Longleat

What did the donkey do when a car pulled out in front of him?
He hee-hawnked! 😂
Make sure to go along to our Family Farmyard to meet Minstrel, Bobbin, Sandy and Gwen on your next visit to Longleat: longleat.co.uk/main-square/family-farmyar d

Did you know that there are over 250 species of monkey in the world? Now, we're certainly familiar with at least one monkey species that is close to world domination - the rhesus macaque! These cheeky monkeys have the widest geographic range of any primate bar from humans, and live naturally in Afghanistan, India, Southeast Asia, China and of course, Longleat! 🐒

Lions are almost all muscle - just look at that majestic big cat in action! 🦁

The tapir's famous nose isn't just there for looks! 🐽 It's actually prehensile, meaning it can be used to grab things such as leaves, fruit and other foods. They can also use it as a snorkel!
Heading out on safari? Look out for our three tapir just after the giraffes and zebra.

With jaws strong enough to crush a car and a mouth so wide it could swallow a human whole, do you think the T. rex would hunt down prey or scavenge for food? Come along to T. rex: The Killer Question, our exciting exhibition in partnership with the Natural History Museum, London, and make your choice based on the scientific facts: longleat.co.uk/whats-on/trex-the-killer-q uestion

Hurray for World Snake Day! 🐍 We're home to a few different international species here at Longleat, including a killer animatronic of the fearsome black and white spitting cobra, but did you know that the UK is also home to wild snakes as well? You could spot the grass snake, the newly identified barred grass snake, the rare smooth snake or the shy but venomous adder on your woodland walks. Remember, these UK species play a vital role in the ecosystem and act as a natural form of pest control, helping to manage the population of small rodents, amphibians and other reptiles, so please don't try to harm them.

Need more koala in your life? Then watch this from beginning to end. The warm and fuzzies are guaranteed 🐨

Drum roll please, we have a super exciting announcement - Koalas are coming to Longleat! 🐨
We're excited to finally tell you the news that we will be welcoming six southern koalas from Cleland Wildlife Park to Longleat! This exciting move is being spearheaded by the newly-created International Koala Centre of Excellence and is all part of an international breeding and awareness-building programme to help ensure koalas have a future in the wild. They will also be joined by som...e of their closest relatives, the southern hairy-nosed wombat, in a brand new habitat! Boasting a natural stream, glass-fronted wombat burrow, dedicated indoor and outdoor enclosures, and of course lots of lovely trees for climbing. Koala Creek is currently being built here at the park and will open in Spring 2019. We can't wait to be the first collection in Europe that's home to the southern koala!
Stay tuned for further updates throughout the year...
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Did you know that a group of giraffes is known as a tower? 🦒 Oddly fitting, don't you think? Just look at the height of them!

Dun, dun, DUN! It's Friday 13th!
📸: Sheep"R"Us (http://bit.ly/2Km4MY1)

Our lemurs are getting right in the spirit of Wimbledon! Do you think any of them have what it takes to become big tennis stars? To be honest we think they seem more keen on the strawberries than the sport ...⭐🎾

The spotted hyena is famous for its cackle! They are very social animals and make a range of calls to communicate within their large clan. They are highly intelligent and are able to work as a team to bring down larger prey. That's right, the hyena may be known for scavenging, but at least half of their food comes from hunting and larger predators such as the lion will often steal their kill. They are well suited to it too, with incredible stamina allowing them to chase after prey over long distances and a jaw that's adapted to crush bone.

Paws up, who loves our new TV ad? 🦁
Once upon a time, nestled deep in the Wiltshire countryside, there was an Astonishing Kingdom...

We have some gor-eat news! 🦍
Please join us in welcoming these two gorgeous seven-year-old male lowland gorillas to our Gorilla Colony! We're pleased to report that these handsome chaps are getting on well and we're hoping to introduce them to Kesho, Evindi and Alf soon. Our long term goal is to have these five beautiful boys out and about together. Make sure to stay tuned for updates...

There's always that one friend who wants to be the centre of attention 🙄
📷: Steven Hewitt

Doesn't Longleat House look grand in this beautiful summery shot by Charlotte Clarke? 🤩

Paws up, who wishes they could trade places with Keeper Matt? 😻
Now Matt's found that stroking Xena can sometimes make her purr like a little kitten and was keen to demonstrate for our Facebook fans, but we think she was far too interested in nap time 💤

To help celebrate England's quarter-final win our big cats have been holding a World Cup tournament of their own! Paws up, who thinks it's coming home?! 🦁🦁🦁

