Longleat Safari Park is one of the best days out in the UK. This huge safari park in Wiltshire has fun for all ages. Here’s my guide to Longleat Safari Park, and the top things to see and do in one day.
Longleat Safari Park is a great day out in the UK. It’s one of the biggest and best safari parks in the UK. And there’s loads more to do here as well. There are fun activities for all ages, with lots of family-friendly options but also things to do for adults as well. It can be a great place to take kids for a fun day out in school holidays. Or it can be a fun date idea for young couples. Or older adults can enjoy the day as well. People of all ages can enjoy a day at Longleat Safari Park – there’s so much to see and do here.
Planning your day out at Longleat Safari Park can feel overwhelming at first. There really is so much to see and do. There’s the drive through safari park, where you can see lions and tigers and other big animals. Then you can park your car, and walk around lots of areas. You can feed giraffes, and see the cuddly koalas. You can take a boat trip, to see sea lions as well as gorillas and monkeys. Or you could try the UK’s longest hedge maze. Plus, there’s a train ride, loads more animals, and seasonal shows as well. If you’re looking for some tips to make the most of your day at Longleat Safari Park, here are all of my top tips and the top things to see and do to make the most of your one day at Longleat Safari Park.
How do I get to Longleat Safari Park
Longleat Safari Park is in Wiltshire, in the South West of the UK. It’s definitely best to visit Longleat Safari Park with your own car. Public transport is limited, and having your own car means you’ll be able to go around the Drive Through Safari at your own speed.
The closest town to Longleat Safari Park is Frome. It’s a small town, but there are several hotels in and near the town. So if you’re travelling from further away, you can stay at a hotel in Frome so then you can get to Longleat nice and early in the day. Check out some hotels in Frome here (affiliate).
Alternatively, you can visit Longleat Safari Park as a day trip from other places nearby. It’s fairly close to the city of Bath, so you can visit Longleat from Bath. Longleat also isn’t too far away from the south coast of the UK, and the popular tourist town of Poole.
What are the top things to see and do in one day at Longleat Safari Park
There’s so much to do at Longleat Safari Park. With one day at Longleat Safari Park, you’ll be able to see and do all of the best things. But you’ll need to plan your day, to make sure you can get round all of the places you want to see in one day. It’s a full day out, but it’s so much fun!
To help you plan your one day at Longleat Safari Park so you can make the most of your time, here’s my suggested itinerary for the day. This itinerary will show you all of the best things to see and do at Longleat Safari Park in one day. Follow this itinerary in order, and you’ll have an amazing and unforgettable day out.
Start your day at the African Village
Start your day in Longleat Safari Park at the African Village. After you enter, follow signs for the Drive Through Safari. You’ll then get to a parking area at the African Village. Park here, and get out of your car to walk around.
The highlight of this area is the giraffes. You can feed the giraffes as well, up to 11.30am each day. So it’s definitely worth getting to Longleat early and heading over here first. You can buy a branch for £2, and then head to the giraffe feeding area. You hold the branch out for the giraffe to eat. It’s an incredible way to see the giraffes up close. And it’s so funny to watch their huge, strong tongue grab the leaves from the branches. Feeding the giraffes was definitely one of the top highlights of my day at Longleat Safari Park.
There’s more to see and do in the African Village. You can also see the beautiful African Painted Dogs. These wild dogs are great to watch, as they’re often really active in their enclosure.
You can also see zebras and ostrich as well.
Other animals in the area include capybaras, and lemurs. The lemurs were lovely. It was a slightly chilly morning when I visited Longleat Safari Park, so all the lemurs were cuddled up together. You can walk through the Lemur enclosure, so you can get really close to the lemurs without any glass or bars in the way.
The African Village also has a cafe and toilets. It’s a great area to stop for an hour or so at the start of your day at Longleat. Once you’ve seen all the animals here, you can get back in your car and continue onto the Drive Through Safari.
The drive Through Safari at Longleat Safari Park
The Drive Through Safari at Longleat Safari Park is another highlight of your day at Longleat. It’s a huge area, with plenty to see and do. The road is well laid out, with a clear one-way system. There are two lanes on the road, so you can stop your car at anytime if you want to see the animals for longer. If other cars want to move on, they can easily overtake you. So you can spend as long as you want stopped next to any animals, without feeling like you’re holding up the traffic. I took the drive slowly, with lots of stops, and I spent over an hour in the Drive Through Safari Park.
