Tips for visiting Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens

Whether you are looking for a zoo, farm park, garden, adventure playground or bird land you will find it all at Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens

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The attraction offers a diverse range of highlights from giraffes and rhinos, a petting farm, reptile house, a large play area complete with huge tree house, beautiful manicured gardens to please the most avid of garden lovers and birds from around the world including blue/yellow macaws, Chilean flamingos, birds of prey and free roaming peacocks.

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We visited this weekend with my parents in law and all enjoyed a fun filled day.  These tips should ensure you also have a memorable visit

Book online and save some pennies!  Tickets can be purchased online at Cotswold Wildlife Park for a discounted price of £14 for an adult ticket (regular gate price £15) and £9.50 for a child over three and OAP (discounted from £10).  Online discount applies until the 28/02/16.  

As always I would recommend packing a picnic. There are huge expanses of lawn to enjoy your picnic (we enjoyed ours overlooking the giraffe enclosure).  Alternatively, there are numerous sheltered picnic areas and also picnic benches overlooking the adventure playground.  The attraction also has a cafe and kiosks serving ice creams, hot drinks and snacks.  If you do decide to use the facilities avoid the peak lunch time period as it does get busy.

Leave your picnic in the car and pick it up at lunch time. The park is really well laid out, unlike some attractions where you have to walk for miles, the car park is located within a few minutes walk from the rhinos, lions and giraffes. I would therefore suggest, particularly if your child is no longer in a push chair and you are carrying everything, leaving your picnic in the car until you need it.

Ride on the train to orientate yourself with the park upon arrival. We rode on the train quite soon after arriving which was great because we had a quick look around and knew exactly where we wanted to go back to.  There is an additional charge of £1 per person however, it is definitely worth it.

Wear comfy footwear and take your child’s buggy board.  The park is huge!  You will walk a considerable distance so make sure you will be comfortable.

Connect on Twitter.  If you follow the attraction on twitter @CotsWildTweets you can enter competitions and keep up to date with baby animal photos etc.  We have just entered a photography competition, the prize is a giraffe encounter!

 

Highlights of our visit

Walking through the lemur enclosure.  My sons loved walking amongst the ring tailed lemurs.  They were showing off and pouncing from tree to tree, much to my boys amusement!

Watching the penguins.  Daily feeds and talks take place at 11am & 3pm

Seeing eye to eye with the giraffes.  There is a ramp up to the giraffe enclosure which brings you up to their eye level.  Great fun for little ones!

Watching the newborn baby rhino.  It was born a couple of days before our visit! Unfortunately, Mum kept on sheltering her newborn and so I was unable to take a good photo!

Petting the goats in the petting farm.  My boys were following the goats around the petting farm, they were intrigued with them.

Playing in the sand pit (I hate to add this to the list as it drives me bonkers that where ever we go the boys want to play in the sand…. they are not interested by the sandpit in our back garden though!) 

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What we loved about the Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens

* The attraction truly offers something for everyone.  My parents in law enjoyed the day as much as my husband and I and our boys.

* The seamless entry and no queues.  As you enter the car park the traffic is spilt up into four lines and you pay or show your booking reference number direct from your car window.  You are then free to park your car and walk the very short distance over to the rhinos on the lawns.

* The attraction is very reasonably priced and is proud to be one of the lowest priced zoological collections in the UK.

* Although we visited on a hot sunny Saturday in August the park never felt busy.  As the enclosures for the animals are large we never experienced any shoving our way through hoards of people to see the animals (this seems to be what we typically experience at zoos).

* We loved the fact that we were not forced to walk through a gift shop to exit the park.  (This is my pet hate… there is seriously nothing worse than trying to escort a tired child through a gift shop enroute to car!) 

* We enjoyed several drinks and ice creams and found the refreshments to be very reasonably priced.

* The attraction offers several options to upgrade, including being a keeper for the day and animal encounters (age restrictions apply).  These experiences would make unique and memorable birthday presents – I intend to keep them in mind for when my boys are old enough!

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Have you visited Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens?  Can you add any other tips?

 

Packing my Suitcase Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

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17 Comments

  1. 2nd September 2015 / 3:37 pm

    It looks like you’re all having a fab time exploring the Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens, they really have thought about the layout to make your visit as great as it could be. The boys look like they’re having a great time exploring and finding a new adventure around every corner. It sounds like overlooking the Giraffe’s is a perfect place to stop and relax with a picnic. Thanks for linking up all your fun with me on Country Kids.

    • Lisa Jane
      Author
      31st August 2015 / 12:10 am

      Thanks for reading Merlinda! It is a fabulous family friendly attraction :-)

  2. 25th August 2015 / 1:25 pm

    Thank you for taking the time to review us. We loved your pictures.

    Please note we do not deal with any online voucher or discount voucher site. We like to keep it simple for our guests and the ONLY place you will find a discount is on our website if you buy e-tickets from our own website. This is because it says us time at the paydesk at the Park, and saves you £1 per adult (correct until 28/2/16).

    We’d love you to follow us on twitter, but the company in question have been contacted and asked to stop asking people to follow us and they’ll get a discount, this is incorrect information and i am sorry for the confusion. The only thing you will find in our tweets are lovely photos of animals, gardens, news and video clips, no discount codes what so ever – sorry. We are the one of the lowest priced zoological collections in the UK.

    We do have a cafe and kiosks serving ice creams, hot drinks and snacks. The cafe does get busy at times, so best to have a early or late lunch.

    Thank you once again for your lovely review, we’re glad you had a great day.

    Best wishes

    A Fletcher
    Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens

    • Lisa Jane
      Author
      26th August 2015 / 10:38 pm

      Thanks for clearing up the confusion Anna. I have amended my article to reflect your comments. We had a thoroughly lovely day at your attraction. I am pleased you liked our review and our photos. We look forward to visiting you again soon.

  3. 25th August 2015 / 1:25 pm

    What a beautiful and fun place!! Like a zoo but way better :D

    Thank you for joining #MondayEscapes :)

    • Lisa Jane
      Author
      27th August 2015 / 2:45 pm

      Absolutely :-) So much better than a zoo! The animals have so much space to roam around. Thanks for reading Allane

  4. 25th August 2015 / 12:48 pm

    Ah such a shame we didn’t have the weather or the time to visit here! :( It was on our list but the day we planned to go was chucking down! Oh well, there’s always next time. Great tips and one I shall be keeping for when we do get there! Thanks for linking up with #MondayEscapes

    • Lisa Jane
      Author
      27th August 2015 / 2:46 pm

      Oh nooo!! You definitely have to make another trip to the Cotswolds Ting! Thanks for reading #MondayEscapes

  5. 24th August 2015 / 8:30 pm

    Ah, we love Cotswold wildlife park. We go quite a bit as we live quite close. The giraffes are amazing aren’t they, I could watch them for hours!
    Becky-LittleOandme
    #Mondayescapes

    • Lisa Jane
      Author
      27th August 2015 / 2:48 pm

      Yes it did feel like we watched them for hours Becky as my boys did not want to leave the giraffe enclosure! Thanks for reading :-)

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