West Midland Safari Park Reviews 

Had a lovely day at the park, skipped the fair and opted for a walk around and a tour in a truck later in the day. We saw pretty much everything except Cheetahs, cats are always tricky as they do cat stuff and sleep but we did see a pride of lions asleep on top of a huge rock which was lovely. The tour guide/driver was excellent and made sure we saw Giraffes up close ( we had seen them on the walk round too) by doing a detour before they were bedded down. The Painted dogs were up and lively and beautiful. I have seen many people complaining about seeing nothing, that's the luck of the draw, they aren't circus animals and are doing what animals do. We took our own food anticipating ( after seeing reviews) nothing we would want. We paid cinema price, for a cold drink, but with an eco cup rather than a plastic throw away. Booked online so free return visit in the next 6 months, and we will be going again.

How they have the audacity to call this a safari park I don't know. Another money grabbing company there are no animals left in the drive thru they've all been moved to their high end lodges and walk around safari completely inaccessible in a wheelchair I turned up with relative documentation to confirm my free carers place only to be told I needed a nimbus pass which I don't have neither do I have a leg so because I haven't got card does that make me any less disabled the whole thing is a scam from beginning to end. I should be called a zoo and a crap one at that we paid nearly £100 and saw 5 animals. They need to sort it out if it was half the price e it would still be to much.

Total waste of money. I have given it a one star. I wish I could give it lower. I used to come here as a kid, and I brought my children here in the past was always a good Day Out.
Now, you are not allowed to feed the animals and even if you could, there are no animals to feed. No Tigers, no leopards. No longhorn cows. No wild African dogs, no wolves. No long horn sheep, a few dear scattered around one zebra. You do see rhino, but the elephants and giraffe are kept over by the holiday lets. The whole place is really run down and way way way overpriced you spend over 2 hours sat in the car, basically looking at open fields with nothing in them. After leaving the safari.
We walked through to the amusements and smaller attractions. The dinosaur statues are really run down once again. Souvenirs, so overpriced, it's crazy. A small soft toy no bigger than your hand £22 rides and food once again crazy prices. Then on to more no show animals, no Red Pandas ,No leamers. No Tigers. Tropical fish area closed. Used to have crocodiles in the reptile enclosure. Now gone used to have a lots of goats to feed and pet. 2 remaining. Not allowed to feed once again.
So in summary, I would never return to the safari park again. It's a total waste of money. I would think a family of 5 would pay somewhere in the region of £300 for an awful Day Out. I would think that this place will go bankrupt and close within the next 5 years. Unless they do something to address the problems I have stated. Do yourself a favour and go anywhere but here.

Everything 100% overpriced at least.

Primitive booking system, couldn’t book different types of tickets on the same order. Refund policy is non existent.

Phone lines open at 10am, couldn’t get hold of them. Ticket was submitted online and ignored.

Food at the dino dino was a fortune, took 50m to come for 3 meals and the fish used is not cod. Despite our starvation, the food was half inedible and left. Soft drinks are £5 for a pint. The healthy option is plain pasta, and some bolognaise out of a tin.

The park is half empty, and there is no indication if the cages are empty. You spend a great deal of time looking for things that aren’t there.

The safari was hell.. slow, empty and stuck in traffic like a motorway. God forbid you get hungry or need the toilet for that hour. The kids were bored to tears.

Do yourself a favour and go anywhere but here. You won’t see anything unique or special without a mortgage.

This park group booking does not have any option to book online and email communication is very worst ever and don't receive phone call ever. It looks no one managing and monitoring the park ticket purchasing system and worst authority. 100% disappointment.

Don’t bother with the safari, not many animals to see and you will spend most of your time sat in your car wishing you were somewhere else, with kids saying they are bored or crying and asking where are the animals. If you’re lucky, you may get the opportunity to escape down the ‘moving’ lane but I expect that’ll be backlogged with cars too. Don’t bother asking for a refund because they state on tickets you could be around 2 hours in safari, that I expect is because of the volume of cars not because you’re thrilled by seeing so much wildlife. We were so long that we ended up eating our food we had planned for a picnic. If I wanted to sit in a queue of cars I’d get myself up to the M25 on a busy day. I have given two stars because the kids managed to get on a couple of rides. What would have been useful would be if the owners of the park would put their fat greedy hands in their deep pockets not only to provide some sort of canopy shading where you queue for rides due to the extreme weather that’s going on but also, employ more than one member of staff per ride so that everyone’s not hanging about waiting for staff to check everything and getting everyone on and off rides and kids getting a fairly decent ride time. They also need to invest in the safari, you should be ashamed of yourselves WMSP owners. Much better places to visit than this run down park.

