We were invited to spend the day at Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne. it’s one of the most popular in Hertfordshire, and Europe’s leading zoo,
Bodhi being an only child asked if he could invite a friend to join us and they were both very excited to check it all out, most of all the soft play and the World of Dinosaurs. Myself and Daddy also were looking forward to this as when we visited back in 2016 this wasn't open and we were all keen to see how the park had changed from our last visit.
we were really looking forward to our visit, We are very lucky that we have both Whipsnade zoo and Woburn safari park on our door step, but like all good things if you do them too often they don't seen as special. The journey only took around 45 for us by car. The park is situated in Broxbourne Woods, There is plenty of car parking space and parking is free ( paying for parking when paying to visit a venue is a pet peeve of mine so thumbs up for free parking )
If you’re getting the train to Broxbourne, there is a pick-up service which costs £3 per person (free for under twos) – they’ll also bring you back. There is a number to call at the station.
The park is split into two, with most of the animals on one side, and the adventure playgrounds and World of Dinosaurs soft play , splash park and restaurants on the other. ( the only down side of this is your drive down the middle of both sides for the car park and can very clearly see all of the outside playgrounds so this is then ALL the boys wanted to do)
We came up with a plan for the day and mapped out our time to fit around the talks and shows ( these chance depending on what time of year you visit but can be found on the maps ) some of the areas are closed of the off season winter months such as the splash park and the mini golf, The mini golf is an extra add on cost so isn't something we would have done unless the boys really wanted to have ago, the splash park would be lovely in the summer tho and i can imagine that most of the local family will make the most of the year passes for this and the play side alone.
Annual Membership ( family costs for x2 adults and x2 children £300 ) with your passes you will also get all of these benefits , i think this is a really good deal if you would visit often. more details can be found on the website
- One Free Ride on the Rex Express Train per visit
- One Free Round of On Safari Golf per visit
- Free Monthly E-News (ZOO NEWS)
- Discounts on Animal Adoptions
- Complimentary ZSH Calendar (One per household)
- 20% Discount on Animal Experiences, Animal Tours & Certain Events
- Half price entry to selected attractions
Another thing that the park offers is animal experiences getting up and close with the animals for an extra cost for this you need to be over certain age for example over the age of 10 to meet the red panda and the cost of this experience would be £99 this also covers your entry into the park. more information can be found on the website. i visited the park for my 21 birthday and fed the ring tailed lemurs and it is something i was always remember.
We set off to the animal side of the park first as we had arrived when the park opened and it was lovely to get such clear views of all of the animals before the park got busy and we also had to keep an eye on the weather, The main draw of the park for myself and Chris is all of the big cats. The park is very well designed so you can see into the enclosures from all different angels but also still giving the animals privacy. ( we think the leopards may well have some cubs on the way after what we saw today!! )
All of the animals looked happy and lots of workers around cleaning out and feeding. They are also making some improvements to the big cats area and we all said we will have to go back to see how it looks once finished. We listen to the otter talk and the zoo keeper gave us lots of information and took his time after wards talking with us all about the animals, I wanted to listen to more of the animal talks but both of the boys wanted to visit the petting farm, so off we went.
This was a huge hit with us all and you could buy bags of farm food to feed the goats, pigs and sheep. The goats soon learnt who had food and who didn't and they all enjoyed the fuss the boys gave them. After we had feed the animals it was getting close to lunch time so we headed across the road to safari Sam's Diner to get something hot to eat for lunch. The park offers lots of places to eat a packed lunch but as it was a rather chilly January day we all agreed that we needed a hot lunch.
The boys both had the children hotdog meal this came with a drink , side and chips for £4.60 i thought this was great value and i also had a children meal of jacket potato , Chris went for a burger meal this also came with a drink , side and chips for £7.50. We all enjoyed the food and as we went early ( just after 12 ) we found a table no problem, while we was eating tho the restaurant filled up and people needed to wait for tables.
After lunch we let the boys have a run around and play in the outdoors play areas and then we walked around the woodland animal walk, from the animal walk you could see the dinosaurs so we made our way over to see what it was all about.
world of dinosaurs is one of the UK’s biggest and most spectacular animatronic dinosaur attractions, set in acres of natural woodland. It features 30 life-size, moving and roaring dinosaurs the boys loved this, as it seemed did all the other visitors in the park. its a great idea to add something else within the animals, If the park only had the animal side we would have been finished by lunch time but the other side of the park kept us until closing time.
After seeing the dinosaurs the boys asked to go back to play on the slide and park within the animal side so off we went and we also walked up to visit the birds, when we visited the lorikeet walk way was closed due to the risk of bird flu. we let the boys have 1/2 hour to play in the park while chris and i both enjoyed a sit down and a hot drink.
as it was close to the end of the day we braved the soft play and told the boys they could have 1/2 hour then we could pop into the gift shop before we left, again Chris and i enjoyed a sit down! the boys both enjoyed the soft play and were keen to check out the gift shop. I was pleased to see lots of pocket money type toys for them to pick along side soft toys, key rings and other gift shop items. they both picked out a wolf claw grabber they only cost £3 each so i was fine with that! we had a visit to the toilets before we left ( one draw back only one block of toilets on the animal side of the park ) and then back into the car for the journey home.
we all really enjoyed the day and all said we would love to come back in the summer time to enjoy the splash park and bring a picnic lunch with us.
