Wimborne Model Town & Gardens — Attraction in Wimborne Minster

Review: 2/5 stars

Wimborne Model Town certainly has its charms — the site is impressively well-maintained, with clean pathways, tidy flowerbeds, and a peaceful atmosphere that makes for a pleasant stroll. The craftsmanship of the miniature buildings is admirable, particularly if you appreciate historical detail and traditional model-making. There’s a nostalgic charm to the whole place that older visitors may find endearing.

However, for the price of admission, it’s hard not to feel underwhelmed. The model town itself is surprisingly small and, while cute, doesn’t offer much variety. After 20–30 minutes of slow walking, we had pretty much seen everything. The limited number of whimsical or playful touches was disappointing — aside from the miniature wedding scene inside the church, which was fun and well thought out, most buildings feel static and lifeless.

The model railway is a nice addition, but again, not expansive enough to justify the high entry fee. There isn’t a great deal for children to interact with, and the site lacks the magic or wonder you’d expect from a place like this. It feels more like a museum piece than an engaging family attraction.

In short: clean, quaint, and charming — but overpriced and too sparse in content. Worth a look if you’re already in Wimborne, but not something I’d go out of my...

This is a lovely model village, it's actually to scale and not too tiny and the shops are all old fashioned, it's great to show kids a haberdashery or shoe menders. They also have a very nice model railway in a room which has buttons to start the trains, once going the buttons don't do anything but kids seem to like pressing them anyway. They have some wendy houses to play with and a large chess set, a tea rooms and a gift shop. I think the best thing about it is it's all enclosed, you can let the little ones wander (as long as they're not destructive) and not worry about them getting lost. I would say it's one of those things that if you're visiting the area then it's a gorgeous little tourist attraction and well worth a look, as model towns go it's one of the best we've seen but it's probably not somewhere you'll go back to more than once a year if...

Visited on our way home from our holiday (with 4yr old and 1yr old)- we hesitated at the entry fee, but you do get your moneys worth, and we were so glad we went in. Had read other reviews so knew we would stay for atleast 3hrs, could've spent longer! So much thought and effort has been put into this attraction. The grounds and facilities are wonderfully maintained, the food is delicious. The model village has so much to look at, but there is also a sensory area with gentle instruments, information boards about nature, a play area for little ones, the mini golf (£1.50), and some fascinating displays including the history of lego, the Wareham bears and the model train display (just wish more of the buttons were working!) We would recommend this to anyone, either with a young family, or the...