Lincolnshire Wildlife Park — Attraction in East Lindsey

Please indulge me as I sing the praises of this park for its disabled friendly features, including the best ever disabled toilet facilities I have ever used. We only had a 3 night/4 day break this year with the view of taking a longer break in the Skegness area next year (2025) so we decided to go to the Wildlife park on our way to the holiday park. So after a 2 hour journey, we arrived to find plenty of parking, although a little rough on the ground, we had no issues unloading the wheelchair and getting to the entrance. The entrance is easy to access and to my joy the toilets were very close by as you entered the park. I was very happy to see the need for a radar key. In my experience I always find radar keys in such a place means clean facilities, oh boy was I in for a shock. The facilities were by far the best I have ever seen as well as very clean, with the correct equipment for every type of disability. Next time I visit, I will just bring my hoist sling as there's a hoist, an adult changing table, grab rails and side bars, along with enough room for multiple care staff. Both my carer and I stood/sat looking around for a few minutes trying to take it in. Absolutely brilliant! After that we went back to the gift shop/restaurant to get food for the parrot's and Meerkats. We followed the trail, which is all wheelchair accessible, all the aviaries were easy enough for me to be able to feed the birds that you are able to feed. Oh what an amazing experience! I can't explain how wonderful the place is, there is clearly enough flight space both where they are situated within the park and in the background keeper type areas. This is probably not going to be in the right order as so much stood out, the walk through experience was more than amazing, as we got through the entrance one of the smaller parrots flew straight down onto my shoulder. I tried giving it a peanut but nope, it travelled all the way round and wouldn't take the peanut until we had completed the track which made me laugh as it then devoured 3 peanuts before jumping to my carer to get another few. My carer was also joined by another bird. My next visit, I will be spending a lot longer in that area. My best advice, have a lot of time to spend there, our 3 hour window was nowhere near enough time to do the park justice. I have never seen a tortoise larger than a dinner plate so I was astonished to see the size of the the adults in real life. The Eagle owl is absolutely stunning, has the wise old owl look to go with the lovely attitude it had at me sat staring intensely at it, before remembering to take a few photos. The big cats, wow so beautiful. The lions had the most stunning faces, and we were lucky enough to see one of the tigers playing in the water, then jumping out. Both pumas was another lucky spot as both were close enough to view, with the black puma sat right in front of the viewing window. Unfortunately it was at this point it started to rain so I didn't get to spot the otters, but by the time we got to the Meerkat enclosure, the rain stopped so we were able to feed the meerkats. Again I could have spent a lot longer watching them scurry around grabbing up the mealworms, by this time we had already agreed that next year we would come back but with a view of being able to spend the whole day there to enjoy it properly. The last thing we did was grab a bite to eat before heading on. I can honestly say the staff are friendly and very used to disabled people, as we were there, I didn't feel as singled out due to there being a good number of wheelchair users, and other varying disabilities there at the same time. The reputation of being disabled friendly is well earned, the staff don't direct questions to the people with you, instead talked to me directly. Nothing was too much trouble. Can't recommend the...

OMG. We literally live 20 minutes down the road from here. We go past the signs nearly every other day. A dozen times a year we say....."we must have a look there at some point" or "that might be a good place to take the grandkids". How stupid are we 😂?

This place bloomin rocks.

Seriously.

I got my wife one of their experiences. To be precise I got her two tickets thinking she would take a close friend or even one of our grown up kids. Nope she wanted to take me. What a blast. Feeding one of their big cats. Wandering around inside the cats enclosure whilst the cat was locked out of course. Their security to make sure there are no accidents like our furry friend being there at the same time, was super impressive. The tour guide, keeper, or whatever her title was, had so much info to share and answered all our stupid questions. She probably gets asked the same questions every time bless her. She was lovely and made us feel like royalty. She takes good photos too.

And then the rest of the park!!!! Ok so we had no idea just how big this place really is. I thought I'd done my homework. Yep.....no. So from the outside it all looks completely underwhelming. Not that we expected more but it's not one of the major zoos. But why waste resources on something that really doesn't do anything to enhance the park, relates to the welfare of the animals or that you see on a major route. Because it's kinda hidden away they don't need to and it would be a waste. It's a car park and entrance. It's clean and level with plenty of parking. There was even a coach parked there.

Then you go in and it's like Alice through the looking glass. There is an undercover atrium type bit. Loads of seating, a cafe which seemed so out of place. It was so clean and they did a cracking coffee and cake. They have quite a good menu. We just didn't expect this. We sat on a side table. All the side tables had windows into an animal exhibit. We made friends with a lovely gheko. But this was at the end of our little tour. It took us between 2 and 3 hours to get around. That was quick as work was being done in one of the big enclosures and the lion didn't fancy moving from his sunbathing spot 😂.

I'm not going to go into detail on every exhibit but the amount of recent infrastructure work is really evident. Some new enclosures, new pathways etc. The enclosures were impressively large and animal welfare really evident.

Honestly, this place is my new favourite place to be. I think a season ticket may just...

Visited yesterday by chance, we were going to Natureworld but couldn't get to it because of the carnival, saw a poster for here and thought we'd give it a go... So we paid to come in I'm an essential carer for my disabled partner who was on a mobility scooter, didnt have my id with me as wasn't planning to come here and dont normally need it. So both paid full price. Lady pleasant I asked if we needed a map or programme she didn't know.

Wonderful display of parrots in lovely enclosures, some even just roaming free. All seemed quite happy

Obviously it was extremely hot day (heatwave) so appart from seeing parrots, 1 tiger, 2 lions who were asleep indoors ( which I understand its far to hot for them) and the tortoises that was it. We were attacked by the geese was about 8 of them a couple extremely territorial we both got bit (nothing serious but scarey) so watch if you have small children they're just on the grass footpath after the lion house. We did feet a bit let down, by the Wildlife park as it seemed more of a sanctuary Didn't see 1 member of staff except for lady at desk when we came in and young man cleaning toilets when we came out... From our point of view we may have come on a day when they were short of staff and it was exceptionally hot. Its a good educational visit for groups when you are encouraged to get involved and learn something about the animals and they're background. Animals are cared for in lovely enclosures. Plenty of picnic areas but lack of shade, Very clean. Cafe on sight but didn't use. Gift shop on exit Free parking. We wouldn't return because we'd seen it all in an hour plus struggled with the mobility scooter on the gravelled area, it kept getting stuck.

Perhaps renaming it as a Sanctuary/Rescue Centre open to the public would be reflective of...