Some of the first animals you see will the the rhinos. I love rhinos, so I enjoyed stopping for a while to get some great photos of the rhinos. There’s also elephants as well, which you can see clearly from the car.
The next area is home to lots of different type of antelope. There are also some camels – who were looking extremely scruffy on the day I visited as they were shedding their winter coats! And then there’s the deer. There’s a huge herd of deer, and you can buy food so you can feed the deer from the car. This is great for children, and a great way to see the deer up close.
There’s also the famous monkeys at Longleat Safari Park. You can drive through the monkey enclosure – but beware they might damage your car! The monkeys jump all over the car, and frequently take windscreen wipers, car aerials and more. So only drive through the monkeys if you’re prepared for some car damage! If you’d rather not risk your car, you can very easily skip the monkeys and continue on the drive through safari.
Then there are some of the biggest animals at Longleat Safari Park – the tigers. I got a great view of the tigers on the day I visited. They’re such beautiful animals.
The lions are great as well. I always love seeing lions. And it’s great seeing these big cats in such a big enclosure, where they’ve got so much space to roam around.
Finally, you’ll get to the cheetahs and the wolves. They’re a great ending to your time at Longleat’s Drive Through Safari.
Longleat Safari Park – Park you car and walk
Follow the signs out of the Drive Through Safari and towards the parking areas. It’s all well signposted, and there’s a huge amount of parking with overflow car parks as well. At busy times of the day, there will be car park attendants who will show you where to park.
The rest of your day at Longleat Safari Park will be explored on foot. You can come back to your car at any time if you forget something or you want to top up on drinks or snacks. But pack your bag at the car for the next few hours – you’ll be busy seeing lots more in the area of Longleat that you can walk around.
Longleat Main Square for lunch
Head to the Main Square – it’s easy to find. Everything at Longleat is well signposted, and you’ll also be given a map when you arrive which will help you find your way around. The Main Square is where you’ll find all of the main food and drink stalls and restaurants. If you arrived at Longleat near opening time and took your time going around the African Village and Drive Through Safari, then you’ll probably be parking and getting to the Main Square around lunchtime. So you can buy some lunch here. Or, there are lots of seats if you’ve brought a picnic.
Animal Adventure, including Koala Creek
From the Main Square, I recommend first going to Animal Adventure. It’s the part of Longleat with the Koalas, which are one of the top attractions here. I loved seeing the cuddly koalas. They’re nearly always asleep in the branches of the trees. So you can nearly always get a great view of them. You can get really close, and it’s so lovely to see the koalas.
There are more animals here as well. You can see crocodiles, and otters. The otters are always fun to watch as they run and swim around their enclosure And there are tortoises – giant tortoises and smaller ones.
And a fennec fox, with it’s amazingly big ears. Then there are meerkats as well. And so many more animals. Take your time to see the animals, and try to spot the more elusive ones as well.
Take the Jungle Cruise boat trip
Next, head to yet another of Longleat Safari Park’s famous highlights. The Jungle Cruise boat trip is so much fun. The boat trip on the lake takes about 20 minutes. The queues for the boat trip can be long, but usually the queues are better in the late afternoon. There are signs that tell you how long the queue will be from several points, so you’ll know what to expect.
The boat trip is lovely. There’s commentary that tells you more about the animals you’ll see, and about Longleat in general. You can see lovely views across the lake. And soon you’ll be able to see the monkeys are gorillas. There are monkeys who live on an island in the middle of the lake. And the gorillas live to the side of the lake. You can get a great view of the gorillas from both sides of the boat – the boat goes past the gorillas, and the turns around to go back, so both sides of the boat get an equally good view.
Next, is the sea lions. The sea lions are fed from the boat. So it’s guaranteed to be able to see the sea lions. They come right up next to the boat, making lots of noise, and jumping out of the water to get the food. It’s great to see.
Find your way through Longleat Hedge Maze
Longleat is also home to the UK’s biggest hedge maze. It really is huge, with tall hedges. You can go into the hedge maze and try to find your way to the middle. It’s really confusing! The middle of the maze at Longleat is a tall viewing platform. So there are times in the maze where you can catch a glimpse of the viewing platform. So you can try to head in that direction. But then you’ll come across a dead end, and have to turn a different way…and then end up even further from the middle! It’s so much fun. They recommend it can take between 10-45 minutes to find the middle of the maze, so give yourself plenty of time!