So 70%of this 4 mile journey no animals ..so dissapointed we came a faur distance ..to just see empty spaces .no lions .no tigers .no wild dogs ....no zebra ...traffic light system in operation waste of time no animals...I won't be reccomending too anyone.

We use to come yearly when my lad was younger, he is 15 now so came for old times sake , i had already seen the reviews and thought it can't be that bad! Well the park its self has changed slightly they have a new African bit you can walk round , we did this and saw giraffe, lioness x 5, tigers, cheetters quite close up and elephant in the distance (this area is connected to the lodges hence the animals down there - it's a little hilly but manageable. The rest of the park doesn't seem to have any money spent on it for years (probably because there ploughing it in to lodges - I hope someone actually reads all these bad reviews and thinks ooh we must sort the park and safari out!), it's pretty run down and the same old - we did spend 3 hours in the park in total and enjoyed pottering around didn't bother with the rides - they've not changed in years and the queues were pretty big! Bring your own food and water if your on a budget a bottle of water was 3.50! We booked the latest safari at 2.30 we always use to go in on the way home as everyone seemed to do it on arrival - it's quieter! But could see the queues from the carpark - we asked a few families coming into the park how was the safari both said awful hardly no animals , 2.5hrs stuck in a long line of traffic - which backed up the reviews I had read, with this we decided against it and to be honest we'd seen most of them on foot, thankfully . It's a real shame the rangers can't sort the traffic situation and move people along in the passing lane , maybe they need more staff ? As for the lack on animals I see they say its down to them sleeping or hiding etc but I must or been round that drive through 8 times or more over the years and it was never like it is now - so sad would we return sadly not, not even with the free return ! Sort it out WMSP !

What has happened since our last visit in 2024?!! We were so excited to come back, my daughter chose to come here as her birthday party bringing her 2 friends along, and all I can say is its a good job they had their phones and tablets (these were supposed to be for taking pictures) but I connected them to my Internet and they watched YouTube as they were that bored!! 🙄 The drive through safari was shocking!!!!
No Animals, sat in traffic that took forever to go down resulting in a 2 hour trip around the safari to see a handful of animals! Nothing like it used to be, where were the Zebras and other animals coming right up to your car??!! The first main field used to be filled with all the animals and it was a great experience, but this time it had a handful of Rhinos and was done??!! What a disappointment!
Im giving it a 1 star for the drive through experience as I will not be returning, but once out of the car the kids really enjoyed the theme park so at least the day wasnt a total waste of time and money but we will not be returning.

As the title suggests, what a lack luster day out. To start the traffic control going around the safari was diabolical, not only that the amount of people who couldn't simply follow the rules and the park wardens failing to enforce them was shocking, from people getting out their vehicles, to people having the roof open and windows open whilst going around the lions. It took me the best part of 3 hours to make it around the safari, which would have been great if they actually had animals... so many parts have been emptied and closed, you can clearly see why though, so much has been pushed on to the vacation lodges its completely took away from that safari experience!
Not only that so many of the top tier animals have been moved and dedicated to these lodges, its created this dusty sprawling walk from one end of the park to the other that simply is not small child friendly, dont get me wrong it was lovely to actually see the elephants as on the drive theyre obscured by the steel beam enclosure but apart from that its near impossible to see the tigers, cheetahs or white lions now.
Following that we paid near £40 for my children to go on the theme park which was absolutely out of control with people, when you have to wait nearly an hour to get on the carousel for young children you know you've got a foot traffic issue! Top that off with the rides being the exact same as they were near 20 years ago without a lick of new paint it just seem insulting at that price.

It saddens me to have to write this as I loved it there growing up, now all you can see is how its fallen far and hard.

Very disappointing experience. We spent around two hours driving through the safari, but there were hardly any animals to see. We only saw a few deer, lions, elephants and rhinos. The giraffes were kept inside their building, and many of the enclosures appeared to be empty.
We travelled expecting to see a wide variety of animals, but it definitely wasn't worth the time or the money. If many of the animals are not on display, visitors should be informed before they buy tickets. I wouldn't recommend it based on my experience.

I use to go here all the time as a child and took my children there years ago, we returned yesterday, safari drive through took 2 hours with hardly any animals, no baby rides anymore, the food in the Dino diner took 40 mins pizza was all burnt, not worth the money we paid £45 for one pizza meal, with one pizza and two drinks, we got extra 3 chips and a extra drink. Said there was technical issues why it took so long.

Been to the west mids safari park today and was bitterly disappointed, most enclosures appeared to be empty, 3 lions sleeping on a rock, no zebra, no tigers, my grandson is autistic and his obsession is noahs ark, so of course his birthday treat is always something to do with animals, he was upset that he only saw the few he saw, we won't be going again.

