Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks Review

Great day out. Some amazing animals here being well looked after and species being preserved. The Safari tour was very informative giving details about the history of the reserve the area and the animals. Highlights for me were the giraffes and primates great looking animals obviously will looked after. Gift shop is well stocked but mostly aimed at the young ones. Full of stuffed animals and a large dinosaur section.

Wonderful Glamping! Go for the luxury tent with safari option and you'll have a fantastic time. We woke up to a Wildebeest migration. Brill! And I have to mention the sausages in the breakfast... Sublime

Great day out with the kids, even when only half open

Couldn't see many animals in compounds and no sign of walk area either????

Great weekend away. Thoroughly recommend the Rhino Lodge and AAA Safari!

Beautiful views and location. Worthy cause and bring a camera for the animals - fun safari for kids. Bring a picnic!

Amazing, wonderful place which does so much for wildlife. My only complaint is the cafes are overpriced.

I visited the park with my Son from Australia and I thoroughly enjoyed the park
as I live in lympne , it was handy don't have to travel

Brilliant as always, love port Lympne and Howletts and the Aspinal Foundation for all the work they do to save endangered species.

Very good, social distancing adhered to. Bit of a walk so would be weary with younger/elderly/disabled.

We were guests at a wedding at Port Lympne and decided to stay overnight as it was also our wedding anniversary.

From booking, to check-in and the bottle of prosecco we had ordered with our room mistakes were being made constantly. There didn't appear to be any communication between teams or any general understanding of what was going on. From double booking our room, to trying to force us to check in at 2pm despite repeatedly being told we were attending the wedding at 2pm and then forgetting our prosecco.

The staff members that had to sort out the mess their colleagues before them had created were to their credit very good. We were offered accomodation in their new Forest Hideaway without additional charge to rectify the double booking, we were eventually checked in & then driven down to the wedding in a buggy so we wouldn't be late. And our prosecco was upgraded to champagne half an hour after we reported it was missing.

The forest Hideaway could have been lovely, it certainly looked it however it had clearly been rushed as fixings were falling off the walls and one of the doors couldn't open. Don't be fooled into thinking it will be completely quiet as a "hideaway" either as it is next to a main road which can be noisy.

The reserve is amazing and use of huggies was brilliant. The signage however is pretty poor so make sure you allow plenty of time to see everything you want to and don't forget your map otherwise you'll have no hope!

TL;DR - Beautiful place with some poorly finished elements. Mostly good customer service but simple mistakes shouldn't have been made in the first place

the staff were lovely and friendly and the safari experience was fun. not too busy there either, which I appreciated. make sure to wrap up if you're going in the winter as it's an outdoor thing.

Used to be really good but has gone downhill over the years. Still ok to take your kids to but there are now other places which are better.

Didn't stay in hotel. Went for the day.. safari ride good, although hard to hear driver talking. Lot of hilly walking.. don't expect too much animal wise, lots of cages seemed empty.. but on whole had good weather so was a lovely day out.

If your thinking about going then don't . Very poor you might see few monkeys but that's about it.
Howletts a little better but not worth the money.

Lovely day out with proceeds going to a good cause. Dinosaur park is great.

Stayed at Camping pods. Kids loved it. Will - the guide on tour of reserve on giraffe feeding tour was incredibly well informed, funny and knowledgeable. Kids loved feeding the gorgeous giraffes. Beautiful creatures.

I love the thematic visit : African, Asian,... encounter a rhino and giraffes and several animals without the wire mesh barrier

Great day out with my partner and friends. The tour was great with loads of information, loads to see and amazing to see the animals so up close.

Had a very wet day but I was impressed with all the social distancing signs all over the park and friendlynes of the staff would highly recommend this reserve

Not the best. Food way over priced . Animals you cant see as everything is over grown . Very steep. Not for old folk .

A word of warning. We had timed tickets for entry between 11 and 11.30am, even though we arrived around 11.10am we still had to queue for 1 1/2 hours to gain entry to the site. Due to Covid-19 a lot of the park was out of bounds including the giraffes and the big cats. I believe we were still charged the usual admission rates.

Fantastic day out make sure you get there early to avoid waiting to long for the Safari!!

Poor quality. People stole the table tennis bats and the bed calapsed on me. The staff were apoorling unable to help and rude. DISGUSTING.by the way it s a scam.

Great for seeing animals close up but starting to get expensive

Very disappointing..
Was here for over 3H, saw 1 gorilla, 2 gibbions & 2 tapir.
The safari ride passed close to some giraffe's, other then that, it was like playing a game of 'Spot the smudge in the distance'..
Around the walking arears, most of the enclosures appeared empty.
On the plus side, never seen so many dinosaurs!
I guess i was just unlucky but i would not recommend this place.

