We had the most wonderful time visiting West Midland Safari Park. We fed a giraffe, spotted white tigers, danced with dinosaurs, and met some seriously spooky witches and wizards! Let us tell you all about it in our West Midland Safari Park review.
West Midland Safari Park is situated in Bewdley just outside of Kidderminster. It’s a good idea to get there early if you want to see everything as there is so much to see and do. We chose to visit during the ‘Spooky Spectacular’ event to celebrate Halloween. We were so impressed by our visit, we decided to share it with you in this West Midland Safari Park review.
Admission
West Midland Safari Park has been divided into a walk through leisure park as well as a safari drive through. You can book your tickets here the admission prices are £24 for adults and £19 for children from 3 to 15 years.
Booking is essential, check out their website calendar for seasonal events, opening times, and booking.
Our tickets gained us access to the safari park and leisure park which is great value, however, the price didn’t allow us entry to the theme park rides. So if you’re a thrill-seeker as well as an animal lover, you can include wristbands for access to these in your ticket price and save up to 35% by booking prior. If you change your mind in the park you can also buy wristbands when you are there. They start at £8 for children up to 1m tall and £14.50 for an adult wristband 16 to 64 yrs. Prices may have changed since our visit, so please check on the official website for the most up to date pricing.
Because we were visiting for the ‘Spooky Spectacular’ event we also got a scratchcard trail challenge to find ‘Grenith’s Pumpkins’ hidden around the leisure park.
Safari
We parked up for a quick stop at the Changing Places toilets before we hopped back in the car ready to begin our safari adventure. There’s nothing to stop you from visiting the park first and doing the safari drive through afterwards. If the safari seems really busy sometimes it can be easier to do the park first, bear in mind last entry to the safari is currently 4 pm.
You can also pay an extra £4 for food to feed some of the animals as you drive through the safari. We promise you this is totally worth it! We even fed a giraffe and got some wonderful photos. Top tip though, take extra wipes because some of the animals are super slobbery. It is important that you wash your hands with soap and warm water after touching or feeding the animals and before you eat or drink. There is plenty of handwashing stations in the leisure park.
African Plains
The safari is divided into four sections and the route takes you through continent-themed areas, offering a real variety of animals to see.
The safari starts with African Plains. Home to their herd of southern white rhino and our favourite the giraffe! Not to mention zebra, Ankole cattle, ellipsen waterbuck, Congo buffalo, red lechwe, and the eland, the largest of all antelope species. We fed the eland first, they were so gentle and absolutely beautiful.
We could not believe our luck when we got to feed a giraffe. We were all so excited! We were really impressed to see the park was very well maintained and that the animals looked happy and in great healthy condition.
There were plenty of park rangers in 4×4 trucks around, keeping a close eye on things and making sure the animals were safe at all times.
Wild Asia
We travelled on to Wild Asia an area of contrasts, from the amazing armoured greater one-horned rhino to the petite blackbuck. Not forgetting, of course, the world’s rarest deer, the Philippine spotted deer, and the endangered barasingha!
Carnivores
Next, it’s onto an area of the safari drive-through that is the home to some of the world’s greatest hunters and scariest predators.
From majestic and powerful tigers to the world’s fastest land mammal, the cheetah. We spotted a pack of rare African painted dogs and lots of lions!
We also felt incredibly lucky to spot white lions and white tigers. Unfortunately, it was a little too rainy to get good quality photos but we were so amazed and in awe of them. This was an experience we will never forget.
Elephant Valley
Finally is Elephant Vally where we got to see the extremely clever African elephants exploring their surroundings. They have a young elephant, Sutton! He may be seen most days charging around Elephant Valley under the watchful gaze of Mum Five and Aunt Latabe.
We loved the safari drive through. Allow up to three hours for the drive as areas can get very busy where cars are moving slowly through the route.
Discovery Trail
Your adventure doesn’t end after the safari drive through. We carried our excitement into the leisure park and around the Discovery Trail where we saw playful penguins, bats, all kinds of creepy crawlies, and fish. Here you can watch a daily reptile talk from one of their expert reptile keepers and walk amongst one of the largest flocks in the UK in Lorikeet Landing.
On your park map, there is a timetable of shows and animal encounters in designated show zones you can plan your day around them. We chose to go to the sea lion show and we were not disappointed!
Because we visited during the ‘Spooky Spectacular’ event the park was bursting with Halloween decorations including illuminated, themed scarecrows, and hundreds of pumpkins. We had a great time completing the scratchcard trail and my little boy was totally in awe of the Woody from ‘Toy Story’ themed pumpkin scarecrow!
Also, don’t forget to get a selfie and tag #WMSP when adding them to your social media pages! Follow @westmidsafari and tag them too!
Land of the Living Dinosaurs
We ended our visit with a walk around the Land of the Living Dinosaurs which we absolutely loved. My little boy is dino mad so he was really excited and enjoyed spotting the different dinosaurs whilst trying to pronounce their names.
We stepped back in time and learned about the beginnings of life on Earth. Some of the dinosaurs even move and roar! Which my little boy loved. The dinosaur garden is beautiful and bursting with palms and ferns.
The entire park is easily accessible for wheelchairs, prams, and mobility scooters. We enjoyed every minute of our visit to West Midlands Safari Park, we felt very safe with the social distancing measures in place and made memories that will last us a lifetime.
We will definitely be visiting again. See their website on how to get a free return ticket too! We hope this West Midland Safari Park review has inspired you to take a visit to this fabulous attraction.
Been before? or have we convinced you to visit? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, we love to hear your feedback.
