Review: Paradise Wildlife Park

A couple of weeks ago we had our first proper day out as a family of four to Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire. We’d never been before, so it was  a great chance to try somewhere new, plus it was a nice treat for Finn, who has not had as much attention as he’s used to since his little brother came along. We’ve all been rather cooped up lately as well, so some fresh air was very welcome!

The park is well signposted so we found our way there quite easily. Car parking is free, so we parked up, gathered our stuff together and headed in. We decided to see the animals first, so consulted the map and went off in search of some wildlife.

Paradise Wildlife Park has an impressive array of big cats, including white lions, tigers, cheetahs, jaguars and snow leopards. They’re always my favourite so we headed straight to Big cat Territory at the far end of the park. It didn’t disappoint, it’s always a treat to get close to these beautiful animals. Paradise Wildlife Park isn’t the biggest zoo I’ve been to, but it does have a wide variety of different animals.

Finn always loves to see the monkeys (kindred spirits?) so we had to have a good look round the Tropical Rainforest area, which had many varieties of monkeys and apes. I love watching their antics, although I find it a bit strange as they’re so human-like!

There is also an outback section with wallabies and emus, plus zebras, penguins, a farmyard and lots of birds. There are some nice touches around the park, such as the fact that children can scramble through tunnels and get inside the meerkat mound. I also like the fact that Paradise Wildlife Park is fairly compact, making it easy to get around for families with young children.

The park offers lots of different experiences so you can see the animals from a different perspective. They range from feeding the animals, to shadowing a keeper or even having breakfast with the snow leopards. We didn’t get the chance to do anything this time, but it is something to bear in mind for future, or for a special gift.

We had a quick lunch break in ‘Safari Sam’s Diner’. They serve the usual sort of cafe food you get at attractions. Finn had a children’s lunchbox meal, I had chicken dippers and Luke had the pulled pork sandwich. It was all reasonably priced and quite tasty, although the queue was long.

After lunch we headed over to the other side of the park to the bit that we were all most excited about.

World of Dinosaurs opened this summer and it looked amazing on the website when I researched this day out. It consists of a trail through the woods with life size models of various different dinosaurs, complete with sounds and movement.

There were information points by each one so you could brush up on your dino facts-handy for a mum of two young boys. For example, did you know that Jurassic Park wasn’t entirely realistic and velociraptors were actually only the size of turkeys? The animatronics were really good, all of the dinosaurs looked really lifelike and the attention to detail was stunning. It’s hard to convey in words, so here’s a little video (and a bit of Finn’s commentary) to give you a better idea!

After the dinosaurs, we stopped and let Finn have a run around the play area before heading home.

All in all we had a brilliant day. The animals were interesting, but the star of the show was undoubtedly World of Dinosaurs. I recommend it for any dino fan, big or small.

Have you ever visited Paradise Wildlife Park?

Disclaimer: We were given complimentary tickets for the family in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own (and Finn’s).