Longleat

I’ve always loved Longleat. I last visited in July last year, so it was very hot and the animals were active.
The safari was interesting, a lioness came up to the car so we got a good look at her. Feeding the deer is a great experience, just remember if you have a child holding the cup the force of the deer may result in pellets all over your car.
The monkeys are a drivers nightmare, luckily we were visiting with friends and didn’t need to worry. You see aerials, pieces of rubber and the odd licence plate scattered around the road, so don’t choose to visit in your BMW.
I personally couldn’t stand the hedge maze. It was a hot summers day, the hedge was overgrown, and it feels even longer in the heat. There were bugs everywhere and I just got frustrated.
The bat cave was great, though It’s tough for a woman to keep silent when one flies at your face and you end up squealing.
The best part was probably the train ride we went on at the end. It had got cooler and it was a nice peaceful ride.
It’s more for families with young children, not couples.

I have been here twice, once as a small child and once with my own grandchild. Both visits were very special. I would recommend anyone to come for a visit no matter which age group you are. But you may want to bring a packed lunch as food prices are a bit dear. If its a hot day make sure you have some cool drinks in the car.

Great day out, great days out come back again and again. New annual ticket a great deal

Loads to see and do, the boat trip was great, and the lions,

Longleat has many thibgs to offer, all are well worth seeing!
The safari park is great– we watched monkeys tear apart the convertible car infront! Obviously not that funny for the car ahead but very entertaining to us!
The grounds are spectacular too.
A fun filled day for the whole family.

Great safari park wish monkey jungle would re-​open though, parrot show is always a highlight!

This is one of my favourite places ever.
At Longleat there are lots of things to do, as well as the safari park the hose and ground are also incredible and worth a look round.
The safari park is huge. The monkey are very naughty — always take the guided tour through the safari park because the monkeys will help themselves to parts of your car.
The bat cave is fabulous but do only go in if you like bats — as they do sometimes fly rather close.
When you go to Longleat you may think it’s a bit expensive to get in, but it’s worth it. There’s so much to do you’ll have a wonderful day.
It’s suitable for all ages.

Longleat est un parc zoologique ou les animaux sont en semi liberte.
Le parc est assez vaste, les animaux sont curieux (surtout les singes qui n hesitent pas a monter sur les voitures)
Vous pouvez egalement nourrir certains des animaux a certaines heures 9 comme les cerfs)
c est une sortie interessante et tres amusante pour les petits comme pour les grands!

Been on the boats to see the sea lions lots of times in the past and have always found it excellant.
After walking through the well kept gardens and over a small river you reach the queue area. Although there isnt alway a long queue, there is sometimes in the summer but it seems to move quite quickly.
There is an eclosure near the queue area with Meercats in which can provide loads of entertainment while waiting for the boat. They are very funny to watch and I have managed to get some very good photos of them in the past.
The boats are quite tall and narrow, but once on them they seem very stable and relaxing.
The boat makes it way out towards a small island in the middle of the lake.
As others have said, you can buy small pots of fish to fed them. Its always good to let someone give the fish and someone take the photos as they are very quick.
Its great fun feeding them as they swim along the boat and jump up, roll over and spash around.
On we reach the island we are told about the Gorilla on the island how he loves to watch sky tv. Certainly causes a few chuckles for first timers.
Sometimes its also possible to see the hippos, although they are always in the water so you can normally only see the small head popping up.
There is a chance to wash your hands after the trip.

A hauntingly beautiful if a little spooky white walled restaurant housed within what was once the wine cellar of the famous house. You can almost imagine servants running through the tunnels within the old cellar, grabbing up bottles of vintage wines to rush up to the aristocracy. The white walls can seem a little stark and severe but the food was good if a little pricey.