Only a short visit this time but was lucky enough to catch up with the lion cubs playing together so cannot be any less than a 5 star visit

Little bro (8yrs) loved it not the place for babies though ausome place for weddings!

A really nice day out with lots of fresh air and interesting animals, statues and paths to wander down.

The gardens were beautiful. With the current restrictions their safari ventures weren't running but that hardly detracted from our experience.

I will not go again no animals were out the ones that were looked rough, unhappy and unsettled as some kept pacing up and down. There enclosure were small and muddy, no room to run.
The actually safari was dangerous and scary, it felt like we was going to tip over as we were do close to the edge. We could Barely hear the driver talk about the animals through the monitor. Half way through the safari we got told the next lot of shops were closed so no food or hot drinks (it was freezing).. Ok .. Then the driver said we can get off and walk the rest as he doesn't go past the monkeys or apes so alot of people got off but failed to tell us the zoo was closing!!! Then we get to the very end we get told to hurry up and leave but we couldn't due to my friend had a broken leg. He gave the reciption his girlfriends car keys for a wheelchair to be able to get about but the reception was shut and know one to be seen. So we had to try and find someone and when we did they gave us nothing but attitude.
We really wanted to go into the gift shop and buy a cup and a pen but that was shut too! Nothing was sign posted clear enough. And found we where going in circles half the time. so for two family's and friends it was a waste of money if you want a day out go to the beach

Amazing experience. Endangered animals in natural surroundings and ride with safari truck. Hope the animals show themselves

Family of four. Two boys 12 and 9.
30/12/19.

Of course this is spectacular when you take into account how much this Zoo does for animals in the animal kingdom.

But I'm saddened to say the park is showing signs of not being what it once was. We stood at the 30 minute for the safari ride for nearly an hour! Trust me it is not to do with the volume of people. It was the lack of safari vehicles I'm afraid. We saw but two or three in that hour!

The safari cafe is no longer open. A lot of cages are empty.

Amazing experience and a beautiful place, staff really welcoming and friendly, wish we could of stayed longer.

A fun day out for all the family

Can be a hilly walk though you can stay on the safari trucks to see most of the animals.

nice place to go to, to see gorillas spaced out well

working there...so can't really comment...but was a sunny day and car park seemed busy.

Really enjoyed the walk through the beautiful nature. Seeing animals kept in rather bigger cages with loads of moving round space. Child buggys in a bit of a state. Liked the maze and the views.

Very quite and setup naturally. They have become more commercial now compared to what they were a couple of year back. Still worth visiting.

Love Port Lympne, big park lots to see, I don't go to zoos but it's a reserve, and they help animals back into the wild.

Love it! Safari bus (included in price) takes you all round the park. Various animals to see - Zebra, White and Black Rhino, Siberian tigers, Wilderbeast, Bison to name but a few! Went August bank holiday - got very busy - staff suggested getting to the Safari first thing. Children's play-areas nothing to write home about and cafe's generally basic although nice Pizza restaurant at bottom-end of park (long wait for food). Will be looking to go to their sister park (Canterbury) next time.

Really good animal park. Take the safari trip around the open area and if you are lucky the giraffes will stick their heads in to say hi

The whole family enjoyed it and we Will visit again

Loads to see, in beautiful surroundings, great restaurant in middle of woods for outside dining. Great for kids and adults.

Really want to grade higher as the animals have fantastic enclosures and that's the most important thing...
But to be honest, there aren't that many animals, and the ones they did have (of real interest) we didn't see because they weren't out. So: no lions, tigers or cats seen at all. Only 2 of the 10 rhinos, and none of the calves. 1 giraffe head through a window for 3 seconds. The gorillas were amazing but only seen sleeping in the distance through some bars.



Very limited refreshment opportunities in colder weather too. A hot pizza eat in restaurant halfway round, and a basic cafe at the start. We just wanted to sit down inside after the safari and have a cuppa but nowhere to do it.

The truck tour is a good point, but too many places are empty or in bad condition.
A bit expensive, even if part of the amount is used to protect/breed species in danger.

Good day out and kept kids happy. Just be warned it is on very big hills.

We had an absolute fantastic day here. When we arrived the queue for the Safari ride was huge so we decided to walk the park on our own. A long walk specially for our toddler but there was a lot of animals to see.
All of our kids young and old loved the dinosaur park.
After our very long walk we headed back to the start on found the Safari ride queue a lot smaller so managed to go on one of the last few trucks for the day. We saw at least five trucks running that day.
The Safari ride is fantastic and once again all of its enjoyed being bounced along in the trucks and up and down the hills seeing even more animals and getting to see some of the huge areas some of the animals have to roam.
The cafe and places to stop get a coffee etc, are there usual locked in prices. You are here, you want a tea, coffee,soft drink or snack, will you can't go anywhere else so pay our extortionate prices.
A great day out.

