing by.

Been to Longleat lots, definitely best on a weekday early morning. On a weekend the safari is like being stuck in traffic with a couple animals outside the window.

[Boxachocs]

Do you have any Tesco Clubcard vouchers? That might help with the cost. We love Longleat, it’s a great day out.

[Kjr33]

Another vote for cotswold wildlife and also take a picnic there are loads of great picnic areas on the site. I’m surprised longleat has got that expensive though, I do think longleat is better but that’s too steep imo

[NoLongerWantLiamToWin]

The teens may enjoy the windscreen wipers being ripped off your car by the monkeys though!

[SiSiSi]

Wow @BarbaraofSeville I didn't have you down as being so condescending and judgmental. Bad day?

I'm based up north - so no, £175 isnt a "standard day out" Most attractions up here are around £70-£100 for all of us. We did Knowsley Safari recently and that was £60 to get in, for instance. Blackpool pleasure beach was a little over £100 if we got a family ticket and wristbands.
We've done Flamingo Land, Thorpe Park and others, and none of them were £175.


To the others who replied without being catty - Longleat will be about a third of the way home and what I was contemplating for our last day. We can't go over two days, it's a couple of hours from our holiday accommodation - realistically… too far for a day trip.

I momentarily looked at the other two mentioned but I was losing concentration so I will look again now.

Thanks

[zoeydollie]

8 year old will enjoy the boat ride, little train, adventure playground etc but can’t see teens having the time of their lives to be honest.

[SiSiSi]

@NoLongerWantLiamToWin

The teens may enjoy the windscreen wipers being ripped off your car by the monkeys though!

There is literally no chance of us driving through the monkeys That car is my husband's baby.
We enjoyed watching them rip other people's trims off at Knowsley though, it was a good half hours entertainment! They have a lay-by for the monkey bypass lane and we parked up to watch.

[TakeYourFinalPosition]

If you did Knowsley recently, I’d go for something different to a zoo altogether… I love the Cotswolds parks but it’s been manic recently, and it’ll be on a very different scale to Knowsley… I’m not sure moody teens would be enthralled.

Longleat is a great day out but again, expensive and you’ve just done Knowsley… West Mids is brilliant too, but the same.

Theme park instead?

[ShadowInVain]

Crocodiles of the World in Brize Norton is worth a visit - not a place you'd spend more than a couple of hours but something a bit different. There are other animals besides crocs. I haven't been there since the pandemic but the website says it's still open:

www.crocodilesoftheworld.co.uk

[ineedaholidaynow]

Hawk Conservancy near Andover is worth a trip if you are going near there

[BackforGood]

Depending on where you are travelling from, and too, West Midlands Safari Park would cost you about £135 (depending on age of teens - they become adults from 16 there, so I've priced as 3 adults and 3 dc). Mine loved WMSP as teens and still do now as young adults. If you are close enough for it to be realistic, that includes a free return visit, so seems much better value, but I've not been to Longleat to compare.

[ineedaholidaynow]

Remember going through the Monkey enclosure at Longleat, with us laughing at the monkeys antics on the car in front of us, with DH confidently saying there wasn’t anything exposed on his car that the monkeys could rip off. Wasn’t laughing quite so much when a monkey managed to remove a window trim off his car!

[ineedaholidaynow]

Also remember on an earlier trip when DS was quite young, him being more excited that there were 2 Volvos in a row in the traffic queue ahead of us, than the fact that there was a rhino standing right by our car!

[ShadowInVain]

@ineedaholidaynow

Remember going through the Monkey enclosure at Longleat, with us laughing at the monkeys antics on the car in front of us, with DH confidently saying there wasn’t anything exposed on his car that the monkeys could rip off. Wasn’t laughing quite so much when a monkey managed to remove a window trim off his car!

The first time we ever went to Longleat (in the 1980s), the monkeys ripped the rubber blades off my dad's windscreen windscreen wipers.

The second time (in the 1990s) remembering this, my dad packed spare rubber wiper blades. The monkeys pulled out the tubing for the windscreen washers instead.

On subsequent visits, we took the bus!

[TheChosenTwo]

I didn’t think @BarbaraofSeville was being rude! Tbh we live in the SE and most days out that would excite our teens and younger one are roughly the price you’re looking at for longleat, things are just expensive, particularly with bigger families.
We do just suck it up but also choose carefully what we think will be worth it - for us longleat is less good value than eg a theme park because the dc enjoy rollercoasters and rides more.
Although we don’t own a cool box in the first place so wouldn’t necessarily have one on holiday!
I’ve been to longleat a few times, it’s a lovely day out and to make the most of it you’d probably want to spent all day there but we get itchy feet after a few hours.

[55378OO8]

We have been twice and enjoyed it, but our children are a lot smaller than yours. My eldest is now 8 (was 5 or 6 when we last went) and I think she'd still like it, but I don't know about the older ones. We used Tesco vouchers which made it a lot cheaper.

[Pipersouth]

Used to be an annual ticket holder pre- COVID and not sure Longleat would be great for teens if you’ve already done safari/animals over your hols. Train is only exciting for preschool as it only goes in a circle without seeing much. Safari boat is great feeding the sealions and the animal exhibits are good but very busy over the summer hols. There are some lovely bits aimed (only my opinion) at the younger kids and their family group. As others have said if you use Tesco vouchers it makes it more manageable. We do love going there though.

[Itiswhatitis21]

We went to longleat a few years ago, brilliant day out thoroughly enjoyed, and we used clubcard vouchers so it didn't cost us much on top...
But we enjoyed cotswold wildlife park just as much and a hell of alot cheaper.