Days Out Guide: Banham Zoo with a baby

Hi guys,
In the latest of our series of fun days out with Wilbur, today we took him to Banham Zoo in Norfolk. He's almost nine months old now, and he really enjoyed his day! At Banham zoo you can see a lot of traditional zoo animals, such as zebras, tigers, giraffes and penguins. However these didn't excite the little man too much - the walls to the enclosure were too high for him to see any animals from his pram, and often when we got him out of his pram for a closer look they were too far away from him to see anyway. What Wilbur really enjoyed were the enclosures where you could interact with the animals: he loved the farm barn and stroked the donkeys, rabbits and goats without fear (in fact he cried when we took him away from the goats, and I suspect he would have stayed there all day) He also loved the zoo mascot Tony the Tiger, who sought him out for a cuddle, and the seals, who jumped out of the water so close to the little man it made him gasp with delight!

We arrived and the zoo at 10.30am and left at 2pm, having felt that we had seen and done everything. As well as visiting each of the animal enclosures we had also seen the penguins being fed and enjoyed the Bird of Prey display (definitely a highlight of the day, this is a great show). However £17.60 each for just 3 and a half hours of fun seemed a little expensive to us: at half that price it would have been a great day out, but we felt we had been overcharged. If you're not counting the pennies though, it is a fun way to spend half a day. 
Top Tips for enjoying your day at the zoo:

1. The food in the zoo isn't especially good: a southern fried chicken joint and a fairly expensive cafe offering traditional British food (pies, roast beef, jacket potatoes etc). However there are loads of really lovely places to stop for a picnic. We took our own food and were definitely glad we did, not from a financial point of view but because our lunch looked so much nicer!

2. Take a padlock for your pram. The train around the park, walk through Lemur experience and reptile enclosure were all inaccesible to buggies, requiring you to leave your pram in an unsupervised buggy bay outside. Call me paranoid, but I just wouldn't have felt safe leaving an £800 pram unattended unless it was padlocked up!

3. Don't miss the giraffes! Wilbur wasn't bothered by them, but Mike and I thought they were the highlight of the day! You can talk across the top of their enclosure, seeing a giraffes eye view of the world and coming face to face with these beautiful docile beasts. Lovely!

To find out more visit the Banham Zoo website.

Love Tor x

Days Out Guide: Dinosaur Adventure, Weston Park

Hi guys,
It's a sunny bank holiday Monday, so obviously we joined the thongs of thousand of other parents to take Wilbur for a day out. We chose the Dinosaur Adventure Park in Weston Park, Norfolk (A short 20-30 minute drive from Norwich).

Entry cost £10.95 each for Mike and I, and (because he was under 3) Wilbur was free. We also spent £6.99 on a dinosaur for Wilbur in the gift shop, and that was it! Total day out - £28.89

We didn't buy any junk food/drinks because the dino park has a well-publicised indoor and outdoor picnic area, so we packed our own lunch and ate it outside in the sunshine. Which was much nicer than a soggy theme park burger, and cheaper too!

As you entered the park you were given an information book and a guide to the days events. There was a stamp collecting page inside each info book that was a really nice touch, and a great way to organise your trip. You had to collect 8 stamps from various attractions around the park, and you could then exchange your stamped sheet for a dinosaur medal: your reward for completing the task! We did this for Wilbur, but we got really competitive about hunting for all the stamping stations!

I loved the dinosaur walks: lovely scenic nature walks with dinosaurs peering out from every corner. There were plaques so you could read about each dino, awesome photo opportunities, and even rangers stations so you could report back what you'd seen. Every part of the park was buggy accessible (which is obviously the path we took) but if you were buggy free you could climb over rickety rackety bridges, and clamber through the forest right up to the life sized T Rex!

The highlight of the day for Wilbur was the petting zoo: after looking at the goats, wallabies, pigs and tortoises, he held a guinea pig and a rabbit. He really loved the soft guinea pigs fur, and couldn't stop laughing as he stroked him. Which of course meant that seeing him so happy was the highlight of our day too!

There was a huge indoor soft play area and great outdoor adventure park too (for mums of older kids, I've heard this is the highlight of the day). At 6 months old, Wilbur was too young for these, but we can't wait to take him back next year and chase him up and down all of the giant slides! There was also a dinosaur themed obstacle course for the over eights, dinosaur themed crazy golf, and Raptor Racing (go kart fun!) . In fact there was so much to do I can't list it all: and we couldn't get everything done in our day!

There was so much to do for kids of all ages (from baby to early teen) and it was definitely a full day out that I would heartily recommend to other mums.

Visit the Dinosaur Adventure website to find out more.

Love Tor x