Well where do i start, this has been one of the best days of my life. We started with a tour round the stately home which was very interesting but i cant wait to see me some animals dude. Moving swiftly on to the interesting bit, well for me anyway! ma and pa loved the history of the house but me and little bro couldn’t wait for the bat cave. They had just fed the bats so they were flying round us eating their fruit in a make shift cave, i thought bats were ugly but they looked more like flying hamsters, not scary at all just fascinating and really cute. We then had a fun game of tag in the hall of mirrors, i lost when i ran into my own reflection, doh!
We moved on to pets corner, where we watched an amazing parrot show with real parrots doing cool tricks, i got to hold a snake, and my brother daniel held a tarantula, gross! They had guinea pigs, birds, badgers, lizards and bugs all of which you get to see up close.
We had an ice cream then went for a ride on the river boat. You get to feed the Sea Lions with fish and see the Silverback Gorilla that lives on the little island, apparently he has his own TV since his girlfriend died and he’s too old for a new mate.
We then had a walk round the stunning gardens, and looked in the butterfly den, I’ve never seen such beautifully coloured butterfly’s and they fly right past you because they live and breed in the den, makes a change from looking at them behind glass with a pin stuck through em!
THE MAZE, this is the most amazing maze i’ve ever seen, we all got totally lost, there’s a tower in the middle that we were trying to get to, with no luck we were all running round in circles laughing and calling to each other. Of course Dan found his way out first followed by me then mum, dad was not impressed and one of the wardens had to give him directions to get out, we were on the floor laughing. The warden said there’s an easy way to the tower and back out again, it seemed so easy and clever once he told us but i cant tell you as it’ll just ruin all the fun.
And lastly on our trip to Longleat we visited the Safari park. We drove through in our car and stopped to get out to look at the giraffe’s they are so tall and beautiful with big pretty eyes. For the rest of the journey we had to stay in our car and drive round slowly taking in all the wonderful sights and listening to the informative cd we were given. We saw Zebra’s and drove tentatively past the huge Rhino, you feel safe though as there are wardens in Zebra painted jeeps near by ready to scare them off if they get too upset, but i think they’re well and truly used to seeing cars go by. We still cant get over how huge they were. The infamous little monkeys that jump on your car as you drive through weren’t scared either and no they don’t trash your car, loads of them jump on and hitch a ride as far as they can go. The car in front had four on their roof they were such funny inquisitive little things. We drove through seperate enclosures each housing different animals on vast land that they could roam round on. The wolves which weren’t out to play sadly were hidden away somewhere. But we saw the Tigers parading back and forth marking their territory. And the Lions were awesome! we went by and they were so close lying around licking each others fur, and 2 of them were bizarelly climbing a tree, I’d love to see the local Firemen trying to get those kitty kats down!
I know i’ve gone on a bit but i haven’t mentioned half the amazing stuff we saw, it really is a must see for all the family, i’ve already decided i’m coming back to do it all again and hopefully see the wolves next time.
I also must add as an animal lover and a hater of zoo’s abroad where the animals aren’t well looked after. The animals at Longleat were housed in good conditions, with space and happy staff to care for them, and when we talked to them all seemed to love their jobs looking after the animals. What an absolutely marvelous place.

I have already reviewed Longleat safari park but there is just so much more to Longleat than that. Under the umbrella of Longleat there are many different attractions besides the safari to entertain you on your day out (though to be fair there is more than enough to keep you fully occupied for more than a couple of days out!).
The House and gardens are lovely to walk round. The previous inhabitants over the years have added to the House and its interiors and the current Marquis is no exception. Some of the Marquis’s paintings are hung around the House, including a fine self portrait.
Pets Corner is a firm favourite for anyone with a family. The Parrot show is fantastic and the keepers periodically bring some of the animals out to give children and adults alike a chance to hold them (my 3 year old held a snake on her birthday and was totally in awe of something that previously she had been rather unsure of).
The safari boat is a must but best to try to get in the queue early there can be quite a wait for it. Once on the boat you get a closer look of their silverback on gorilla island and the hippos. You can also purchase a small bucket of fish to feed the gregarious sealions that swim alongside the boat.
The miniature steam engine is a more sedate trip round longleat but great fun all the same (especially for any Thomas the Tank Engine lovers).
If you are feeling brave you can try your hand at the maze, though younger kids may flag early and best to avoid in the height of summer when it can get rather hot and hectic in there.
The adventure castle is a hub of activity for kids. It is an impressive adventure play area with something for most kids to play on.
I could go on and mention the likes of the butterfly house and Postman Pat world which will enchant younger visitors but i think you get the idea. Longleat is a great day out! I would recommend taking a picnic along with you though the food outlets can be a bit pricey and there is usually quite a queue for food.

We had a fabulous time here. We purchased the passport but found we couldn’t do it all in one day so made a special trip to go back and finish it all!!! The safari was wonderful and the tigers and wolves were so close I was fascinated by the silver back and will try to upload some pictures of him He apparently was lonely after his mate died so they put a TV in his enclosure!!! I was amazed at how much there was here from the beautiful butterfly farm and the mystical garden to the trip on the train and the boat. Will definitely go again and recommend to anyone. The house was spectacular too. In fact it takes a while to take it all in.

Longleat has changed in recent years, but only for the better. It still has the drive through animal enclosures. We loved the monkeys, especially when they climbed on our car. They are very destructive though, we saw them rip the trim off of the new car in front of us, there were all sorts of car bits and pieces lying at the side of the road. The big cats were all very sleepy, but they were amazing to look at. Once through the big game country we parked up. The big house belonging to the Marquess of Bath was a little oppresive, the paintings were all rather odd, most had been painted by the marquess himself and some by his wifelets. Outside there were some virtual rides and we would have liked to go into the maze, but we ran out of time. All in all it is a place of great interest and a great day out.

Longleat maze is located inside the ground of longleat. The maze is made up from hedges which have a wire fence inside so you can’t cut through it! Well we found this maze very challanging it took a very long time and I felt like we had walked miles!
The aim is to get to the centre of the maze where there is a high tower you can stand on to see over the maze and some of longleat itself.
The maze is in need of some tender loving care at the moment as there are a lot of hole although the wire stops you getting through. Also it had been wet before we went and there were some huge puddles that we have to jump and still ended up getting wet. The hedges are a bit close together a larger person would be touching both hedges and would end up very scratched and wet!
This maze was once the biggest in the uk but I think there might be a bigger one now!

