Easter Break in the UK – West Midland Safari Park

We are approaching the last full day of our holiday in the UK last week. It was all about animals this time. A few bloggers in a group suggested to go to West Midland Safari Park. I checked out their website beforehand and it looked really good. It’s something different other than the average zoo. I knew Matthew would enjoy it having the animals so close to him. So I booked four tickets in advanced on their website.

You can save from 15 to 30% on their website, depending what day you choose. Children under three are free. Matthew’s ticket was £13.50 and an adult ticket was £17.25. These tickets also include a return voucher. Not really for us considering we live in a complete different country but for people who live in the UK or near Birmingham, this is really handy to have I think.

It was Easter Sunday… The Easter bunny came and brought some chocolate for the two into the hotel room. So early in the morning they were both sat eating chocolate on the floor. This was pretty much Chloe’s breakfast as when we went downstairs for the actual breakfast, she didn’t want to eat a thing.

The plan was to leave early again because Matthew asked multiple times a day to go back to Thomas Land. The Safari Park was only an hour from our hotel. We left around 9.30am. You are driving through a little town and at the end of it is the Safari Park entrance. You wouldn’t think it at all. At check in we were asked if we wanted a souvenir book. We bought one (£4.50) which Matthew studied all the way through the park. This is also where we received a map.

The Safari Tour is four miles long. It was really busy which meant stop and go. Particularly when you have animals walking between cars. They had two lanes though that did make it easier. Chloe was not a fan at all having the animals by the window basically being able to touch them. She was crying at the start for a good bit. I took her out of her seat then and she was able to sit with me and get some comfort. Soon enough she was fine and happily looked outside from a distance of the window.

The lanes bring you through different zones. For example there is African Plains. This includes animals like Rhinos and Zebras. In certain parts they had electrical gates that allowed certain amount of cars to get in, wait and enter the next zone. I’d say this is for safety reasons to keep certain animals in seperate zones. Really good system I have to say. With the Rhinos I was hoping they don’t attack the cars with their big horns but they must be so used to all the different cars passing by daily.

It’s definitely a nice experience I would recommend to everyone and you don’t have to fly a thousand miles to Africa to see. Even though in Africa it’s probably a complete different world to go on a Safari Tour there. Matthew told me that he liked the tigers the best.

Fascinating for me were probably the big camels passing by and the giraffe that ended up in front of our car and passing by after eating a banana beside us. It’s better to show you the whole lot in a video which you can see at the end of this post.

After the tour, we stopped for some quick lunch in the park. Then it was off to the hotel. Kids fell asleep in the car again. Once we arrived at the hotel, hubby went off to buy two tickets for Drayton Manor again. Matthew could choose who he wanted to take. There was no point bringing Chloe because she wouldn’t want to do anything in the park anyway. Matthew wanted to bring daddy. So it was a mammy and daughter afternoon. We spent the time in the hotel room because the weather wasn’t actually the best. We played a bit and had some snacks. At reception we booked a table for four in the restaurant for our last meal. While the boys were having fun, I packed most of our stuff to go back into the car so we had as little to carry in the morning.

It was off to bed at the normal time for us. We left Drayton Manor hotel Easter Monday morning around 7.30am. Thankfully there was not much traffic at all, even though it was the Bank Holiday. It was back onto the boat for two hours and driving back home. We were back in our house by 3pm. We had such a lovely time and I would definitely go down this route again in future and explore the UK a bit more. I appreciate suggestions in the comments below.