Snuffling out the last of the chocolates like... 🍫 #WorldChocolateDay

We've welcomed over 30 red deer babies this year. Yes, you read right: Over. 30. This. Year! 🦌

hi. my husband and i had a great day yesterday at longleat. few things troubling me though. found some of the guides in the house boring. no interaction with us at all. most reading when you go in the room. only say hi when you say hi first. went to Kingston lacy the other days guides were brillant there so interactive. such a difference

What a fabulous place to visit! Everywhere was clean and tidy, plenty of parking, toilets are a plenty! Very organised staff through thesafari, the animal keepers were doing a great job and Looked happy even in this heat! I was so pleased to see multiple keepers in enclosers and the freedom the animals have. Enclosers are fantastic, i love how close you can get with out upsetting the animals and how much each keeper cares for them. I spoke to some of the keepers and they are passionate, very knowledgable, friendly and happy to be there.

You get SO much with the tickets and a full day out for all the family! Cant wait to visit again! Highly recommend! �

We visited on Sunday and we had an amazing day. We paid extra and went on the bus around the safari/monkey park. Highly recommend doing this as Dave our driver/tour guy was amazing. Spoke to us the whole time on the bus and told us where to look for the animals. He was great and so friendly and you could tell he loves his job and driving the bus. We enjoyed going on the train/boat, feeding the giraffes, sea lions and having a wonder around the other bits. My 2 daughters enjoyed the little ride too and the massive play park. Towards the end we did the safari park again (and the monkey park, the car survived it) and I’m glad we did as we enjoyed it even more, with Dave help we saw lots of animals and knew where to look. (Top tip were the jeep is their will be animals) We will definitely be back very soon to do the Festival of Lights at Christmas.

We had an amazing day on the gold VIP day and I can’t recommend it enough. It was money very well spent. Our guide Steve was so nice and very knowledgeable about the animals in Longleats care. All the animals are well cared for and are given enrichment and as much natural habitat as possible. I will definitely be back to spend more time there.

Visit with my nephews and niece last week.such a wonderful place, many things to do and in store food and gifts prices were reasonable. One can easily spend 6-7 hours with family.kids had great fun in house play areas. Animals were quite in number, tiger and wolves were sleeping but African lion pride was active and more than 25 in total. Great value for money �

This was our 1st visit here and we had a brilliant day. We paid for the Bronze VIP tour and it was amazing. Our driver was Steve and he really went above and beyond to make sure we got the most out of tour with his knowledge and sense of humour he really made our day. We will definitely be coming back . Have seen people moaning about food and drink prices but I found them to be fairly reasonable.

This place has everything to recommend for, if you have not been yet, it is a must see and trust me it will be worth it. We had a truly unforgettable day there and have experienced a very unique approach to being around wild animals and learnt just how intelligent they are. You feel differently after going there, we all belong together. And this is the connection you feel between the animals and their keepers as well. Thank you for whoever you are for creating Longleat!

This is the first time I’ve visited Longleat as I always watched it on the tv. Firstly an amazing entrance and welcoming staff well laid out to get in. At £100 for the 4 of us I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it but definitely a fair price for what we got, secondly I love love love how much natural freedom the animals have to roam, so many gorgeous giraffes, lions and tigers although most were sleeping because of the heat but who could blame them !!! The safari took us around two hours we then went to the cafe for lunch decent enough choice of toasties, sandwiches etc we were £30 for 4 drinks , 4 sandwiches and 4 cakes so quite happy with that. The house is massive but we didn’t really take much time on that because the park took up most of our day, opening times were 10-5 I can’t feel a little disappointed it wasn’t later opening as we had driven 2 hours to get there but our schools are off I appreciate the English ones aren’t yet. Definitely recommend for a family day our my kids are 14/12 ��

My partner nagged to go but im tight but i give in. it seems alot of to pay to go in but i was impressed can see how well you look after the animals annies heaven amazing and the story was so sad from her previous life also the park was spotless staff very friendly arther the bus driver absolute legend he was hilarious and made the trip fun happy staff make a happy customer well done longleat credit to you all

Me and my partner had an amazing day yesterday on our bronze VIP experience. We had an amazing tour guide named Steve who was at all times on the ball with hearing when things were occuring around the park that would be of interest including seeing the feeding of the big cats, he was informative, funny and more than anything kept our interest for our 2 hour tour. If you're wondering if it's worth the extra £45 I can tell you now it really is. Well worth the 280 mile round trip from the Midlands.

Had a fantastic time here yesterday for my birthday, taking the bus round was great as saved the car from getting jumped on by the monkeys lol, got to feed the sea lions who made lots of noise on the cruise all in all a fantastic day out, hoping to come back for the festival of lights at the end of the year, thank you Longleat x

Fantastic day out, lots to please us all. Longleat is clean, tidy and well maintained. Animals are well cared for with very knowledgeable animal wardens, the experience didn’t seem rushed with staff taking time to make us feel welcome to ask questions.

