Longleat Enterprises Reviews 

VIP Ronnie made our day. We had an awful time getting to the park due to foggy conditions and an accident in Salisbury and we were late for our giraffe experience. VIP Ronnie still made it happen for us and radioed around to see if it was possible. She put our mind at rest that if it wasn’t possible we might be able to go in her jeep for a safari. But lucky for us the giraffes hadn’t been let out due to the fog and the cold so we were able to still feed them! Ronnie was so friendly and informative, nothing was too much trouble, she took photos of us so we had a keepsake to remember the day by. She made my mums retirement gift very special. We cannot thank her enough! Total credit to the longleat team!

The food, although pricey, was very tasty- pulled pork in a bun with chips on a winters day- just perfect. It was mid week when we visited and it was relatively quiet. The animal encounter show was hilarious and informative and something the whole family could get in to. They also have personalised tree ornaments which the staff personalise then and there for you which is a lovely touch to remember a festive day out.

The sea lion boat trip was also another highlight of our day the two staff who run the trip were very funny and bantered with each other which was refreshing. We even got to see the hippos out of the water!

The Roald Dahl festival of light was spectacularly magical. It’s hard to believe that it is made of lanterns with all the different details- especially Augustus Gloop stuck in the tube above our heads! We Highly recommend you visit! And to finish off our day we saw the Christmas tree show- it’s so festive and immersive. We loved longleat so much we upgraded our tickets to yearly passes. Cannot thank all of the staff enough- especially VIP Ronnie!

Longleat needs new management URGENTLY for the following reasons:
-Ticket prices are too high for the experience
- Safari park buildings and animal enclosures look shabby, tired, dilapidated and lack care
- Food - overpriced, unhealthy and dirty eating areas
- Overpriced gifts, snacks, sweets in shops
- Dirty, antiquated, tired and unsanitary toilet provision (not regularly cleaned or checked)
- Attractions often closed or animals not on show
- Customer services non existent as no reply to emails or refunds given (even with valid complaint)
- Santa train a complete con! No discount for annual pass holders (as train ride included in annual pass). £20 for a 2 yr old toddler and £6 for every accompanying adult! No discount for senior citizen. Nothing to see on train ride until you get to the ‘Santa area’. Very disappointing experience - three plastic snowmen, green screen as background to have family photo that you pay extra for. A few minutes with an awful Santa whose beard was hanging off so you could see he was a fake! Cheap gift worth about £1 and a long wait for return train. A complete waste of money!! I paid £26 as I was expecting a truly memorable and exciting time for my grandson. This was a complete rip off and the worst Santa experience I have ever visited.
- Boring train ride with nothing to see along the way
Longleat Enterprises have got much too greedy. Lord Bath clearly only cares about making maximum profit and doesn’t care about the paying guests having an experience that warrants the excessively high prices. Longleat is getting a really bad reputation.
Lord Bath should invest in this ‘enterprise’ and close for a few months and do a complete overhaul and renovation programme. The catering provision is truly shocking and should meet the requirements of more healthy living standards by offering healthy eating options in pleasant surroundings. Get rid of the cheap hot dog and fast food huts for a start. Open the Orangerie for salads, open sandwiches, scones, afternoon tea etc. produce home cooking in the house cellar cafe - good quality hot ‘specials’ or get Gordon Ramsey in to sort the problems out! Longleat has kitchen nightmares! Emma’s Kitchen is the most tasteful part of the whole experience - can you replicate this standard throughout the park please!
Come on Lord Bath and Longleat Enterprises - listen to your customers and stop being greedy. Look after us and we will continue to support you in the future.
You need an efficient customer services department who answer emails, answer calls and offer refunds……..

Last time we will visit unless they improve. Been to Festival of Lights every year but won’t be going again. Hugely overcrowded this year, queuing for lights with children, toilets closed early, zoo attractions closed, maze closed, massive safari wait times. Seems they increased their capacity but hasn’t gone down well. Badly organised. I will commend Tom (think that was his name) on the river cruise, enthusiastic and knowledgeable.

Normally enjoy the lights experience but this year was so disappointed.
It was overcrowded.
We were unable to see the lights without standing in long queues which the children gave up on in the end.
We paid a huge amount for something that we didn’t even get to see in the end.
Not impressed.

We visited the Festival of Lights at Longleat to celebrate birthdays. There were 14 in our group. What should of been an enjoyable day turned into a nightmare that could of had severe health & safety riskes and potentially put lives at risk. What has already been written by others I totally agree with. Serious action needs to be taken. It is clear the management needs to see the dangers and staff briefed accordingly. Clearly profits are more important than the customer experience.

