Eagle Heights Wildlife Foundation — Attraction in Sevenoaks

WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE! (WINTER EXPERIENCE 2020)

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(We had stayed with Eagle heights before in summer 2018 for the Husky summer camp - separate review available)

We stayed at Eagle Heights on 29/02/2020. We had a wonderful time! On the day - Shaun, the host of the experience had messaged me informing me that there may be some strong winds overnight, especially because they're based on the Hills. However, he gave us a choice of wanting to still stay overnight in one the domes - Since we camp often, we said Yes to a bit of wind and went ahead with the stay. (Luckily, my party were the only people to agree with staying overnight with a storm, that we were the only ones who managed to do the experience Without other people staying in other domes!)

On the Evening of the stay, We were welcomed by shaun himself and was made to read and sign all the health and safety paperwork before getting taken to our dome. As we walked to our dome, we could hear the huskies howling, which got me even more excited for the next morning!

The inside of the dome is Beautiful, there is a bunk bed and One double bed to accommodate 4 people in total. Heating is provided in all domes (they are all electric, so bring your chargers!). There was a prepped Breakfast hamper with cereals, fruits and crumpets as well as Mini fridge filled with bottled water, juice and milk for the cereals. There's a Tv with a Dvd player, We didn't know there was a dvd player - otherwise we would've brought our own but they do provide family friendly films. After about 30 minutes inside the dome, we was given 4 different pizzas for dinner, delivered by shaun himself:)

Over the evening we could hear some gusts of wind but nothing too loud. My partner and I had slept like a baby, not affected by the noises of the outdoors at all. But the other couple we had stayed with said to have some broken sleep due to hearing barking/howling from the huskies - which they knew was going to happen.

The next morning, at 9:30am : We met up with Shaun, ready to feed the Reindeer in their hut while getting interesting facts and information about them. It was very special because it was just 4 of us being able to do ALL the activities. After the Reindeer, at 10:00am : We was taken to the huskies - Amazing! There were over 20 dogs We got to have cuddles with and give them treats as well as information on basically every husky that was taken out. They were very friendly and loved running around. By 10:45 : The husky meet finished and we were all given a complimentary hot chocolate which we were able to bring back to our domes and enjoy the rest of the morning before vacating by 11:30am.

The package also includes Park access throughout the day - It was nice to walk through the park and view all the different animals they support. They also have different shows during the day (we managed to catch the Bird Flying show, which again, was lovely to watch since there was so uch information provided).

Overall, the Winter Experience was definitely worth the price; especially because all the money goes towards the foundation to expand and provide for the animals! This is the second time staying at Eagle Heights and definitely...

Having visited lots of animal institutions Eagle heights was one of the remaining places to tick off the list. We arrived at half 11 and the lady on the desk was very polite and welcoming. Petey was up first and despite his deformity he was chirping away in full force his enclosure was a decent size and looked relatively new. There is also an decent sized play area for kids in this area, meerkats and kune kune pigs. Further along the owls and caracara all had polished and clean enclosures and seemed well looked after. Sheep, alpacas and goats all had nice preened enclosures and all looked well looked after. The serval enclosure is overgrown at the front and empty at the back. This means it's a challenge to spot them assuming they wished to wander. The real reason for coming on this trip was to see Zulu the Martial Eagle however I had to settle for a distant look as we couldn't get close to his enclosure.

The raptor area looked disheveled, the raptors didn't look like they had much room to spread their wings, nor much in terms of enrichment. Enclosures felt sparse and empty with lots of them only a singular perch to rest. Finally the area for the huskys seemed very poor, I'm sure it's better then what the huskys once had being rescues but I cannot help but feel it's like leaving your dog in the courtyard for years on end. I understand they get walks ect and they're not like regular dogs but I couldn't help but feel they could do better.

On a positive note the flying display was great and Brad was very informative and was a real spectacle seeing these beautiful birds soaring high. The display lasted for around 1 hour and we wanted to see the next one however we struggled to find much to do for the next 2.5 hours and so left without seeing it. Cakes and coffee was of a reasonable price and staff very kind and polite too.

Overall it's a good 2 hours out of the house, and to tick some bucket list birds off the list but I wouldn't...

I would not recommend anyone not local to make an effort to travel to this place. The information on website is misleading and the director at the foundation is unfortunately obnoxious.

This weekend, we took our little one to see wildlife. We checked on the website for the opening hours and called to double check but no one answered the phone. We arrived at the foundation at 3pm. A staff very helpfully pointed out the entrance and saying that we probably only have 50mins to visit. When we get to the entrance, a woman was sitting at the ticket office looking at her phone. When we asked for 2 adults tickets, she said the place is closed despite the online opening hour shows till 4pm. We said we are happy to pay and have a short visit to the ground even there is no more animals to see. She refused and said if people don’t want to leave at the end, it is going to be a trouble for the staff. We found this viewpoint on their visitors quite hard to believe. When we said that there was a staff just round the corner saying that we could have a shortened visit, she immediately pointed out that she is the director here and the one making decisions. We let her know that we drove for 45 min to see this place and don’t want to disappoint the little one. The response we received is that 45min is NOT VERY FAR. Regarding the misleading online information, she stated that “their IT department” is the one to fix it.

I would think a charity for wildlife would be somewhere with deep regards to nature, their people and the visitors. Very sadly, this one is not one of them. Now I have read some other reviews, it seems that the problems of misleading online information, rude staff and no care for visitors have been common among others. This place is very sadly n a...