Disclaimer: The lovely team at Woburn Safari Park sent me a press pass in return for an honest review. We paid for tickets for the rest of the family to join me. The review words and opinions are my own. All photos are copyright property of Me Becoming Mum.

We were so lucky to be invited to spend the day at Woburn Safari Park, and although we only spent a few hours there, we had such a wonderful time together as a family and I was so glad that John had some time off to be able to go with us!

There is so much to do at Woburn Safari Park, from the moment you drove through the gates and onto the road safari tour to the areas you can walk about. We didn't even manage to see everything, but what we did see we all thoroughly enjoyed.

The Road Safari

The Road Safari is the first area you enter when you get to Woburn Safari Park, and we had a great time in spite of having to have the windows up, with no working air con on one of the hottest days of the year. Unfortunately due to the heat we did miss out on seeing a few of the animals on our drive round.

The best part for Squidgy was seeing her favourite animal, the glorious giraffes especially as one decided to meander around in the middle of the road, oblivious to our car driving behind and beside it.

Swan Boats

Completely free to ride and totally empty as it was so quiet when we went the Swan boats just beyond the entrance are great fun. There is a height restriction but Squidgy enjoyed some time with dad's whilst I wandered with Pickle around Desert Springs.

Desert Springs

Desert Springs is a boardwalk area that is relatively new, and designed to mimic the natural habitat of meerkats and other desert dwellers, and in the heat wave we were having when we visited it couldn't have been more realistic.

Squidgy's favourite part, however, was being able to make a pressed penny... something that she has started to collect from every place we visit.

Bird in Action

The Birds in Action show was great, and so natural. When one bird flew off, the keepers took it in their stride and continued on with the show regardless. There was some great opportunities to get up close and personal with the birds, which was both fascinating and a little daunting for Squidgy but she did so well.

Sea Lion Beach

Having a chance to not only see the Sea Lions on the rocky beach area of their enclosure but check them out swimming through the glass view points was such a unique and much enjoyed experience for my girls.

They also loved looking through at them splashing about above the water, Squidgy in particular being totally enamoured by the noises and arguments (at one point one of the smaller Sea Lions was pushed off into the water by the larger ones) laughing and saying, "they're just like me and my sister!"

Monkey Business

Just beyond the Sea Lion Beach enclosure there is an area dedicated to some of the cutest Spider Monkeys. We were asked to leave the pushchair outside (and having precious experience of a Spider Monkey thieving from me I understood why!) but the small, completely fenced area is pretty safe anyway.

Farmyard Friends

As lovely as it is to see all the exciting, exotic animals that they have at Woburn, both girls enjoyed the Farmyard Friends area just as much. Sometimes it's nice to just see something you recognise and Pickle learnt a new word... "goat"!

Land of Lemurs

No lemur experience will live up to the one that John and I enjoyed at Monkey World in Tenerife where you could feed them and we had various monkey species climb all over us but the girls enjoyed Woburn's Land of Lemurs all the same. We saw babies with their mums, different species jumping around the trees and Squidgy even had the chance to watch one up close and personal as it came right across the path in front of us!

Penguin World

Penguins are Pickles favourite animal, and I have never seen her so excited as she was when we walked to Penguin World. She loved the murals on the walls and seeing the penguins waddle and swim above the ground as well as watching them through the glass view points too.

Squidgy did comment on the colour of the water being green, asking why (something I couldn't answer!) but it didn't stop us from being able to watch the penguins zip through the water.

Great Woburn Railway

We were lucky it was quiet when Squidgy requested a go on the train, as I can imagine on busier days the queue could get a bit crazy. It didn't go far, and has a station at either end of the ride (great if you don't have a pushchair left at one end like we did...) The length was about right for my girls, and they enjoyed it, but there wasn't much to see that you couldn't enjoy simply walking about the park.

As well as the areas we did explore there is also plenty of other parts to Woburn Safari Park for families to enjoy. These include:

Australian Walkabout where you can meet allabies and Rhea.
Mammoth Play Ark, a fabulous indoor soft play area that Squidgy really wanted to play in but we ran out of time.
Giraffe Trail Highropes a course of highropes for 5-11 year olds.

You can also book yourself in for VIP experiences to get up close and personal with the amazing animals that Woburn Safari Park has from feeding the big cats to being a keeper for the day.

We are so grateful to Woburn for inviting us to visit, and with a simple trip down the M1 from Watford to visit, I'm sure we will be back again in the future to see everything that we didn't get chance to enjoy this time round.

For more posts about our family adventures, from UK staycations to days out for kids visit my Travel blog. If you have any questions about Woburn Safari Park, feel free to ask in the comments section below.