Last week we took a day trip to Longleat for the Festival of Lights with the girls. Myself and Scott have been lucky enough to have multiple weekend breaks this year and with limited quality time as a family due to the hectic work load and life in general I decided we needed some family time.
I booked Longleat via their website and got 10% off the booking bringing the total for 3 of us to £86.45 - as Olivia is under 2 her admission was free. It was really handy booking online as it meant we recieved etickets and when we arrived they just took the booking reference from us so it meant I didn't have the trouble of having to print and remember tickets.
We set off from Devon at 9am with lovely dry weather and had a good journey up, the kids were kept entertained with an endless supply of snacks which I was feeling very smug about bringing along with me (we all know how the cost of snacks soon amounts!). The journey took us around 2.5hrs with no stop and we arrived just after 11.30am. A quick toilet break and then onto the safari. I was particularly looking forward to the monkeys, Scott not so much, he was worried about our car after hearing stories that the monkeys would be pulling our windscreen wipers off but I can honestly say this wasn't the case, they roamed about and jumped on and off the cars which made us all laugh. The Lion and Tiger enclosure was amazing, you are almost guaranteed to see them, they came up so close, a Tiger walked straight in front of the car and a Lion down the side of us, it was a great experience and to see the girls reactions was just priceless.
We moved into the main area of the park and had some lunch, I'd already searched their website for restaurants and had seen Pizza Piazza so we headed here as this was the safest bet with the girls, knowing they would eat pizza. We had 2 pizzas, 1 portion of wedges and 3 drinks which came to about £25/28, a bit pricey but it's what you expect and the pizza was good, I was getting more and more smug about my snacks at this point though!
The Hedge Maze (the biggest in Britain), the Jungle Cruise, Adventure park, the giant Christmas tree (be sure not to miss the performance) and the animals in the main square were all highlights of the trip too, we all enjoyed these, the hedge maze especially, it's such good fun!
Finally, the main reason we went, to see the ever popular lights, these were just amazing, I wasnt sure what to expect, but wow, they really get this right! They were beautiful and so cleverly done, some real amount of effort goes into this display. Each area had a different theme, with a story behind each one, there was sound effects too, which really made it for me. Sienna was particularly in awe, asking lots of questions and just so fascinated, the only thing that spoiled it for us was how bitterly cold it got, -0.5 degrees and by 5.30pm we were starting to get uncomfortably cold and we left, but overall the experience was great and we achieved what we set out to do - spend quality time together as a family.
