Port Lympne Safari Park — Hotel in Folkestone and Hythe District

A day visit to just the safari park, Port Lympne was known by reputation and sadly one it didn't live up to on the day.

Be prepared for a lot of walking up and down steep hills. The area is beautiful, and the mansion looks superb, but the trekking isn't for the faint-hearted. None of that is strictly a problem if you do a little reading and preparing ahead of time.

Sadly, doing reading ahead of time gears you up for a list of animals on the website that simply aren't there. Painted wolves? No. Maned wolves? No. Zebras? We weren't informed that there were any and we saw none. Quite a few of the animals listed might be in the parks possession, but aren't on show - and not just one or two, quite a few.

Those that were there were often difficult to see. I appreciate that animals rightly don't obey a human schedule, they're not there to perform for a bunch of tourists. I also love that the issue is sometimes that the enclosure is simply too large to spot anything - the animals have space, and as the park proclaims, conservation is at the heart of all they do. However some of the low visibility was down to dated-looking enclosures, and there were one or two animals that seemed a little less than happy - something I did not experience at Howletts, Whipsnade, London, Chester, Longleat... only here.

The safari truck concept is brilliant in theory, but in practice was underwhelming. We saw a singular rhino that was still behind a fence (we saw many more on-foot), a camel, some deer, some capybara, and in the far distance were some giraffes behind fencing and some buffalo in another field. Different trucks seemed to take different routes, with ours not going so close to the giraffe enclosure as others. Whereas once upon a time the giraffes were viewable from an enclosure viewpoint near the giraffe house, we were nowhere near them and it didn't really count as something we experienced. There are no elephants, ostrich, or other typical safari fodder, the aformentioned lacking zebra, it was very bare bones - a 40 minute journey in a loop that spends more time traversing slopes and gates between enclosures than it does seeing anything. If you're going to make this a core component of the park, it has to showcase something a bit more than this. The vehicle is of course bumpy, which is fine and expected. It's seems to be a converted military truck, which had a strong fuel smell. Not an issue personally, but it made me question the impact of them driving around these animal enclosures all day long.

The food options were particular poor, lacking, and expensive. They had run out of warm pastries at the 'Base Camp' cafe before it was even peak lunchtime, and there was little else on offer barring some crisps, or doughnuts that came in at near £4. There's a swanky food offering at the mansion, and a more regular food restaurant at the bottom of the slopes. The park could use a more centralised or collective food space for guests. What's more is that despite being a Saturday and a busy day with good weather that had been forecast ahead, everything also closed incredibly early. Food places were closed before 16:30 even for snacks, and despite being told on arrival that the gift shop would be open until the 17:30 closing time, that was also closed before 5pm. We had picked things we had intended to buy upon arrival, but waited so that we wouldn't have to carry more things around with us - we ended up going without, and the park lost out on our money. The highlight from the staff side came from a park van driver who offered us and some others a lift up the hill near the end of the day, sparing us another walk up the slopes - in the end this ironically became a better version of the truck tour.

It takes a lot for me to be disappointed in a conservation park, but I left Port Lympne feeling underwhelmed, try as I might not to. I could nearly count on one hand the amount of animals I actually saw that weren't specs on the horizon, some seemed unhappy, others from the site just aren't there. If you want to support Aspinall, go...

The weekend just gone we stayed in Giraffe Cottage, at Port Lympne. We arrived for check in at 2, greeted by a lovely bubbly character Becky. We then sorted out bags and hopped straight onto the private safari, which final destination is the cottage.

Becky was an amazing guide on the safari, full of character, plenty of jokes but also extremely informative. A few of us on the safari, knew our stuff about animals from our studies and work, however, Becky still managed to throw brand new knowledge and information at us as it was so in depth! Even told us all the little quirks and names individual animals have. An hour and a bit after setting off, we arrived at the cottage.

The cottage was beautiful, very clean, well presented. We were greeted by our dinner chef, Andre, and another lovely lady who worked down in the restaurant for the giraffe lodges. (Sorry I’ve forgotten her name!). They explained how the evening would run, and where we could go etc. she poured us some welcome drinks, and Andre bought out some bread and dip to nibble on.

We then took a walk down to Lappa ? I think, which is where the giraffe lodges have their dinner, but we went down as they have a balcony lookout where the giraffes come up for their dinner. By 4:30pm the giraffes had come up, and we were able to get very up close to them, and watching the evening go by with a drink.

