Longleat and cheddar caves / wookey hole

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Any advice appreciated.
Going for a few days break and want to do a full day out at longleat, and some caves either cheddar or wookey hole
any tips appreciated.
On my own with kids at 6 and 11

Do Cheddar. Wookey Hole is overpriced and rubbish. Tesco vouchers are good for Cheddar, brings the cost down a lot.

Thanks I have found a combo ticket for longleat and cheddar and it looks good. The caves at wookey look good but not so bothered about the other stuff.

Also want to go to Glastonbury and up the Tor. Hopefully we will have good weather.

Buy your tickets in advance to get cheaper rates or we received a 30% discount with the holiday letting place that we stayed at.
Arrive early before 10.00am and book your ticket for the bus Safari in the main square.(£5 per person) If you don't want your car ripping to pieces by dedicated gangs of monkeys then this is probably the best bet. Although you can divert and avoid the monkeys in your car but watching them dismantle other peoples cars is quite funny when you're safe in the coach. We got the 11.00 booking which meant that we saw all the animals being fed and they were very visible and active. We found out that the best seats are downstairs on the bus away from the window stickers if possible. You get to see the animals very close up eating and showing equal amounts of curiosity about you. The driver knew all the animals by name, their characters and where to spot them. He was funny, knowledgeable and informative.
When you get off the bus in the Africa section leave a coat on your seat if you don't want to loose your good seat when you return. Feeding the giraffes is a fantastic experience expensive but well worth it. We paid £5 for 3 large lettuce leaves. Glad we did though.
Take a picnic plenty of outdoor space if the weather is good. You can leave your picnic in the car as it is close to the main areas. Food can be pricey but plenty of choice if you don't do picnics.
Go on the Safari Cruise. if you can get a seat near the front you will get a fab view of the Sea lions being fed.
We went in the house for a warm but it was really nice inside.
Best coffee in the Orangery all the rest is from an Express Machine.

I love Longleat! I prefer to do the park stuff (especially the sea lion cruise, lorikeets etc) in the morning when everyone is on safari and then safari after lunch, if you’re staying all day. But then the leaflet recommends that now so it might not be as genius as it used to be!

I love the naughty monkeys and my car survives every time but my car is not fancy so Sod’s law if if had a nice one it would get a windscreen wiper off or something!

I also really like feeding the greedy deer in the next enclosure along from the monkeys- can you do that from the bus?

I haven’t been to CG or WH for ever but I always preferred CG.

Have an amazing time pretty jealous tbh!

Go on the Safari Cruise. if you can get a seat near the front you will get a fab view of the Sea lions being fed

Definitely! And take a few pounds for the cups of stinky fish and the sea lions will be your friends forever! One of my favourite bits.

Thanks for all the help, going to get the combo ticket so a day in cheddar a day at longleat and then a day in Glastonbury.

I drive a Bangor and one of the very reasons is I LOVE all the monkeys on my car. Wiper blades are not much and easy to fit lol.

It's also lots of fun to do the bus tour at Longleat rather than drive around in your own car. You get lots of interesting facts about the animals and they are good at helping you spot them.

Not done cheddar or longleat, but we went to Wookey at easter and it was overpriced naffness. The caves are interesting but the soft play stuff is scabby and we witnessed a punch up between some parents.

Longleat will easily take a whole day. Get there early but do the park first. Everyone does Safari first thing and it's nose to tail crawling traffic. Do the park first then the safari after (make sure you leave enough time, don't get stuck in the hedge maze for 2 days) and it'll be almost empty and much better!

What sort of area are you planning on staying?

We enjoyed wookey. We had a discount or blue peter badge or something though.

It was an easily accessible and lit cave for kids that might be scared in dark caves, our tour guide was ace. My husband knows a bit about caving and had watched the wookey cave diving dvd so knew where the really interesting bits the men had cave dived "blind" into were.

We went off peak and really enjoyed the paper making and various museum bits there. History of cave diving in particular. More poignant simce the boys rescue abroad of course.

We didnt really expect/use softplay tbh!

We love longleat too! Never really fancied the bus personally though as enjoy driving through at our own pace and getting close to where we want to go. I can see the benefit to avoid monkeys but you can drive past that enclosure.

If we only have a day we dont do the maze. I dont think we've ever done everything in a day so pick the bits you want to do. Mine like feeding the sea lions and the lorikeets and visiting the bats best so we make sure we do that. I quite like the house but we might miss it if trying to do it in a day.
Oh the parrot show is amazing!! They can do so much.

Have a fantastic few days.

Longleat safari is also awful at the end of the day. Many many people do it last, as we did, then you get stuck at the lions because everyone wants to stop and look. Not helpful when you have a 5yo who needs a wee! (Thank God for the half empty bottle). Do that bit late morning if you can.

Longleat is awesome. Wookey Hole was crap last time we went.

Wookey hole is now off my list. Will be arriving in the area on fri am and have to leave mon lunch time. So a full day at longleat, a day in cheddar and fri in Glastonbury. Climb up the Tor and look round then town centre love it there, they sell my sort of thing. Kids love it because they say all the people here look like us!

There is a fantastic little cheese shop in cheddar where for a few pounds you can see the whole process of cheese making. It was fab! They also sold some oddly flavoured cheddar you could taste and even some wookey hole cave aged cheddar .

Have a fantastic time!

Glastonbury is full of what I thought were quirky and original crystal shops and was delighted to be able to buy something for my mum who loves crystals - until I went to another town just up the road and saw exactly the same shops with exactly the same products!! Had a weird vibe to the place. We didn't go up the Tor (but wish we had!)

Incidentally, don't pay to park at Cheddar. We drove a little way down the road and found an "unofficial" spot - just on a residential road. It wasn't crowded and just a short walk away.

Yes that's what we will be doing at cheddar. Been before just a quick look thru but smallest was still in a pushchair.

Longleat is wonderful! I wish I was going with you, hee hee. You and the children will have a great time. Try to see Ann the Asian elephant if you can (I understand she is a bit shy at times); she was rescued from a circus. Longleat built an enclosure especially for her.

Can't say I've been to Wookey or Cheddar caves, not that I remember anyway.

I'll be interested to know how you enjoyed yourselves.

Wookey used to be better IMO than Cheddar Caves as it was the least over-commercialised option - used to just be the caves, the paper mill and a few fossils and was affordable. Now it's ridiculously pricey. I personally think that Cheddar caves are too ...... there are some really lovely walks around the top of the gorge. Velvet bottom (yes, really) and Black Rock areas.

Watch sweets being made in one of the shops in Cheddar. I can't remember the name of the shop but it's on the right hand side as you come down the hill.
Buy some scrumpy cider. The proper stuff makes your knees buckle!
Climb Jacobs ladder .
I reckon you'll only need half a day. Most of the shops are just selling tourist tat.

I haven't been to Glastonbury for years and I wouldn't bother with Wookey Hole. It's called Hole for a reason. I would suggest Clarks Village in Street for shopping (get kids school shoes), Wells, Bristol and Bath.

I am very excited now! Managed to get booked into get my hair in dreads in Glastonbury so I'm super happy!!