It’s running throughout the school holidays
Ava, Darcie and Bella at the Amur Tiger Trail(Image: Manchester Evening News)
The summer holidays are in full swing and as the weeks go on, it can be harder to keep the kids entertained.
While some attractions might keep them busy for an hour or two, there’s a place near Manchester where you’re guaranteed a full day of fun and activities.
I like to take my nieces on a treat day during the summer holidays, so this time we headed to Knowsley Safari Park, which has a bumper packed summer schedule. Only 40 minutes drive away from where I live in Greater Manchester, it was the perfect place for our daytrip.
The venue’s Camp Knowsley event is running every day until Sunday, August 31 and there are so many activities to get involved with.
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Visitors meet a friendly team of adventure experts who are on hand to teach the children some bushcraft survival activities, and they do it in a really fun and interactive way.
Camp Knowsley is running at Knowsley Safari throughout the summer (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Ava, Darcie and Bella particularly enjoyed the fire lighting and making a Stone Age style pendant using traditional pump drills. They weren’t brave enough for the bug eating, but there were quite a few youngsters having a nibble of mealworms and other edible bugs.
The girls also made colourful cute survival bracelets, which come at an additional cost of £5 each, but they are very cool keepsakes and take around 30 minutes to make.
After moving on from the Camp Knowsley tipi we made our way to the Foot Safari and watched the wonderful giraffes eating hay. Then we followed the sound of the growls, across the wobbly bridge, to find the Amur tigers, and although we did spot one prowling through the grass, we didn’t see the rare cubs which were born at Knowsley Safari Park recently. Their arrival has marked a huge milestone for the species, with only 500 of them left in the world.
Camp Knowsley includes a range of activities and is included in the ticket price(Image: Manchester Evening News)
After a spot of lunch at the Oasis restaurant – a particularly tasty katsu chicken curry priced at a very reasonable £11.95, and hot dogs for the children in a meal deal costing £7.95 per head – we were refuelled and ready for more adventures.
We headed to the woods where the girls learnt how to purify water, which was then used to make hot chocolate for them to drink.
A particular highlight was the birds of prey show and the girls loved how low some of the birds swooped above them. There is a full schedule of various animal talks and shows throughout the day and Louis the sea lion is one you don’t want to miss.
Louis the sea lion (Image: Manchester Evening News)
The funfair rides were another big hit, with wristbands priced at £14 for unlimited rides, or individual tokens can be purchased.
We managed to fit in a quick ice cream parlour visit and just made it into the drive through safari before the last car admission at 4.30pm. Here we got very close to a rhino, which just looked amazing up close, and we spotted a lion sitting in the grass watching us drive round.
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We weren’t brave enough to go into the baboon enclosure, and instead we watched from the safety of the layby outside. After witnessing a couple of vehicles with windscreen wipers hanging lifelessly after the baboons’ interest, I think it was a good call.
Knowsley Safari Park day tickets are priced from £22.50 if booked in advance. Toddlers aged one and two cost £2.50 and babies under one go free.
The wobbly bridge along the Amur Tiger Trail(Image: Manchester Evening News)
The park is offering an additional treat for any outdoor loving young explorers and their families this August bank holiday weekend with the first ever Safari Sleepover. The event includes two full days of access to the safari, bushcraft activities and shelter building, before a BBQ dinner and retiring to bell tents and bedding down listening to the roars of tigers in the background, before waking up in the great outdoors to a freshly cooked breakfast. Safari Sleepover tickets are priced at £600 for a family of 4.
For more details, or to book tickets, visit the website here.