Once you find the middle, you can enjoy the views across the whole maze. And there’s a signpost for a really quick and easy way out. So you don’t need to go back into the maze to puzzle your way out (unless you want to!).
Visit the scary Bat Cave
The Bat Cave is another fun attraction. You can walk through the dark cave, with bats flying right over your head. It can be a bit scary! There’s also a sloth here as well, which you might be able to see in the darkness.
Go on the Longleat Train Ride
Longleat Safari Park also has a small train. It’s a great attraction for younger children, but anyone of any age can enjoy the train. It’s a small train that takes you around some of the park, and you can spot some animals from the train as well.
Go inside Longleat House
Longleat Safari Park is set in the grounds of Longleat House. Longleat House is a huge stately home. It’s a really impressive building. You can visit the inside of Longleat House if you want, to see the interior of this grand stately home. There are quite a lot of state rooms that you can visit and see the amazing decoration. You can either have a look around yourself, or you can join a guided tour of the house. Guided tours run throughout the day, and it’s a great chance to learn more about the history of the house.
Enjoy the Seasonal Events at Longleat Safari Park
If you visit Longleat Safari Park in school holidays, there are often events on at the park. I visited in 2025 during one of the school holidays, and was lucky to see a show by Steve Backshall. I booked the show online when I booked my tickets for Longleat. If you want to see a show like this, then I definitely recommend booking advance as the show was sold out when I arrived.
The Steve Backshall show was a 30 minute show, where he showed a variety of animals and talked about some fun facts about each one. It was a great show – people of all ages found it fascinating. He started off with a huge snake wrapped around his body, and then gave a chance for some children in the audience to try to hold the snake. The keepers then took the snake away, and brought out different animals. There was a really cute armadillo, who kept trying to dig his way out to escape. There was a really cute binturong, a black bear/cat like animal. And Steve Backshall brought the binturong close to the audience, so you could discover that it smelt of popcorn!
And there were lots of birds of prey as well. Kites were swooping over the audience, with gasps and cheers from the audience. And there was a Grey Owl as well, and we got to see how amazing silent the owl is as it flew right over our heads without making a single sound. The whole show was great, and really enjoyable. If you visit Longleat and have the chance to see one of these shows, I definitely recommend it.
Top tips to make the most of your one day at Longleat Safari Park
So that’s the end of my recommended itinerary for one day at Longleat Safari Park, with all the top things to see and do. It really is an amazing place, with so much to do.
To really make the most of your day at Longleat Safari Park, here are my final top tips for your day out:
- Arrive early – try to get to Longleat near the opening time, so you can have as much time here as possible.
- Do the Drive Through Safari first – this works best, so you can get to the giraffe feeding before it closes. And it means you can take your time going through the drive through safari and stop to see the animals.
- Make sure you’ve got drinks in the car for the drive through safari – once you leave the African Village, there’s nowhere to stop to get out of your car. So make sure you’ve got drinks and cameras in the car with you.
- Beware of car damage from the monkeys – only go in the monkeys if you’re willing to risk car damage.
- Leave plenty of time for walking around in the afternoon – there’s loads more to do at Longleat after the Drive Through Safari. So leave yourself plenty of time and energy to see all of the attractions that you can walk around.
- Don’t try to do literally everything – there’s so much to do at Longleat Safari Park, and it can be an exhausting and overwhelming day, particularly for young children. It’s better to take your time over the things that are your priority for the day. And you can always return another day if you didn’t manage to see everything.
- Take a picnic lunch or buy food there – you’ll need some lunch, so decide before you go whether you’d rather take a picnic or buy food for lunch. A picnic could be cheaper and quicker, and there are lots of picnic areas. But there are plenty of food and drink options in the main square if you’d rather eat here.
- Take a camera as well as your phone – if you’ve got a camera with a zoom lense, definitely take this with you. Phones work ok for some photos. But for the best photos, you’ll need a camera with a zoom lense.
- Remember everyone can enjoy Longleat, of all ages – it’s not just a children’s day out. Longleat Safari Park really does have something for everyone, of all ages, to enjoy. It’s a great place.
- Book your tickets online in advance – book your tickets for Longleat Safari Park here.
Hope you enjoy your day at Longleat Safari Park, with all the top things to see and do in one day! If you’re looking for more great family days out with animals in the area, check out my guide to Cotswold Wildlife Park. Or you can look at my guides to the best things to do in and around Bristol, explore some of the nearby Cotswolds, or visit Oxford for the day.
