Franklin Drive Thru Safari — Local services in Franklin

We had plans for 2 small families to stay 2 days at the rental cabin, a total of 5 people. Unfortunately, one family was unable to make it, so it was just my 12-year-old son and I that stayed. The overall experience was ok. The owner/staff were friendly enough, and there were no issues there.

Cabin: Not located at the safari, you have to drive over to their property, friendly pup on the grounds, but the cabin most definitely could have been cleaned better. It's fully stocked, but I'm thankful we brought our own bedding and essential needs. Several toiletries left in the bathroom were used. The mismatched assortment led me to believe they were possibly left by previous guests. We did drive to town to purchase our own towels and disposal pans/cups/plates, etc. I spent the first couple of hours cleaning and sanitizing the cabin. There's free wifi and a roku TV. I was able to complete some work from my laptop, and my son and I watched some movies using my fireTV stick that we plugged into the provided television. It's a quiet location and quite peaceful with a nice view of the property. There were some horses and other animals in a fenced off area that you could view from the porch of the cabin. Renting the cabin on gives you half off the entrance fee to the safari. No additional discounts are offered.

Safari: We paid per person for the drive thru and also walked around to feed the giraffes and tortoises. I'm not sure if they offer a per vehicle drive thru only option. We went through early so a lot of the animals did not seem very hungry, not many approached the vehicle, could be they are used to eating later in the day but we went through with 2 buckets of feed and about half a bucket left at the end. Feed is $5/bucket. We had the best time feeding the giraffes and tortoises. They were definitely ready to eat. They do offer several other experiences, but all are at an additional cost like the baby room encounter is $50/person, Lemur Island $30/person. The prices are a bit steep when you add in the cost of cabin rental. They offer no discount on these encounters as a perk of renting the cabin, so we opted to skip them. I was also surprised to learn they have a little water park. Again, the overall experience was peaceful. We gone through other drive thrus where the animals are super aggressive and practically climbing in your vehicle, so this was a nice change.

Overall: A decent experience. If we did return, we would probably try to do some of the other hands-on experiences offered but not likely to stay in the...

I decided to take my daughter here during spring break, although 6 she is sure that she wants to be a vet. On our way here the road was blocked due to the line of people coming to this establishment. We arrived at approximately 2:00 and it was still a nice amount of people arriving and leaving. Although fun overall, the experience could be a bit pricey. The cost is $15 per person in the vehicle with children 2 and under being free. There were three of us..$45 entrance. In retrospect the entrance free was not all that bad when compared to a regular zoo admission for three people. There is a small parking area to the right of the entrance and one has the option of "driving thru" the safari or walking around to see the few animals they have outside. There were a few monkeys, lemurs, a turtle, a few birds, a leashless dog aimlessly wondering about and a couple of ride on/sit on toys. You are able to purchase feed for $5 a bucket and little cups of cheerios and grapes which are helpful if you are going to enter the baby room. Be aware that a leaf of lettuce to feed the giraffes is $1!! The baby room, which cost $15 per person allows you to enter a room for the chance at being able to touch or hold one of the animals. During our visit there were 3 lemurs, 2 armadillos, and an otter. One lemur that was perched on a stoop took one look at my daughter and jumped in her lap. He/She stayed with her the entire time we were in the baby room and wouldn't even eat from anyone else. They try to give you around 15mins in the baby room. The gift shop is where you purchase tickets to the baby room and they are sure to tell you to keep up with the tickets because if lost they won't refund your money and they take tickets once you are inside of the baby room. I would suggest to buy the tickets only when you're ready to go in. The gift shop reeks but it is to be expected. Also, make sure you wash any clothing you purchase from the gift shop prior to wearing it and put it in a bag during travel because it smells too. The actual drive through was great. We saw friendly and welcoming animals and my daughter was thrilled. My one negative was the bathroom. There was only one working stall as all the others were out of order. You can imagine what trouble this caused with little ones, their bladder, and a stall that's being used. Overall, we had...

I planned a trip to Franklin Safari for my daughter's 12th birthday. Her only wish was to visit Lemur Island. I called about a week in advance told the girl who answered the phone we planned to visit May 1st and asked if the wolf pups mentioned on the website would still be available to see in the baby encounter room she informed me that they may be getting too big and not be there but they had other baby animals to encounter. We got to the park around 9:30 am no line, no wait, we went into the gift shop and I told the girl we wanted to do the drive-thru safari for 5 people which was $115 with 3 buckets of food. I also asked about purchasing tickets for the baby encounter room, and I was told they currently had no babies for us to see. I then asked about Lemur Island, and she said yes, I could but wouldn't be able to until later in the day and to come back after the safari to purchase tickets. Driving through the safari was nice they do have a lot of animals that come right up to your car. It was a little scary how aggressive the rams and ostriches were, and they fought each other for the food. The entire drive-thru probably took about 20 mins. Then we parked and walked into the reptile house, which is free. We went back to the gift shop and purchased lettuce to feed the giraffes and tortoises. There was a different girl at the desk that was kind enough to direct us to an area where you could go into the tortoise enclosure and feed them which we wouldn't have known if she hadn't told us how to get there. We went back to the gift shop to purchase tickets for lemur island only to be told it's a Thursday and they usually only do it on the weekends by the same girl who told us we could that morning. It was very disappointing and frustrating to drive almost 2 hours for that specific experience and not be able to do it. Instead, I paid $50 for my daughter to go into a room and play with 2 baby otters for 20 mins. What we thought would be an all-day unforgettable experience turned into an overpriced...