A Birthday trip to Drusillas Park

Last Sunday it was my little boy’s second birthday. Crazy to think I’m a mother to a two year old now and that my little baby is now a very big baby! We wanted to do something special for toddler’s birthday and as he loves animals and trains we thought Drusillas would be ideal. Drusillas Park is located in Alfriston, East Sussex. It is a combination of a zoo with an amazing array of animals, several different animal themed areas, the Thomas the Tank Engine train, a ‘Hello Kitty’ secret garden complete with car rides, ‘Go Wild’ Adventure play ground, indoor soft-play area and activity park, interactive fun, a paddling pool, restaurants, cafes and more. It is a park full of animals and child focused activities. 

It was raining on Sunday boohoo but that didn’t stop us and in particular the birthday boy from enjoying the park. I had looked at the website prior to our visit but had no idea how big the park is or how many different animal species are present. Although there aren’t any really big animals there is a huge variation of small and medium sized animals including monkeys, meerkats, lemurs, red pandas, raccoons, penguins, gibbons, flamingos, donkeys, pigs, cows, fish and birds to name a few. I was also surprised by how many indoor/covered areas of the park there are so although it was pouring with rain to start with it really didn’t matter so much. 

The highlights: 

• Animals: So many different species and lots of little babies including a baby meerkat that was tini tiny and a little monkey that looked very sweet and cheeky. It was great showing toddler so many different types of animals for the first time and cute that he recognised some from his books.

• The diversity of animals and their enclosures. I have been to some dismal zoos in my time. Not this one though. Plenty of space for the animals in lush and diverse surroundings.

• Thomas the Tank Engine. Toddler has developed a love for Thomas recently so to actually go on a ride on the train was one of the highlights! By coincidence toddler has developed a love for reading Annie and Clarabel (a book about Thomas’ coaches) and they are the coaches we rode at Drusillas! The ride takes you on a lovely loop of the park. The kid inside me would like another ride!

• Layout of the park is very well designed and easily accessible for pushchairs (I also saw a couple of wheelchairs) and running toddlers!

• Toddler counting for the first time on his birthday! As we walked down some steps he suddenly said ‘one, two, three’, so cute!

On Thomas the Tank Engine

• Hello Kitty Car Ride. As well as Thomas there is also the ‘Hello Kitty’ car ride. This is a little electric car ride that does a little loop, nothing too scary and perfect for toddlers that love cars!

• Lemurland walk-through. There are a couple of enclosures in the park that you can go into to & walk around next to the animals. This one was great and although you are not allowed to touch the lemurs they seem very tame and come very close to you or decide to suddenly jump in front of you. We saw a little Lemur baby with it’s mother just a couple of feet away. Toddler didn’t really appreciate the enclosure, he was more interested in running through it but adults & older kids enjoyed it. 

• Lunch. Although we had a little picnic we bought some additional food from the Explorers cafe and I was surprised by all the different food options including kiddie lunches, jacket potatoes, sandwiches, pizza, pasta, all you can eat ice-cream and a big range of desserts.

Experiencing milking a cow! 

The lowlights:

• The only lowlights were that we didn’t spend enough time there! We were at Drusillas for about four hours in total and couldn’t stay longer as we had planned other birthday celebrations in the evening. We spent about 4 hours at the park but with toddler’s nap we had about 3 hours of awake time. We managed to see all the animals, have lunch and have rides on Thomas the Tank engine and the cars. We didn’t sample the huge outdoor playing area or the paddling pool, partly because of the rain, nor did we sample the indoor soft play area partly because I knew once in there it would be difficult to leave! However, I would love to go back on a sunny day and experience all the things we didn’t have a chance to see. Plus I want to go on all the fun rides again :)

The park is open between 10am-6pm in the summer months. Adult ticket prices range from £10.50 - £18 per adult and a selection of family tickets is available depending on your size. A family ticket for three, for example, costs £46.50 in the summer months. See the Drusillas website for more details. The ticket prices are well worth the money considering there are so many attractions! All in all, we had a great day out and more importantly toddler had a great birthday. There is so much to see and the activities could easily keep you busy for days. Despite the rain, a wonderful day out for the kids and adults!

Thanks to Drusillas Park for providing tickets for the purpose of the review.All words and opinions are my own.

Have you been to Drusillas? I'd love to hear about your experiences!