This is one of my favourite places although i am not the biggest of animal lovers you can’t help but enjoy this place. The best time is to go in the morning when there is a smaller queue than at other times in the day.
We were lucky with the weather and the animals were relatively close to the car considering there is a large area for them to roam this was so amazing. The giraffes walked passed and we had to sit and wait for the rhino in front of our car to be moved by a tractor as we drove passed the lions who walked beside us what more could you ask for.
This was the first thing on our list and as a result we had plenty of time to stop and take photos and enjoy the experience. The animals being so close to us certainly made out visit fantastic i really can’t say enough and if you watch bbc programme animal park you can get a good idea of the animals you might see before you go.

I haven’t been to Longleat since I was a child and I have been meaning to visit it again but I suspect that its quite expensive now-​a-​days.
I remember I loved the safari park especially seeing the monkeys climbing on the cars and ripping off windscreen wipers etc and seeing the famous lions.
I think its a really good thing that the animals are in a large park rather than being shut in small cages.
Longleat also has a giant hedge maze, I going to Longleat for my birthday and looking forward to going in the maze, only to find that most of Longleat including the maze is closed in March!

Longleat Safari Park is an expensive day out, but it’s worth the money, and bear in mind that you can use your Tesco clubcard tokens towards your tickets. It’s wonderful to see the animals in such a spacious, open environment, and they always seem well looked after. The monkey enclosure is great if you don’t mind a little damage to your windscreen wipers! It’s a brilliant day out, and I would recommend it to anyone, although it’s wise to take a picnic to keep costs down.

It’s sort of hard to rate a maze. I haven’t really done many of them. I have a feeling this one rates pretty high though.
For some strange reason I decided to go round the outside first. It actually took quite a while. Having done that I decided to start trying to go to the tower at the centre. It took about 2 minutes. Turned out I’d accidentally got onto the ‘cheat’ route they use when they need to get there quickly So then I decided to try to get to all of the bridges. I gave up after nearly an hour and one that I just couldn’t get to! I’d seen people on it so it was possible!
I guess it’s the same as any puzzle really. A mix of frustration and obsession. This maze is good having cross overs with bridges etc means you can’t find your way just by following one wall. Paths curve and loop all over the place so it’s impossible to work towards where you want to go: you are likely to find yourself at the other end.
By the end I was also rather enjoying listening to other people. A few families had split up so you got someone at the top of the tower trying to guide others. It got pretty funny at times.
On the way out I bought a postcard of the maze. But shadows make it impossible to make out all the routes LOL There are ‘cheat’ points in the maze with signs to the way out you can flip up. Not much use for trying to get to places within the maze

I have gone to Longleat twice over the last two years and plan to go again next year, it is a few hours from me so I usually combine it with another day out and stop at a hotel half way between the two.
The maze is a must, although gets very frustrating — especially if you split up and the others get to the top of the middle part first! Just opposite the maze is a great adventure playground — animal coded so kids know which parts are suitable for their ages.
The sea lion boat trip around the gorilla island is a must — if you are not squeamish do try feeding them the fish heads as they come even closer to the you!
I also really like the parrots and the tricks show the keepers do with them. The bats walk through is a must although scary the first time we went through as we didn’t know what to expect! They also have motion simulators in that area which are worth the queue.
Postman Pat village is great for younger kids. The house is great for adults and kids with an interest in art.
A great family day out

I heard a bit on the radio once that Britain has more eccentrics per capita than any country in the world. I think part of that is because there’s a history of established wealth here: probably more of us would be loony if we inherited a lot of money. Anyway, Alexander Thynn, the 7^th Marquess of Bath, has a huge stately home and vast grounds known as Longleat in Wiltshire. Thynn is a bit of a nutter: a painter, a poet, a musician, and a womanizer. But he also loves animals, so he’s created a drive-​through safari park on the Longleat grounds. A big-​game safari park in England makes for quite a popular attraction, and there’s even a TV show about the park and how it’s run.
The missus and I made a day of it once. After battling traffic for a couple of hours, we saw giraffes and camels and tigers and lions and monkeys and rhinos and wolves and tapirs and antelope and all sorts of other animals.
The giraffes were fun. The monkeys come running and jump all over your car. They also try to rip off anything that they can, and we saw plenty of vehicles have door stripping, radio antennas, and windshield wipers all ripped off to become monkey toys. Luckily our car had no loose bits, and because the radio antenna is removable I’d unscrewed it before we went in. A couple of small monkeys jumped onto the car, but they didn’t stay long, liking the looks of the SUVs behind us better.
If you’re not read to leave after the safari park, Longleat House is a lovely stately home that’s worth a visit on its own.