Howletts Wild Animal Park. Great for all

Howletts Wild Animal Park
Attraction (General)
in/near Kent, Kent,
England South East

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Recommendation added: 15/02/2006 09:54
By: arko1117 (YSUK rating +2)

arko1117 has been thanked 2 times for this contribution

"My family and I went to Howletts Wild Animal Park, Bekesbourne, Canterbury, Kent. We don't drive and were quite amazed that you can get there via public transport and a 5 minute walk. We took the train from Dover to Canterbury and caught a bus heading to Deal via Sandwich and you get off at Littlebourne. The park is about 5 minutes walking distance, but is along a country road. Stagecoach also do a combined ticket, where you can pay on the bus for your bus fare and entrance to the Animal Park. Once we arrived there, we were greeted by friendly staff who gave us a map of the park and leaflets about what they do as the John Aspinall Foundation in Howletts and Port Lympe Animal Park, as the two parks are run by the same organisation.
The park itself has a wide variety of animals to see and is very clean and tidy and also very welcoming. One of my favourite attractions was the Lemur Park. This is an enclosed area where Lemurs are roaming free above your heads and around you, and you may be lucky enough to touch one if they come over. They do provide hand washing dispensers, so you can clean your hands when you leave the area.
Most of the enclosures also have viewing windows, which i found much better than looking through a fence, especially for picture taking.
About halfway round the park, there is a restaurant and a play area for children. The restaurant is nice and cosy inside, with a good variety of meals on the menu, including specific menus for children and vegetarians. There are enough amenities for all including disabled toilets and baby changing areas. There is also a little souvenir shop next to the restaurant, as well as plenty of tables and space to eat outside if you wish too.
The main entrance, where you first arrive, is also the exit and it has a bigger souvenir shop inside, where you can also find out about adopting animals. Overall we found the park to be well maintained and clean. The staff were very helpful and polite and the variety of animals in the park were just right. The animals all seemed well looked after and happy, and we also got to see the keepers feeding the Gorillas, which amused our kids.
I would definately recommend going to Howletts, especially if you have children, as it's a fun day out for all and a great experience. Who knows you may even leave there having adopted an animal of your choice."