Longleat

If you are a decent member of society who follows the government guidelines and cares about your health and others, do not go to Longleat!!!!

The safari is incredible and we loved every minute of it. I would highly recommend the monkey enclosure because it is hilarious! The staff are incredibly friendly and take their own safety seriously as all were in visors and masks.

However, I didn't feel safe in the grounds at all. When you aren't in your car it is impossible to get away from people. Longleat advertise limited tickets to maintain social distancing but it was a joke. The general public do not follow any of the social distancing rules, and when I asked the staff why the queue for the train was packed like sardines, they said that they had asked the public to spread out and follow the blue dots but no one listened.

Longleat if you're not going to significantly reduce the amount of people you let into the park, give your staff the power to enforce the distancing!!!

It was so bad that in the end we didn't actually do anything other than the safari because we felt so unsafe.

If you want to get catch Covid-19 please go to Longleat! There are 100 signs explaining the rules but no one takes any notice.

Yesterday morning I went to longleat as a VIP and our tour guide (Kate) was fantastic, the story about Annie the elephant was emotional but such a beautiful happy ending to the story. You can see the animals are extremely well looked after and happy. Kate was brilliant, I'd say she definitely made our tour extra special, telling me and shaun about all the animals and didn't feel rushed around, she took us as close as possible and let us get lovely photos of the animals etc
I would certainly recommend doing the VIP Tours
WORTH EVERY PENNY
A massive thank you to Kate

We visited Longleat for a VIP experience for my 15 year old. When I booked this I wasn’t aware it was also the Festival of Lights so had a pleasant surprise. We arrived at 9.30 after a stay at the Travelodge 10 minutes away. We had our dogs with us so used the free kennels at the entrance to the safari park. Padlock and key provided at the ticket booth. The kennels were basic but clean and fine as long as you take your own bedding and water bowl. They are quite a distance from the main house so bear this in mind.

Our trip around the safari park was good. Not too busy at 9.30am. We then spent time in the area around the house wandering around the animal enclosures, shops and the house tour. We had a trip on the jungle cruise which was really interesting. The staff member doing the commentary was very entertaining.

There is a good selection of food outlets. We went in the Chameleon Tree restaurant mainly for somewhere warm to sit. The meals were ok but I thought a bit pricey. No different to other similar venues though. In summer I’m sure we would have taken a picnic.

The Festival of Lights was beautiful. Mostly static sculptures lit up on a theme not lots of sparkly moving lights as my husband was expecting. It was lovely and very impressive. There were lots of visitors but it didn’t feel overwhelming or too busy. A one way system was in place which helped.

At the end of the evening traffic was busy but marshals kept things moving so we weren’t waiting for long.

Overall a great day and evening. Well organised.

A group of us went all family age range from 2 to 60 years all together 10 of us went all ate lunch we all took the bus around the Safari at a cost of £5 each so longleat got a lot of money out of us, one of the staff members was very rude to my daughter which I reported to management and they sorted it, there was a member of staff checking the number of people getting on the boat was very rude.
I think some of the staff leave a lot to be desired, on the other hand the restaurant manager sorted the situation in the restaurant, the staff on the boat was great and Dave the Safari bus driver was definitely saved the day, he was very knowledgeable about the Safari park and the animals absolute joy.
I would think twice about spending that sort of money to go there again with the reception you receive in some parts though.

We arrived at around 10am (on a weekday) and had no issues parking, there was a 30 minute queue for the boat trip but otherwise there very minimal queues. We noticed that a couple of the exhibits were closed but most were open as normal.

We booked on the VIP bronze experience, which included the entrance fee, cream tea and a drive around the safari park with one of the guides. This was excellent and completely worth the money. Our guide Nathan (pretty sure that was his name) was really knowledgeable about all of the animals and the conservation efforts of the park. He was great with answering all of our questions and was able to go off the main road so we were able to be really close to all of the animals!

Would highly recommend the VIP experience to anyone who wants to get close to the animals and/or is worried about the monkeys pulling bits off their car!!

Social distancing/COVID restrictions did not negatively affect the day at all!

Sadly we were really disappointed by the organisation of the buses around the safari. We were staying on the Longleat Caravan Campsite in a hired motorhome which explicitly prevents us taking it around safari parks. The tickets for the buses (now £8 per person over 3 years old) are on a first come first served basis, for only two buses they are operating per day at the moment, and only bookable on arrival. We queued from the campsite entrance 20mins before opening with only a few people in front. They had run out of tickets by the time the people in front of us tried to book. It turns out they were also letting people into the park before 10:00 so they could start queueing for the 4 Guest Services points selling bus tickets from there from 10:00. It was incredibly disappointing for our three year old.

