As previously mentioned, the main reason we came on this holiday to the West Midlands was to go to West Midlands Safari Park where we had booked an overnight stay in one of the giraffe lodges. We last went there in 2023 when Shannon had booked the red panda cottage for Nicole's birthday, and had since been wanting to return to stay with her favourite animals. We managed to book the lodge as part of a 20% off deal making it much more affordable, however we still think that a trip is great value for money.
Our day started with just a short drive from our AirBnB to the safari park. We aimed to arrive for opening time to make the most of our two days in the park. As lodge guests, there is an allocated parking area close to the entrance and you can check in on arrival to collect all the information relating to your stay and your wrist bands for entry / exit to the park and the rides. Once checked in at the lodge reception, where we were made to feel very welcome, we made the decision to go into the park to see some of the animals in the walk around enclosures rather than venturing out on the safari as it looked like there weren't many animals roaming about early on. Inside the park there are opportunities to see penguins, bats, sea lion, meerkat, lemurs, red pandas, marmosets, tigers, cheetah, lions, hippos, and also to look out onto the safari reserve. We were lucky during our time that we managed to see everything several times during the day and, due to changes in the lodge stays since we last visited with it being possible to now venture out of your lodge after closing time to the various animal viewpoints, we managed to see them before bed and early morning too. We would definitely recommend taking up this opportunity as it gives you chance to see animals when there are less visitors around and potentially doing different activities than during the daytime.
Once we had spent some time in the walk around areas, we headed out onto the safari. Again, the safari has changed slightly since our last visit as you were previously able to drive round multiple times but now only have one ticket per day. Just to note, for day visitors you have to book a safari time but for lodge visitors you can enter whenever you wish. This flexibility allowed us to adjust to account for talks in the park and the weather. They also no longer offer options to feed the animals during the safari drive which did make for a more pleasant experience driving round as there was a lot less queuing and stopping / starting. On both days we drove round the safari, we were amazed that we were able to see all the animals that were there (with the only exception being seeing the tiger solely on the second day). The safari has a fantastic range of animals spread across it and makes for a really fun drive.
After the safari and some lunch, we tried out a few of the rides. We tend to find that the range of rides are quite limited for adults, but there are a few good ones including Zambezi Water Splash, Monkey Mayhem and the Rhino Rollercoaster. The benefit of visiting during a weekday out of the school holidays is that there was very little queuing, making for a stress-free time.
We had decided before our visit that we would head to our lodge quite early on the day of our overnight stay to make the most of the opportunity to see the giraffes. Before doing so, we stopped off at the giraffe feeding where we paid £5 for a branch of browse to feed to one of the giraffes. We recommend slotting this in but, if so, get there early as the queue was very long well before the start time!
We were staying in Mali lodge which turned out to be a very good lodge to be in as it was the one closest to the giraffe house. This meant that when the giraffes weren't out but were instead in the external area next to the giraffe house we were still very close to them. The lodge itself was decorated in a really homely way with fantastic theming throughout and we absolutely loved it as it is fairly similar to the type of decor we would love to have in our own house (if money allowed!). The lodge itself sleeps 5, therefore it was very spacious for the two of us. It had a balcony where you could view the giraffes up-close, and large windows in the bedrooms also which we made great use of the following morning.
We settled into the lodge for a couple of hours before getting ready to have our dinner. We were pleased to see when booking the lodge stay that they have updated the dining options and now offer a more extensive menu which is perfect for us as we can have particular tastes at times. Food is prepared in advance and put into glass clip-top jars which are stored in your fridge ready for re-heating whenever you fancy. We love this way of providing food as it means that you can enjoy the views of the animals and have your meal at whatever time suits you best. An extra addition that is now provided is also the delivery of some fresh bread in the late afternoon to go with your starter. For our meal, we both opted for the leek and potato veloute, which was really creamy and absolutely delicious. After enjoying this, we went for a quick walk to view the animals to give ourselves a rest from our quite large starter before our main course and pudding. Shannon had sausage and mash which came with mixed vegetables and onion gravy, and Nicole had tofu green thai curry with rice, and for pudding Shannon opted for pear and apple crumble with custard and Nicole had a "grown up" brownie. We both very much enjoyed our full meal and would definitely recommend the food, despite the reservations some people have about the method of serving. The only thing I would say is that the cooking instructions did not render the meals hot enough so it required a bit of interpretation and careful cooking for the smaller jars. After enjoying our tea we once again headed out for a walk around the animal viewing areas, before going to bed.
We both woke very early the next morning (5am!) and were astonished to see the giraffes out and about outside our window. We made the most of this by spending an hour sitting and watching them, before heading out for another short walk around the park. Breakfast was brought to our door around 8am, and we enjoyed this a little later on. For breakfast, there is a variety of cooked and continental options, and we both went for waffles served with nutella and berry compote. We both agreed it was an excellent choice as it was very tasty! After enjoying our breakfast, we checked out of our lodge, leaving our bags behind for the concierge to take to reception, and headed to the private sea lion show that is put on for lodge guests. We would recommend making the most of the opportunity to attend as it feels exclusive and the sea lions always seem to be guaranteed to impress.
Our second day at the park was similar to the first, but we did stop at one of the park's restaurants for our lunch. We chose to go to Dino Diner, where Shannon had a plate of pasta bolognese and Nicole had a tomato and mozarella pesto pasta salad. Both were delicious and kept us going nicely for the afternoon after our big breakfast. We stayed until about 4pm at the park before deciding we had seen and done everything and were ready to head to our AirBnB for a rest. Due to the plans for the next two days, we booked Ryan's place in Stourbridge. It was a small garden house which provided us with everything we needed for two further nights of our holiday.
If you are considering a trip to the West Midlands Safari Park lodges but feel that it is a bit expensive, our advice would be to book as we think it is great value for money in terms of the experience you receive and the accommodation. We have already discussed which lodge(s) we would stay in when visiting again!
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