New Forest Reptile Centre — Attraction in New Forest

We had a fantastic family day out starting at the New Forest Reptile Centre. The staff and volunteers were very friendly and well informed, helping us spot the reptiles in the 8 open pods. Thry even fed some of the reptiles to ensure we were able to spot them within the vegetation . The children loved the slow worms and grass snake. My favourite was the sand lizard. The warm dry weather helped but we were able to happily spend an hour ambling around the centre. The children then watched the birds at the feeder and drew pictures with the pens and paper provided. After that we had a picnic lunch at one of the Centre's picnic tables. We then took a cycle route from the Reptile Centre to the Deer Sanctuary,, but the children were happy to spend more time reptile spotting on our return to the car park., A great place to spend a couple of hours on...

An un-staffed (we visited in March - staffing may be seasonal) exhibit of the reptiles that inhabit the New Forest. The enclosures contained a good variety of reptiles, according to the good, informative placards but unfortunately we did not see many of them. This is, of course, not the centres fault, as they are naturally quiet and timid. We did however see our first ever Adders as they basked on a rock within their enclosure. Overall, the centre is quite small and unlikely to amuse children for more than 30 mins. The key for us to this centre, however, is that it lies on some fantastic walking routes.

There is good on-site parking, the access road being gravel rather than tarmac, and toilets (again, not open when we were there but...

We visited the NFRC around 5 or 6 months ago, so no idea why Google is asking me for a review now.

We found the two staff we saw on sight to be extremely approachable and knowledgeable but they didn't have their eye on the ball when it came to guest safety.

We witnessed a family from Essex chuck some plastic toy into the adder enclosure then spend the next 10 minutes daring each other to get the toy out through the net.

I was hoping they'd get tagged if I'm honest but my partner was concerned so I informed staff what was happening. Another 5 minutes later and they eventually approached the family to sort it out.

Apart from that, like many activities in the New Forest you either love them or hate them. I like the outdoors so it's...