Half Term Fun at Paradise Wildlife Park

Paradise Wildlife Park, located in Broxbourne in East Hertfordshire has been voted the county’s top outdoor attraction by TripAdvisor and there’s no surprise why as it’s so much more than just a zoo and provides a fantastic family day out.

Kids may be familiar with Paradise Wildlife Park through the series One Zoo Three (available on CBBC and IPlayer). The show follows brothers Aaron, Tyler and Cameron, grandsons of the park’s founder, as they help look after the park’s animal inhabitants.

The park consists of a zoo which is home to over 800 animals, dinosaur park, miniature train ride, outdoor and indoor play areas a performance stage and, rather randomly, the National Speedway Museum.

We spent a wonderful afternoon exploring the park during half term, although could have easily spent much longer there as there is so much to see and do.

Immediately by the entrance you‘ll find Dinosaur Park which the UK’s biggest animatronic dinosaur attraction, featuring 30 life-size, moving dinosaurs which roar or screech as you walk past. We spent over an hour here, both my kids are huge dinosaur fans so it was a big hit.

Within the park there are no less than three adventure playgrounds, if you are short on time I’d suggest attempting to side step these as if your kids are anything like ours, it will be hard to lure them away. With a selection of slides, frames and even a full size train, fire engine and digger converted into play equipment there is lots to keep the little ones entertained. Luckily there are a selection of eateries located throughout the park to keep everyone fuelled and hydrated, although if you are on a budget you can bring your own food and drink.

During school holidays and at weekends during the summer, the Entertainment Team put on shows at the Safari Stage. Aimed more at smaller children these are short song and dance shows and are great to get the little ones up and dancing. Conveniently in the same area there’s a choice of several food and drink stalls and a outdoor dining area with plenty of tables and seats.

The shining stars of Paradise Wildlife Park’s animals must be their big cats, they have white lions, tigers and leopards, and next month will be opening their new Jaguar Habitat, we can’t wait to come back to check that out.

Other stand out favourites for my gang were the tapirs, sloths, penguins and the absolutely humungous python.

Park keepers give informative talks at set times throughout the day so if you plan your day carefully you can get to find out more about favourite animals. We didn’t plan ahead but happened to pass by the talks on the porcupine and red panda (made all the better as we had just the night before watched Turning Red!). The keepers were great at giving the right kind of information for the audience and were very patient answering all the questions. I had to literally pull my eldest away as once ‘Question Time With Josh’ starts, it doesn’t end!

If you really want to push the boat out, Paradise Wildlife Park offers various experience packages which would make a fantastic addition to a zoo visit for a special occasion, these include Shadow A Zookeeper, Junior and Mini Zookeeper experiences.
Also look out for special events that take place in the park. In July and August they run Summer Evening events and in the winter its Dinos After Dark.

We really loved our time at Wildlife Safari Park and will definitely be back, next time to spend the whole day there.