What feels like a lifetime ago, we took T to Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire for his birthday treat as part of his second birthday celebrations!
We are big fans of farms and wildlife parks (we like zoos, just as long as they’re decent) so following a recommendation we decided to take ourselves further a field to visit somewhere new.
Paradise Park is huge wildlife park that not only houses an extraordinary variety of cats, but also boasts a number of breakout areas such as a woodland walk, train rides, and several large play areas of varying sizes. One of the first things we noticed about the park was the variety of things to see and do.
In addition to cats, which is their speciality, the wildlife park also houses a number of zebras as part of their ‘Hooves and Humps’ area, various primates such as gibbons, a birds of paradise walk-through, and loads of meerkats! There’s also penguins to see and a farm yard.
T’s favourite by far were the gibbons – he squealed when they swung through their enclosure and stayed watching them the longest. He also enjoyed identifying all the farm animals and watching the penguins rob their keepers of fish!
Once we finished watching the animals, we stopped for some lunch at one of the many picnic areas. Here we treated T to his first jam tart! As well as picnic areas there are also lots of places to grab some lunch, a snack or drink. Looking at the Tiger Top Café, we wish it was open at the time of passing (we were rather early!) as the views of the tiger enclosure would have been something else whilst eating lunch!
Once lunch was fully digested, we then had a wander around the rest of the park and took T onto the train that travels through the woodland, which is also home to several wolves and deer (not together, mind you!).
This was a pleasant journey and a nice break for our poor feet!
After the train, we then finished with a small play in one of the play parks, although by this time T was getting tired so we opted for a slow poodle back to the car (via the ice cream van for us adults as the toddler promptly fell asleep in his buggy on the way back! Win!).
I would definitely recommend visiting Paradise Park if you’re nearby (or not, it’s well worth the journey). The facilities around the park are incredibly family-friendly, and the park is nicely spaced out allowing you to really take your time without feeling like your crammed in with crowds. When T is a little older we will no doubt revisit and spend time listening to the talks that take place.
Have you been? What did you think?
K
Disclosure: We were not compensated for this review – we just think it was great!
