We were very kindly invited to visit Hamerton Zoo Park this week & invited Isla’s Grandpa John & his lovely wife Ro to come with us too!

At the bottom of the post we will be giving away a Family Ticket to visit the zoo in August so make sure you scroll down to enter!

The park is situated in Huntingdonshire, just 20 minutes drive from the Cathedral city of Peterborough, and the market towns of Oundle, Thrapston and Huntingdon. When we pulled into the park there was plenty of parking with easy access for prams & wheelchairs. We were greeted with a huge smile & welcome by the wonderful staff, given a map and sent off to enjoy our day!

Although the weather was pretty miserable we dressed ready and didn’t even need to as the first section of the park is pretty much all under covered walkways where you can see an incredible amount of rare birds, some amazing giant tortoises, and even some gorgeous monkeys just to name a few!

This beautiful little owl was my favourite – the most curious thing who came right up to say hello. It’s wonderful just how close you can get especially for little ones. Isla has only just learnt to say ‘Owl’ so enjoyed getting to use her new words so enthusiastically!

The Ring-tailed Lemurs were absolutely beautiful as were the incredibly fluffy Lar Gibbon’s! If you follow us on Instagram you might have seen that they put on the most amazing show of their skills, swinging around with incredible speed to show off to Isla!

The park was pretty quiet mid-week on a rainy day so we were incredibly spoilt and only had to share with a few other families. That gave Isla such a wonderful freedom to explore that you wouldn’t get at the bigger zoo’s.

The meerkats were all out in force – up to no good & playing silly games. There were absolutely tiny babies too – I promise I didn’t put one in my pocket but it was tempting!

Luckily the weather was on our side so Isla was set free from her waterproof suit and demanded her favourite BoBo Buddies backpack to keep her company – we felt safe enough to let her run free with no lead attached. All the enclosures are extremely spacious with big wide paths joining them, making the whole thing wheelchair accessible.

As you turn the corner a huge park is revealed – making even the tiniest legs run as fast as they can towards it!

We convinced Isla to finish looking at all the animals first and then to finish up with the park – which is perfectly placed next to the cafe for all the grown ups to get a hard earned coffee! 😉

Isla saw a brightly colour carriage ahead and before we knew it she was hanging off the back like her life depended on riding the train! It is £2 per person (children & adults pay the same) and we didn’t bring much cash with us so we abandoned Daddy and off we went for a joyous ride…

Except Isla had other ideas when she realised Daddy would be staying behind… My face says it all…… oh good… what fun! Haha!

As soon as we turned the corner, the most enthusiastic pop song about riding a train filled the carriage – the tantrum was a distant memory and she was dancing, laughing and pointing at all the animals we passed!

After our ride we found our way in to see the goats… They run all around you, searching for food and being super cheeky…Isla’s dream come true!

Of course she got stuck in immediately and started instructing her new goat army with her mischievous plans!

There were also camels, chickens, horses and probably loads more but I was too busy chasing Isla and making sure she didn’t open mouth kiss any goats… again…

The tigers are in a large enclosure with access for them to go in & out as they please. We saw them running around & then relaxing inside which was great for Isla to be able to see them so incredibly close.

She was absolutely thrilled – as was Daddy!

I would recommend bringing the buggy with you as it is a lot of walking for mini legs – Isla was exhausted by the end and needed a rest and a snack.

There are so many animals to see but as always the otters were my absolute favourite. All the animals seem so happy & relaxed in their enclosures – with a lot more space to play than I’ve seen at a lot of other zoo’s around the country.

We kept our promise & let Isla enjoy the park (supervised by Daddy) while we had a sit down to chat & reflect on a lovely day!

If you are visiting I would recommend bringing a picnic as the cafe options weren’t great. There is a lovely little gift shop with some really sweet things to have a look at on the way out. Overall a really lovely day out for all ages.
Adult Tickets are £13.99 & Children (3-12 years) are £8.99 more info here.

If you want to win a Family Ticket to visit Hamerton Zoo Park just comment below telling me which animal you would most like to see! Please share with all your friends too!

*Tickets must be used by August 31st 2017.