Christmas at Longleat

As you may have gathered if you read my blog, we are big fans of Longleat Safari Park, so we couldn’t resist seeing what Christmas at Longleat was like. As we were on our way to Devon from the South East to visit Sam’s Grandparents, we decided to have a stopover on the way.

Where we stayed?

Premier inn at Frome, perfect for visiting Longleat

We stayed at the Premier Inn in Frome, which was just a 15 minute drive away from Longleat Safari Park. At £50 for a family room sleeping all three of us, I thought it was excellent value. Staying here meant we could wake up bright and early and head to Longleat before it got too busy.

There is a Beefeater attached to the hotel so we had a lovely evening meal here without anyone having to drive and also enjoyed breakfast in the morning. Perfect to get a head start for our Christmas Safari adventure.

Winter Safari at Longleat

We arrived as the heavens opened so decided to start with the Safari in the comfort of our car. A quick stop at African Village to buy an umbrella for Sam and a silly hat for me – why am I never organised?!

As it was winter the giraffe feeding was not available, clearly too cold for the giraffes. We didn’t get to see the giraffes either as they were tucked away in the warmth of their indoor habitat and who can blame them!

As we had got there early the Safari wasn’t too busy and we managed to do the Safari with plenty of stops to admire the animals in approximately an hour. Sadly the deer pass was closed and we did bypass the monkeys. Again as it was pouring with rain not all the animals were out and we missed Anne the elephant. However we did get to see lots of beautiful lions which still made the Safari well worthwhile.

There are lots of other animals you can enjoy and even get up close and personal at Longleat. The meerkats are a must as is feeding the Sea Lions on the Longleat boat. We even got to hold a tarantula!

Mum and son by the Christmas tree at Longleat

What can I say? Put simply Christmas at Longleat is just magical. From the lights to the Santa train to the incredible Christmas trees, it was a great start to our Christmas adventures.

The Longleat Santa Train

We had pre-booked our tickets for 2.30pm. The Santa train was the main reason we wanted to visit Longleat at Christmas.

I had mistakenly booked and paid for our Santa train ticket in advance but not our Longleat entrance ticket as I was waiting for my Tesco Clubcard points to accumulate. So I had a bit of a shock when I went to book our Longleat tickets to see that there was a message on the website saying the Friday was almost sold out and not to bother turning up if you wanted to visit at the weekend. I quickly secured our tickets for the Friday thankfully. That would be just our luck having splashed out £26.95 for 2 x adults and 1 x child train to see Santa and not being able to get in!

Although the Santa train is an additional fee on top of the Longleat entrance tickets it was well worth it. The Santa train was absolutely magical.

You board the train at the station. There’s Christmas music in the carriages and fairy lights. The train journey itself is wonderful, taking in some of the best of Longleat Estate including the magnificent lake where the boats take you to feed the Sea Lions. You then arrive at Santa’s village.

Santa’s Village at the North Pole

Snow, reindeer, a snowman, an outdoor open fire, fairy lights, Christmas trees and magic all around. That’s Santa’s village. Whilst you queue to see Santa, the elfs keep you entertained and there’s some activities laid out such as colouring.

Santa is in a log cabin and he was wonderful. A present was waiting with my son’t full name on it. How did they know? Must have been magic (or the sneaky elf we were talking to beforehand). Sam was a little nervous as he’s heard that you only get presents if you been good and he’s a clever boy. I think he’s worked out that he’s not always good and has been known to be naughty at times!!

Luckily he went away with a present he was more than happy with and we enjoyed time exploring Santa’s village whilst we waited for our train to complete our journey back to the main square at Longleat.

Festival of Light: Christmas at Longleat

As the sun set the lights turned on and transformed Longleat into an odyssey of myths and legends from across the world. The magnificent Chinese lanterns were definitely a show stopper and were spread across the estate with something to look at wherever you went.