Awful day out for a horrific price barely any animals in the safari or visible in the actual park without trekking across to the far end! didnt even see the birds as you have pay extra to go into it!, toilets were all rundown and unclean. Highlight was the dinosaur statues which took all of 15 mins if that

drive through is a total waste of time with hardly anything to see. it's ok if you like rhinos, elephants, giraffes as that's about all you will be sure to see. some of the exhibits were closed . the safari walk wasn't much better. plenty of gulls and pigeons. on the plus side all the staff were very pleasant and cheerful.

I used to go here as a child. It is a shadow of a former self. It was actually a bit heartbreaking taking my daughter around explaining what used to be. We stayed for a few hours, did the car safari, all of the interesting animals are gone except the rhinos and giraffes but you cannot stop near them. The apartments they are renting out in the middle of the park is another kicker on the "wild african savannah". The goats are gone, you cant feed any animals, there are no reptiles at the reptile talk. You would and could honestly have more animal interaction in the car park. What is left is a few zoo enclosures, a sea lion show which never happened when we were there and a few other local style zoo window exhibits. The shop is well stocked and there is the odd arcade and fairground style game stalls set out but these are the only real positives or draws and they dont feel very "safari park" like. Not even close to worth the ticket price, if you can get in for £10ish and it isnt much to travel maybe.

Summary of our recent stay

Positives

* The lodge was clean, comfortable, and nicely decorated.
* We appreciated the thoughtful touches such as the complimentary biscuits, fresh towels, and other small extras.
* The giraffe viewing experience from the lodge was fantastic and a real highlight of our stay.
* Being able to access the safari grounds in the evening was a great benefit and made the experience feel special.

Negatives
Unfortunately, there were some significant issues that mean we would not return.

The biggest disappointment was the attitude of the staff at check-out. We had mistakenly read the A4 information sheet in our lodge as stating check-out was at 11:00 am. When a member of staff came to collect our suitcases, rather than politely explaining the mistake, we were greeted with, “You do know check-out was an hour ago!” The interaction then escalated into an argument with my husband, during which we both felt we were being lectured like schoolchildren rather than treated as paying guests. The situation became so unpleasant that it upset our toddler, who started crying.

The food was also extremely disappointing. We were left feeling genuinely hungry because there were very limited options and the portions provided simply weren’t enough. The food available within the theme park was of very poor quality—mostly heavily processed meals with chips, watery pasta, or what was described as salad but consisted of wilted leaves and cucumber that tasted artificial. There was no healthy, nutritious alternative, and the overall food offering fell well below what we expected for a family destination.

Didn’t do the safari drive as it was bumper to bumper and eyes miles long ridiculous letting so many cars in one area. Aquarium has gone, Dino land is good but lots of dinosaurs are ripped, worn or showing “decay” we had to pretend they had been in a tumble to deter our toddler from asking why the dino had yellow foam and a hole in its back.
Sealion show is great and reptiles.
Long ques for the theme park rides, very little on offer from a beverage point without 30 minute ques also.
Play area Park is lovely.

Overall, while the accommodation and safari experience were excellent, the poor customer service and disappointing food completely overshadowed the positives. Sadly, we would not return or recommend staying unless these issues are addressed.

One of the most memorable places we've ever visited and stayed at.

We have just returned from an incredible stay at the Red Panda Lodge, and if you’re considering it, we wholeheartedly recommend it. The park offers a wide range of activities, from exciting safaris to entertaining arcades. A highlight was the unforgettable night walk around the park after hours, which truly elevated the experience.

The lodge itself was stunning, perfect for just the two of us. It was fully air-conditioned, a blessing during the heat wave. We wish we could have stayed another night!

Today, we also enjoyed the VIP Safari, which was even more extraordinary. We got up close and personal with the animals and met some incredible people. We fed rhinos, giraffes, and sea lions, and interacted with many other animals in the park. A special thanks to Nick for being our fantastic guide and leaving the thoughtful personal note.

Overall, there are hardly any negatives; only a few minor communication hiccups within the lodge, which didn't spoil our fantastic stay.

The enclosures are designed to mimic the animals natural habitats, but if you are quiet and willing to wait animals will come over. Animals are noise sensitive so loud screaming or time of day can affect when you see animals even in the normal viewing points.

We will be back.

Awful, hardly any animals on the safari park drive, empty fields and cages. Too many coaches allowed thru, the drive took 3 hours.

waste of time and money, how they can expect you to pay for that is beyond a joke.

Arrived after pre booking tickets only to find the safari closed. Staff unhelpful, simply said we close at 1:30. No rebooking available. Had to pay for a non rider as part of booking process-no other options available. The return ticket was a waste as the park was overun by school bookings, ride queues endless and park full of kids when we were a couple woth a child. Why don't these parks block book schools on certain days instead of maximising profits by ramming the park full where you can barely enjoy a few rides? Not value for money at all. Would not return. Very disappointing.