The park advertises that their reduced bus provision is to promote social distancing, but it is not in keeping with how they are managing the rest of the park indoor areas, so it doesn’t make sense.

The Jungle Cruise ferry ride was definitely the redeeming feature and we were lucky enough to see a hippo, the sea lions and the gorillas. The Adventure Castle playground was also great fun. Everything in the park was incredibly busy though, with long queues for much of the day.

If you are definitely wanting to go around the safari park and can’t do it under your own steam, you may not wish to go this summer. Our overall experience was that we paid more than is reasonable for the day we were able to have, and until the reviews suggest they have got their act together better with regard to queue management and service provision, we won’t go back.

Summary: don't bother whilst COVID restrictions remain. Save your money and go another time, £29.95 per person (£25.45 with discount) really wasn't worth it this time round.

I have visited Longleat twice, the first time was amazing (pre-covid), the second time was a disaster (14th September 2020).

On a positive note the Safari was great, there was basically no impact from covid on this part of the experience.

However, this is where the positives end, the park was over crowded in practically every area despite the website stating numbers of people being entered in to the park were being limited. I thought the limiting of numbers would have made me feel safer during the visit, I was wrong.

One of my main complaints would be the covid procedures, especially the 'social distancing' in queues for attractions, there wasn't any social distancing at all! The boat was limited to about half capacity to ensure distancing and face coverings were mandatory. This meant, understandably, that we needed to queue for the attraction. However, when queuing for the boat ride we were wound round the nearby tree, where people insisted on standing on top of each other without face coverings. This meant we were in close proximity to all the people who we were being socially distanced from on the boat, making it essentially pointless to distance on the boat itself and limit the numbers (causing extended queues)!

Further to this, many attractions in the park were completely closed due to COVID (probably over half of the animal exhibits). This made the visit much less enjoyable than my previous visit. For example, no talks were taking place, making me think why was the park even open (other than to make money of course)? I'll also add, the government guidelines in relation to a maximum of 6 people meeting up were completely ignored by many guests and no enforcement measures were in place.

In summary, don't bother whilst COVID restrictions remain. Save your money and go another time, £29.95 per person (£25.45 with discount) really wasn't worth it this time round.

Firstly, can I just say how much we love Longleat in general and had read great reviews about the VIP experiences. However I was given this experience for a birthday gift and found it extremely disappointing! I suspect that the experience “differed” due to the inclement in weather along with Coronavirus but this was not communicated to us or even a suggestion made to rebook later.
After a very fast and bumpy ride in the land rover (the guide didn’t even slow after my daughter and I banged our heads going over a speed bump) we literally just stood in the giraffe house for 30mins getting in the way of the keepers cleaning the stables/pens. We have had just as good an experience at Marwell Zoo without the £79pp fee! I feel bad for the person who bought the gift!
Sorry Longleat but on this occasion it was a let down 👎☔️😷??
The good thing was that the animal activity in the safari park itself was fantastic and we even bumped into the Viscountess who was fabulous darling (also strictly fans lol) who was very happy to be in a photo!

Spent the day at Longleat, taking in the Festival of Light, the Santa Express, and the Safari Bus tour. Excellent day out. The Festival of Light was breathtaking, and I would recommend it 100 per cent to anyone. The park is fully accessible, except for the Maze, and staff are smiling, friendly, attentive, and ready to assist in any way they can. We went on the boat to see the gorillas, and fed the sea lions. Arthur ( 17months) loved the playpark, and the close up experience with small animals. We all enjoyed the Safari bus tour, and it was a pleasure to be driven by someone who clearly loves their job !!! The Santa Express was lovely, and the gift well worth the price paid, which I had thought was rather expensive - but no, it was sturdy, safe, and entirely suitable for Arthur. Cafe food a bit pricey, but of excellent quality, so it didn’t matter. Not a cheap day out, but a wonderful one, making some very happy memories. Fully recommend it !!!!

We went on New Year’s Eve to see the Festival of Light and the fireworks - we had a great time, the parking was well organised and even though we arrived at lunchtime we were able to get lunch in the restaurant without a wait (reasonably priced and good food). We spent a few hours looking at the animals and the house, and then once it was dark we enjoyed the amazing lanterns. We didn’t do the safari as we’d arrived late in the day, but will definitely return later in the year to do that.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as we’ve not been to Longleat before, but the whole thing was really good and very well organised - we were very impressed. The event was sold out but even so it didn’t ever feel overcrowded with visitors and it was a nice relaxing afternoon/evening.