Drusillas Park - review

A November day pouring with rain doesn’t sound like the start of a fun and fabulous day out but I can assure it was. We headed off to Drusillas park to review it. Having taken one look at the weather forecast we shrugged our shoulders and popped on our waterproofs and headed off. Its in East Sussex about an hour away from us. It is a smallish 10 acre zoo packed with play areas, large slides, zoo animals, animal feedings, cafes and shops and attractions such as Thomas the tank engine and Hello Kitty.

We headed off to see their Halloween events and monkeys ( my youngest is rather monkey obsessed) There are tons of things to do from a spotter book to the Zoolympics challenge which the boys decided was one of the best things about the place. We had the place fairly empty because of the weather so we didn’t need to queue at any of the stops. I think the boys favourite challenge was seeing what sort of animal they had the same weight as or if they could pull as much as a horse! In each section there is an activity to try out and captured both our 4year old and 8 year old at the same time. Even Daddy joined in with most of the activities and the amount of times we tried to see if we could run faster than certain animals only to discover we were disappointingly as fast as human and never ever anything more!

The animals took up half the time we were there and would have taken up longer I think if the weather was a tad more cooperative. You can walk through certain areas and get up close with the animals like Rainbow Lorikeets. The boys watched captivated while a zoo keeper cleared the river in the beaver’s enclosure only for the beavers to dash over and start remaking their dam. They can pull incredibly long branches by the way!

After the animals we had a good long play on one of the outdoor play areas and headed over to take a trip on Thomas and then to seek out the Mummy who had escaped in the Eden’s Eye Maze. Exhausted a couple of hours later we stopped off for a well-deserved coffee (for the grownups) and ice cream for the boys. We spent a good morning and a half afternoon there and could easily have spent the whole day.

The facilities are fabulous for families, each loo seat (and it includes the men’s) come with a smaller one for children, door handles and lock are lower for children to manage by themselves and lowered sinks were at every place we visited just right for even toddlers hands.

It was a fabulous day and while slightly more than a general day out (family of four is £48) it works out a lot cheaper than other family zoos we’ve visited. We are even contemplating getting a year’s membership as we feel it would be worthwhile and used. 5 out of 5 from us all!