Tiger Lodge — Hotel in Folkestone and Hythe District

We stayed for 1 night, In Zarka lodge, it is an amazing lodge, Everything you need. Superb location. |Has a small fridge, kettle, hair dryer, Also has Bamford shampoo/conditioner/shower gel (my son loved using these we forgot to ask if we could take some home for him, My fault ) Comes with towels and slippers and gowns. Different types of tea and sugar and espresso machine, It had milk in the fridge, with water and some apple juice an pear juice.|Has an outside hot tub/bath which they will set up for you, give them a time and they will come and do it for you. Had our own buggy which was so much better as I have mobility issues and I certainly would not of been able to walk all the way round so was a nice touch that it came with the booking, Breakfast was included as well. We had dinner at the bear lodge a little on the expensive side but was nice, Not much choice especially when have fussy children! But did burger/goujons/jacket potatoes for them on the menu, Not much choice for starters so I decided just to have a main meal. Service was great in the bear lodge, They all really looked after us in the evening, Don't know if that is because we was on table 13 haha unlucky for some and all that. But especially the lady in the morning at breakfast (27/04/2024) I did not get her name, But she could tell I was a mum as I piling the plates etc for them and tidying up the table to make it easier for them lol.|||Whilst we was there we fed the baboons my son really enjoyed that. Definately worth doing it and booking up, Resonably priced too, All goes back into the zoo for the animals.||The stay away was amazing, We had the tiger for literally all of our stay, Slept outside all night next to my sons bedroom window ( we are all tired this afternoon!!!) It is definatley once in a lifetime opportunity, I just feel for the price we paid it should at least include dinner and perhaps one animal feeding session aswell as it is alot and like us we save up to do this and was a little disappointing that just got free breakfast with it and a buggy but does not take away the memories we have made with my family. One we will never forget.|||Lauren who was in the mansion building was amazing and explained everything to us when we checked in. 10/10 service. ||Amazing stay away, Amazing experience, We did visit Howletts as well on the way home as wanted to see the elephants before they leave for Africa (that is included in your stay aswell and you can visit there as well) hour and half we did there as we are so tired from not sleeping night before due to and excited 10 year old haha. But if you can do it, you might as well as included but no buggy lol much more flatter walking and only 1 hill leading down to the elephants.||As we were leaving I did take off all the bedding/cases etc for the housekeepers and emptied the bath and did the "Mum" thing and tidy up because at end of the day it is a beautiful place and we would love to come back but maybe if we win the lottery!! Unless you take access cards 😉 and I can get it cheaper! They all do work so hard from gardeners/housekeepers/zoo keepers/reception/cafe/safari/ all of it to maintain it all for all of us to enjoy a family day out. ||Thank you port lympe for a very memorable stay. My son loved it we loved it. ||Perhaps dinner could be included in price for future visits?||Keep up the great work||Becky,...

Staying at Port Lympne was a Bucket List dream that was in-affordable as I’m not rich or a celebrity. But as life is running out for us after huge deliberation whether to literally gamble our money on 1 night here and risk not actually not seeing the tigers from the windows of the lodge, as shown on all the advertising or have a week’s holiday for the same price. |So if you are purely wanting that be aware you are risking not enjoying them from those windows as was sadly what happened to us because the 2 tigers had been separated which immediately halved our chances of seeing them and for the time we were there the male only wanted access to the female so spent all his time pacing on the side of the enclosure where she was locked into at the opposite side of the lodge so impossible to see and this remained the case for the whole time we were there.|Gutted was an understatement. The lodge and surroundings are absolutely beautiful, but from check in time to check out I remained in the lodge to maximise my chances of seeing what we were there for… to sit in comfort with a clear view to watching the tigers. |The only time I would leave was to literally walk the perimeter of the enclosure to check where they were and to try and engage with a keeper to see what the chances were of a tiger coming to the other side but just got fobbed off. |No feed or enrichment put that side to encourage them to the lodge side( which I suspect does happen for those catalogue pics/VIP’s) . We ordered a pizza to be delivered so as not to leave the lodge, I stayed up all night on look out but no luck, I wouldn’t leave to go to breakfast because time was fast running out but sadly other than one very brief glimpse I only ever got to see the beautiful tigers through the wire that spoils all chances of taking decent photographs… and at Port Lympne there are no viewing windows like at zoos so very hard to take any pics. |When it came to check out and I was asked if we had enjoyed our stay I just broke down because I was so gutted we didn’t get the experience I’d risked our money on.|Apparently we were just very unlucky for this to happen, and the animals have large enclosures and they are free to roam ( unless being segregated) so obviously no guarantee and they did try to appease me by offering for us to look at the same tigers again or come back another day ( not to stay at a lodge!) which was a pointless gesture as I was still not be looking at the tigers in the way we wanted. |Also to point out it is not a very disabled friendly place, it is very hilly and spread out and the buggy’s are not allowed on most of the routed to see the animals. |I can only hope no-one else going for the Bucket List experience isn’t as unlucky.|| and of course there are no guarantees because the snimals habe lots...

We loved the lodge which was larger than the photos, but we were here purely for the tigers. Unfortunately we were unlucky and after waiting 6 hours on the first day saw very little of them. Only once in the distance. I went out to see where they were in their enclosure and only found a neighbouring wounded male in a tiny cage. As someone who does not go to zoos due to the lack of space for the animals this was distressing. As we did not want to miss a tiger spotting we ordered food in. It was an expensive night of just Netflix and Pizza and no tigers. The patio door to our bedroom did not lock so it was a sleepless night worrying about an intruder. One of the females did appear the next morning pacing their small enclosure looking very bored. I am not sure what I was expecting but it was not this. My children seemed to appreciate the trip so I did not want to complain in front of them. There was excellent customer service before arrival - attempting to get us to book restaurants and meet the animals. But this disappeared on Check out with no follow up on my comments at the ‘concierge’ or feedback email. For the cost of a real safari it was just an expensive night in a nice lodge with no interaction...