Giraffe Ranch — Attraction in Dade City

This is a very intimate experience with the owners who live on the property serving as your guides. It was established on an old cattle ranch and there are a good variety of up close encounters with animals and a ride in a safari truck.

There are many primates and small cat species as well as giraffes, camels, zebras, tortoise, wild pigs, llamas, lemurs, miniature hippos, rhino, ostrich, hooved animals as well as more I can't remember. You get up and close with most of them either on the safaris or being able to be close to their caged enclosures.

The owners make it a very educational experience explaining just about everything you'd want to know about the animals and how they satisfy their well being.

On the safaris you will hand feed the giraffes and be paid a visit by the curious ostrich, zebras and camels.

There are 4 options for feeding animals as well that you can add on to the package. You can hand feed the bongos (Hoofed Animal), lemurs, otters or the rhino and I highly recommend you add one of the packages.

We fed the lemurs. Even though it was chaotic as they eagerly awaited us to go into the enclosure, they were all extremely gentle. They would take the grapes from you so carefully and deliberately. I wish we would have also fed the otters and rhino. I've never heard of a place where you can get so close to the rhino. Even though the people that fed it were safely behind a fence, they were able to touch and pet the gentle beast.

For 2Xs the cost of the safari in a vehicle, you can also opt for a segway, camel or llama tour instead.

I highly recommend Giraffe Ranch for those who love visiting Zoos, state parks and anywhere you want to observe animals. Because they limit the number of people, you don't have to worry about a crowd and get a genuine up close and personal...

Ever go to a third world country where they hate their tourists but love their money? A friend of mine and I purchased a Living Social deal for the Giraffe Ranch for $75 each. The owner answered the phone but changed her tone as soon as she learned we had vouchers, and refused to look up times for availability for both of us to attend together since I only had my voucher number. She said the vouchers were not a good source of revenue for them, which I understand, but frankly I wouldn't have even known about them had it not been for Living Social. We even had two other friends who were going to go with us that would have paid full price. She would only book us one at a time and not together unless I had both vouchers available in my hand instead of just my own, and then suggested they were not for everyone, and that the camel ride that I had purchased was "even more exclusive than the safari" and therefore she suggested I just get my money back. If they didn't want to honor the vouchers, I would say why bother entering into that agreement. Ace of Hearts Ranch was much better in terms of service, treating both the animals and the customers with dignity and respect. Here is what Living Social had to say after the owner of the Giraffe Ranch rejected my voucher as it's clear I'm not the only person that paid for their advertising for them:

Hi Tristen, We are very sorry to hear about this. We have submitted this issue to our merchant team. We suggest having your other friends send in requests. This will help us gather more information as other consumers are having the same issue. We will get right back with you when we get a resolution.Thank you for your patience. If you still have questions, please reply to this email. We're happy to help. Thanks for...

Booked a Safari tour at Giraffe Ranch. We fly down often (2-3 times per year) from Rhode Island to visit my family and honestly hadn't heard of this place before, but another family member had mentioned it was a cool place so we (my wife and I) took our kids (ages 9 and 11) and my Mom and booked a safari tour that included the giraffe feeding. You do need to book everything in advance as reservations are required before entering the property (they actually don't even open the gates until your scheduled reservation time). But....the wait at the gate is worth it. We've done other safari like tours in zoos and some other drive thru safaris as well, but the hospitality and engagement of the owners and staff were very genuine. The owners come out, introduced themselves to the entire group of 15 or so people who booked that tour, shook hands, etc. They are very engaging and knowledgeable about the animals they have. The tour was amazing, our guide Mel was very knowledgeable and made sure we got to see the newly born babies (zebras, giraffes, fawn, etc). The recent string of hurricanes did a number on this place...and half of the ranch was still under water, but ALL of the animals are all very well taken care of - all very healthy and happy. The giraffe feeding was great....he comes right up to the open canopy safari bus and everyone gets to feed the giraffe (we stopped for a good 15 minutes so that we all got to feed and interact with the giraffe). Great place! The tours are a bit pricy, but even if you just do the safari tour...it's worth it. Will be back! Kids...