Brilliant place to go even in a large group. Well maintained and organised, great eating places and things to do.

A Very Good Experience to see animal in the natural environment

Great place. Didn't manage to see everything as was on the wrong side of truck and could not here the drivers announcement s. Other than that a great place.

Took the family there for a night and it was the bomb. The golf buggies are a no brainer, means you can get from either side of the park in no time. Lots of animals and they seemed pretty well cared for. We had small kids and it was great, the dinosaur area was a thoughtful addition too.

A great day out - there is a (bumpy) safari tour which takes out a lot of the legwork, but if you chose to do some walking bear in mind that the zoo is situated on a massive hill, and it can be exhausting walking up to the top, especially in hot weather.

Very disappointed, a lot of money which would have been ok if had seen some animals...saw very few. The dinosaur area was probably the most interesting part, enjoyed the walk but can do that anywhere for free, won't be going back.

I ve been here for 1 day and it s already been great. I m staying in the pods and it s great when the lions roar. The only bad things are that the buggy s are only for the hotel guests and the treehouse guests and the pods get hot and stuffy through the night. the storage is great and the rooms quite spacious (we have the sofa bed out too) The other families don t keep you awake. 9/10 from me

Human adventure. Need good walking legs on here to get round to see all the animals. You can see some on the safari ride, we went out of season so only the food place at the beginning was opening, it was a long walk back with a hungry little one! Staff are friendly, we were lucky to see all the big animals.

Wonderful experience for dining, staying and most importantly animal interactions.

A beautiful manorhouse set in the Kent countryside . A very good up close safari .great fun for all the family .

Spent 80 pounds on looking at trees nothing was in cages would not recommend

Lots of animals to see walking around,on the 1hr safari tour or even from the view of your accommodation. Gorgeous views right out to sea on a clear day. So quiet and peaceful on site! Lots of different accommodations to choose from. Really helpful & friendly staff, who you can tell really enjoy working here & have good knowledge of the animals. Nice eating places. Really pretty gardens & house. Feeding & questions sessions for different animals. Parks for kids, dinosaur forest & maze. Various different gift shops. Lots of fun having a buggy to drive around in, is a big site, so helpful to get around things. Lovely to see animals in their natural habitats and enjoying the great amount of space they have to roam. Some endangered animals so very exciting to catch a glimpse of them.

they do amazing work with low land gorillas and the owner truly cares about animals and conservation!

Sadly, very disappointing.

I've been going to the Aspinall Foundation zoos for a number of years. I'd last been to Port Lympne about 10 years ago and sadly must say that it has gone drastically downhill from the experience I remember.

Firstly, the most disappointing part of the park today is the fact that you cannot access around 60% of it on foot. Admittedly the park is a 400+ acre site and would take around 4 hours to get around on foot - something we were both up for and looking forward to - but on arrival we were told that the majority of the animals were only accessible via a 'safari tour' on a trailer being behind a Land Rover, along with about 30 other people, which leaves every 15 minutes or so. You are not allowed off this at any stage of the tour which takes around 45 minutes. It makes it very difficult to see any of the animals properly and taking any decent photos near impossible.

Secondly, the food/drink offering is appalling. Port Lympne offers a new wood pizza restaurant which I was excited to try but upon walking into the restaurant was told that the wait for a pizza would be well over an hour - remember that these take 3-4 minutes to cook in a pizza oven!

Sad to say that it is a far cry from the zoos I used to love growing up and the only real positive you can take is that the animals do look well taken care of, which is good to see, but from a typical zoo you will have a much more enjoyable time elsewhere.

We visited Port Lympne reserve and were NOT HAPPY as we did not get the safari. Staff members said safari was only for hotel guests because of Covid. Buggy were only accessible by hotel guests and day visitors couldn t hire.

Please be their hotel guests or be satisfied with less!!

We visited Port Lympne for my daughters 10th Birthday treat, and what a treat. A full day of fantastic animals, beautiful site, well managed. Clearly the animals are no1 priority. The work, care and conservation of these wonderful animals is second to none. Had a ranger tour by Matt, which made the day even more special as some of the animals on the tour we wouldn't of seen walking round the reserve. His knowledge and love of the animals showed, brilliant experience. Finished off with an outstanding meal at The Garden Room at Port Lympne hotel.

Lots of animals to see and a place for any age to visit.

Loved it! Stayed in a pinewood pod with the kids. Very cosy!

Very nice to walk around and find the animal and the truck rid is fun.but not cheap for a family of four.

About as good as a zoo gets. Fantastic views to the coast, safari is awesome. Definitely recommend going to see the gorilla's at feeding time

Brilliant day out, lots off in for the children, free child entry online

Best Zoo in the UK. Hands down. Great staff and keepers, amazing animal collections, great enclosures for the animals and easy to get to.

Great value, safari is a must do, surprisingly good food, I'd certainly go back