Once back at the cottage, played some games in the lovely garden, and then Andre called us in for dinner! It’s a set menu style, so your group choose your dishes before hand. However, due to how many different allergies within our group, the lovely staff allowed us to choose from two dishes per course. So between us starters were soup & squid, Mains, salmon & chicken burger and dessert a chocolate sundae and deconstructed eton mess cheesecake. When I say this food was 5* I mean it! It was amazing. And Andre was chatty and fully of character and catered to all our needs and requests! After dinner, he tidied up, but didn’t get in the way at all. He bought us out ice glasses for our drinks due to the heat, and even made our tea and coffees for us whilst he was still around.

Just as he headed off he offered to light the bonfire for us, he was so attentive. You’re then left to enjoy the evening as you please in the cottage and garden.

The following morning, Thomas, our breakfast chef from Italy arrived, cooking up an amazing feast for breakfast. Thomas was incredible! He really went above and beyond. It was my hen do, and he really made me feel special and I even got a plate full of pancakes. Everyone was laughing and having an amazing time with him as our breakfast chef.

Becky arrived back at the lodge at 10am to finish our safari and return us to the park! Honestly, she deserves a raise, she provides excellent service and once again had us all smiling and laughing on our way back to the main reserve.

The rest of the day we spent exploring the unexplored areas on foot and had an amazing time! Highly recommend. All the staff were lovely.

The only one small negative I have, is upon emailing prior to our stay a few bits of information were misconstrued and staff maybe not fully informed on how giraffe cottage run? But we were happier finding out it was slightly different than informed anyway! So didn’t hinder our experience!

Thank you to Becky, Andre and Thomas and all the staff at port lympne for such an...

Honest review about day visits. This park is really not child friendly. I booked a day visit with wife, daughter and 2 young siblings. It seems the park is more catered to people staying at the park more than day visitors. The safari which is included in admission price stated for free. However you have to have a time slot to ride on one of their cars by a driver. It last for about 45 mins but you hardly see any animals. Your not allowed any food and drink on the ride so bare this in mind on really hot days. The animals enclosures are really big but animals are very far away. The truck drivers before stated not to reach out with your hands to feed any animal as they are wild which is fair enough but it is laughable when the cages are so big no animal is coming close to the car even if they wanted too. They make it out like it’s going to be an exciting experience but we could see more trees and views then the actual species. Most of the animals as big as rhinos were hidden or hardly seen so unsure what the safari was showing us. They also kept showing and talking about the lodges where you can stay, of course a ploy to show you their accommodations more than there actual park. The park is self is better via walk as you can see more up close with the animals as from my experience. However the maps and signage are terrible. The park is so big that any wrong route you will spend half hour trekking back trying to find your way. There was also many dead ends with no warnings so you ended up walking round more then needed too so you end up going back again. The walking route itself is not for children or any elderly person. Even the fittest individual would need a beak or two. This was a really really hot day and with 3 kids you can imagine how difficult it was trying to trek the whole way round. The man at the reception said it’s 2 hrs walk around. Please don’t believe him, it’s more like 4hrs of constant walking. There is many terrains and steep inclines so again not buggy friendly. My daughter hardly got to see anything because we had to leave her with her mum at the cafe due to being too much for her to go round in the heat by pram or even walk. The park also has no short cuts in the routes. If you start the route you have to go completely round to get out again. Even if you don’t want to complete the route you still have to go back or forward with no middle route to cut through to save time and energy. All the best animals are also on the other side of the park so you are kind of made to do the walk anyways to see anything good. There are buggy cars absolutely scattered around the park but you can’t hire or ride them unless you are a hotel guest! What’s the point of having that many and numerous parking stops if day guest cannot use it? My two siblings and I were absolutely exhausted by the time we finished as there was no routes for us to get out other than the walk. There are cafes dotted around but small ones where shut. The big ones however be prepared to spend £11 on 3 cans of coke or £7 on two bottles, £6.50 for a iced coffee, or £4 for a muffin. Any snacks or food as well is extortionate so make sure you have enough packed lunch and water with you. Overall our experience was one of excitement which ended up being a day of exhaustion and pain in the legs. Which was not worth doing or seeing less animals then you see in any other safari park...