The tickets were kindly gifted to us in return for this honest review. Thank you Paradise park for having us.
We were invited to spend the day at Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne. it’s one of the most popular in Hertfordshire, and Europe’s leading zoo,
Bodhi being an only child asked if he could invite a friend to join us and they were both very excited to check it all out, most of all the soft play and the World of Dinosaurs. Myself and Daddy also were looking forward to this as when we visited back in 2016 this wasn't open and we were all keen to see how the park had changed from our last visit.
we were really looking forward to our visit, We are very lucky that we have both Whipsnade zoo and Woburn safari park on our door step, but like all good things if you do them too often they don't seen as special. The journey only took around 45 for us by car. The park is situated in Broxbourne Woods, There is plenty of car parking space and parking is free ( paying for parking when paying to visit a venue is a pet peeve of mine so thumbs up for free parking )
If you’re getting the train to Broxbourne, there is a pick-up service which costs £3 per person (free for under twos) – they’ll also bring you back. There is a number to call at the station.
The park is split into two, with most of the animals on one side, and the adventure playgrounds and World of Dinosaurs soft play , splash park and restaurants on the other. ( the only down side of this is your drive down the middle of both sides for the car park and can very clearly see all of the outside playgrounds so this is then ALL the boys wanted to do)
We came up with a plan for the day and mapped out our time to fit around the talks and shows ( these chance depending on what time of year you visit but can be found on the maps ) some of the areas are closed of the off season winter months such as the splash park and the mini golf, The mini golf is an extra add on cost so isn't something we would have done unless the boys really wanted to have ago, the splash park would be lovely in the summer tho and i can imagine that most of the local family will make the most of the year passes for this and the play side alone.
Annual Membership ( family costs for x2 adults and x2 children £300 ) with your passes you will also get all of these benefits , i think this is a really good deal if you would visit often. more details can be found on the website
- One Free Ride on the Rex Express Train per visit
- One Free Round of On Safari Golf per visit
- Free Monthly E-News (ZOO NEWS)
- Discounts on Animal Adoptions
- Complimentary ZSH Calendar (One per household)
- 20% Discount on Animal Experiences, Animal Tours & Certain Events
- Half price entry to selected attractions
Another thing that the park offers is animal experiences getting up and close with the animals for an extra cost for this you need to be over certain age for example over the age of 10 to meet the red panda and the cost of this experience would be £99 this also covers your entry into the park. more information can be found on the website. i visited the park for my 21 birthday and fed the ring tailed lemurs and it is something i was always remember.
We set off to the animal side of the park first as we had arrived when the park opened and it was lovely to get such clear views of all of the animals before the park got busy and we also had to keep an eye on the weather, The main draw of the park for myself and Chris is all of the big cats. The park is very well designed so you can see into the enclosures from all different angels but also still giving the animals privacy. ( we think the leopards may well have some cubs on the way after what we saw today!! )
All of the animals looked happy and lots of workers around cleaning out and feeding. They are also making some improvements to the big cats area and we all said we will have to go back to see how it looks once finished. We listen to the otter talk and the zoo keeper gave us lots of information and took his time after wards talking with us all about the animals, I wanted to listen to more of the animal talks but both of the boys wanted to visit the petting farm, so off we went.
This was a huge hit with us all and you could buy bags of farm food to feed the goats, pigs and sheep. The goats soon learnt who had food and who didn't and they all enjoyed the fuss the boys gave them. After we had feed the animals it was getting close to lunch time so we headed across the road to safari Sam's Diner to get something hot to eat for lunch. The park offers lots of places to eat a packed lunch but as it was a rather chilly January day we all agreed that we needed a hot lunch.
The boys both had the children hotdog meal this came with a drink , side and chips for £4.60 i thought this was great value and i also had a children meal of jacket potato , Chris went for a burger meal this also came with a drink , side and chips for £7.50. We all enjoyed the food and as we went early ( just after 12 ) we found a table no problem, while we was eating tho the restaurant filled up and people needed to wait for tables.
After lunch we let the boys have a run around and play in the outdoors play areas and then we walked around the woodland animal walk, from the animal walk you could see the dinosaurs so we made our way over to see what it was all about.
world of dinosaurs is one of the UK’s biggest and most spectacular animatronic dinosaur attractions, set in acres of natural woodland. It features 30 life-size, moving and roaring dinosaurs the boys loved this, as it seemed did all the other visitors in the park. its a great idea to add something else within the animals, If the park only had the animal side we would have been finished by lunch time but the other side of the park kept us until closing time.
After seeing the dinosaurs the boys asked to go back to play on the slide and park within the animal side so off we went and we also walked up to visit the birds, when we visited the lorikeet walk way was closed due to the risk of bird flu. we let the boys have 1/2 hour to play in the park while chris and i both enjoyed a sit down and a hot drink.
