Wingham Wildlife Park
Wingham Wildlife Park is located in Wingham, near Canterbury. If you’ve ever driven to Howletts, you are right around the corner from Wingham Wildlife Park. It’s very easy to find and there’s plenty of parking.
We decided to visit on the day the park reopened after the lockdown. It happened to be the same day as Austin’s first birthday – it’s as if they re-opened Wingham just for him!
We had pre-booked our tickets, so we just needed to show our QR code at the window and we were granted entrance. There are a lot of different animals at Wingham Wildlife Park but yet the park isn’t huge. It’s ideal for toddlers as you can easily take a pram with you, and it’s easy to wheel it around. We took a pram and a baby carrier as it was easier for Austin to see some of the animals a bit higher up in the carrier but yet it gave him some downtime in the pram too.
One of Austin’s highlights were the meerkats, he was fascinated by seeing these creatures scuttling around, very busy. He had never seen anything like this before, so he was quite fascinated.
The bigger animals like the bears, lions and tigers would be more suitable for older children. Austin wasn’t that interested as they weren’t really doing anything. He was more interested in the noisy animals and the ones that were moving.
The ducks and geese were particularly fascinating as they were very vocal. He likes garden birds, so geese and ducks were always going to be a winner. He liked the noise they were making.
When we went past the areas with the monkeys and orangutans, he was quite excited as they were very active. There was a small squirrel monkey which spent a lot of time at the window and he was amazed by this. I’m a big fan of small monkeys too, so was quite happy to watch for a while.
As we were passing through the orangutans, one came right up to the glass and Austin hilariously pointed at it and said ‘Dada’.
We spent about 2 and ½ hours going round. You could easily spend all day there, but we felt that was a nice amount of time for us all. We took a picnic with us. There are several areas where you can set up camp and eat your lunch. There’s even an undercover bit if it rains although I think it would get quite crowded quickly.
In normal circumstances, there is an indoor play area and some inside areas, like the bird house, but currently, these are closed so I would plan a day out on a sunny day at the moment or take your waterproofs! Entrance to Wingham Wildlife Park costs £19 per adult, £16 for kids with those under two going for free. Very good value for a nice day out. At this time, you must pre-book a ticket with a specific time slot.
Looking for more toddler-friendly inspiration. Why not take a look at these suggestions of toddler-friendly British Summer Attractions?
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