We arrived at 9.30 and didn’t leave until 6pm. I’d recommend the safari bus, our tour guide was great at giving us info we otherwise wouldn’t have gained.

A few area were off limits due to maintenance works and although these would’ve been of interest to us it didn’t spoil our day as there was still so much to see and do.

A credit to all involved

Fantastic day out for my daughters birthday. The whole place is very clean and well maintained with happy, helpful staff. Would definitely recommend using the bus for the drive through, our driver/guide Dave was fantastic � we will definitely be returning!

After a 3 1/2 hrs drive to my brother's wedding at Longleat it was lovely to have a decent latte in a mug.....and the toilets !......great decoration ! We went on the vip safari and fed the seals. It was amazing ! Best wedding day ever !! Our guide on the safari was newish to doing the driving tour but knew so much about the animals and got us really close to them. The wedding food was great ! As were the staff ushering us through the house all afternoon....They must was miles. Husband and I are def coming back , we missed so much ! Thank you for the great time.....Hope my brother survived feeding the tigers today !!

Dear Longleat. I've loved your park for more than 44 years. As boy to Man. From Dr Who's Exhibition to the old sack race slide, the parrot show and then all the brilliant new changes to pets corner. It's absolutely fantastic. We visited yesterday 31st may and didn't care about the threat of thunderstorms. They stayed off and enjoyed 6 hours in the park and grounds.



However we then decided to visit the new Chameleon restaurant. Much better looking and modern. The selection of meals was not great for our family as it was limited but we ordered fish and chips and some sides for the children. £45. OK gulp. Then sat down and the fish was cold and they had forgotten the tartar sauce. I returned to the counter to explain. My plates were snatched off me, a new fish slapped on each plate and thrust back at me while a metal pot of tartar was filled. The woman said nothing. Not sorry. Not here you are sir. Nothing. I know this is just a small point about customer service but, as a director of marketing myself, left me and my family with a bad lasting impression of your staff.

Everybody else throughout the day was brilliant , the keepers, the safari boat guide even the ladies at the ticket kiosks. Please tell the restaurant staff! I spent in all over £200 at Longleat yesterday not to feel like one of your sea lions having a fish thrown at me. � Richard Jones

The house is amazing and would have liked to see more of it. It would have been nice if the staff around the park looked like they were enjoying themselves and smiled occasionally. Food was reasonably priced for this type of

venue. Think West Midland safari park is better value for money plus you get closer to the animals.

Visited Longleat today. Very disappointed with the total disinterested attitude of the guest services staff and lack of safari buses. Mid July and only 2 buses per day! First one completely booked by first thing in the morning. We were told seats for second bus would be released at 1pm. We get to guest services at 1pm to be told they have all gone. They were reserved for people on motorbikes and with soft top cars and only 10 seats remained which were given out on a first-come-first-served basis. So anyone unable to go around in their own car was therefore unable to enjoy the safari, despite this being one of the main reasons to visit Longleat and despite still paying the extremely expensive entrance price! There was no notices or information given about this anywhere. When questioned about this the guest services staff was dismissive and uninterested!

So unless you had prior knowledge of this ‘policy’, you lost out. Such a shame as have visited Longleat in the past and this was not the case. Very poor Longleat!!

Shocking customer service and only accessible if you are able to use a toilet, for those guests not able to use toilets, don’t bother!! Longleat clearly state on their website that they have changing facilities for older guests but when asking staff on the day no one could tell us where this facility was. We were treated extremely insensitively and felt as though our expectations were unreasonable, even though they say they have the facilities on their website. I have voiced my upset in an email to Longleat but sadly they only respond to what they want to see and not what you have actually written. Utterly disappointed �

This is the first time that I have ever been moved to leave an online review... that is how much I hated my day here.



Without doubt the worst family attraction in the UK with regards to value for money.



£96 for 2 adults and a 5 year-old (it was actually our sons birthday treat). This was for an “all inclusive” ticket. HOWEVER, they ran out of food for the reindeer, and the parrots... they even ran out cheese for jacket potatoes.



They certainly weren’t short of miserable looking faces as people slowly roasted in traffic jams and long queues. I can’t believe I spent £96 to sit in a traffic jam for 4 hours. Was so desperate for food, water and a wee that I would have happily run through the lions to get out as quickly as possible.



The only reason I can think that this place survives is a parents desperate need to entertain their kids.



DON’T GO. Sit in your car on the drive and look at the local cats and squirrels, buy a bag a spuds (and cheese) from the supermarket and give £96 to charity.