We have been to longleat on many occasions to see the festival of lights , however this year was so busy, the safari which usually take us around an hour and a half took us nearly 4 hours, so by the time we had lunch the maze and boat ride and some of the walk through enclosures had already closed, the festival of lights was stunning but you couldn’t really stop and appreciate it as just to busy , a lot of pushing and we lost members of our party on a few occasions which made more of a stressful rather that an enjoyable experience , the best part of the day was the house tour we booked was very interesting and nice to get away from the crowds. Was a real shame as it was our family get together before Christmas and to be honest we hardly managed to spend quality time with them…. We wouldn’t return again which is a shame

1 star is one too many!
Arrived before 12 on the 25th Nov. and were advised by the check in to go straight to the Safari which we did. For nearly the next 3 hours we sat in a queue looking for animals which were already locked in their enclosures. Total waste of time and money! Our 2 year old gave up looking for animals and started asking to go home before we were even a quarter of the way around. Very disappointing ! The only bonus was the monkey area but even then you were being rushed along by the rangers who seemed to be trying to stop the animals coming too close to the cars. You could see that the deer park was bumper to bumper all the way around so we by passed that!
We tried to pacify the little one with a trip on the boat but when we arrived there we were told it was now closed - this was probably just before 3!
We queued to go into the crocodile enclosure only to find people packed in like sardines and having to come out the same way as they went in - total chaos with no regard for health and safety! Disabled persons or those with youngsters in prams really struggled to get back out! Most of the other houses including the Koala house had such long queues which we avoided because of over crowding and concerns for the safety of members of our family.
The park itself was heaving with no one able to do anything apart from queue to get in places where the animals had already been caged, the toilets were dirty, the food places packed with waits of over an hour mid afternoon. When we did get in to the restaurant we paid £11.99 per meal for very poor quality food!
The exhibits for the festival of lights were amazing but we were herded like cattle around an area so jam packed that you were unable to enjoy it. There were queues to go see the Chocolate Factory which were impossible to negotiate with a scooter and pram! To be honest i was glad to leave!
IF YOU ARE DISBLED OR HAVE A CHILD IN A PRAM PLEASE DO NOT BOTHER -LONGLEAT HAVE MADE NO PROVISION FOR YOU. It was so crowded people were shoving past disabled scooters, leaning over prams. and rushing past the elderly - not a nice experience.
The park was understaffed, facilities overcrowded and no provision for the very young or the disabled - i have no doubt that Longleat have failed a health and safety inspection and am sure they sold far more tickets than their capacity should allow.

This was the worst visit to longleat if it was my first I wouldn’t go back.

We entered the park to be told the safari closes at 2pm better to do that first.
On the way around we notice there’s not lot of animals out on the first section and lot are put away. Monkeys were good that was about it. We got stuck on the safari road for 3.5 hours in a traffic jam
No lions, tigers, wolfs just traffic jam I could have stayed on m5 for that!.
Once we entered the park it was absolutely chaos.
Went to jungle boat to be told it’s now close after telling the bloke what’s happened so far he couldn’t have cared less.
Couldn’t feed the birds the ques were massive.
The croc swap was one way in and and the park had blocked off the one way system.
We got stuck in a crowed area can’t get out and my 2.5 year old got knocked over with the amount of people pushing in this small room.

surely there’s health and safety regulations for this or a limit?

The festival of lights

Are beautiful however you can’t enjoy them
Because the crowds of pushing people and trying to get in front of a mobility scooter/ prams is astonishing
This is event was poorly organised and not disable/Pam user friendly at all

Seems to me it’s more about money grabbing than a family experience!!
I’m disgusted by the organisers of this event.

I have emailed longleat
Clearly longleat need to have a big re think
On these events

Wow!!!!!.
What a fab day out.
The safari is brilliant,saw all the animals except Hyenas close up.
House absolutely amazing.
I recommend you do the safari between10- 11am and the house around 2pm.
Gives you a little time to get parked up, wander and a snack.
Park/house, pristine and for families at 4.30pm after we left an absolutely amazing story theme on until Feb 23.
Thankyou. An amazing experience worth travelling the 300 miles from Durham for.

I booked to visit the safari park with my elderly relative and two-year old daughter on Friday 28th October during the 14:00 - 15:00 arrival slot but wasn't able to make it following a medical emergency. I tried calling Longleat with a view to rearranging the visit to the weekend, either Saturday or Sunday, or to this Friday 4th November.

I waited for fifteen minutes for someone from guest services to pick up the phone but no-one did. I tried all the other options on the line too but no-one was available to answer my call. I emailed them, direct messaged them on Facebook and even Tweeted them but I have still to receive a reply.

I purchased the ticket plan refund protection in case something like this should happen but the link to the online refund application form (which their booking confirmation email advises you to 'complete as soon reasonably possible') does not work, as is the case with a number of other links in the same email. I would have preferred to simply rearrange my visit but in the absence of any contact with any of Longleat staff I tried to obtain a refund, which on the information they provided in their email proved impossible.

This whole business left my elderly relative - who was so looking forward to visiting the safari park with my daughter - feeling incredibly dejected and has contributed to her sense of loneliness and social isolation. My daughter, meanwhile, was in tears at the fact we couldn't visit last Friday, again when she realised the visit couldn't be rearranged for the weekend, and now again when we have been told we can't visit this Friday or this weekend either.

I really don't know what I can add. The customer service from Longleat has been non-existent until today when I finally spoke to a young man on the telephone who peremptorily told me that the park is closed this Friday and that my ticket is not transferrable because it is from the wrong season (I assume because I booked at the end of October (Autumn) then wanted to rebook in November (Winter).

I told him that the link on the email was broken and he told me that he knew this but had obviously not taken the initiative to amend it or report it to Longleat's IT department and directed me to a refund site, when all I want is to be able to transfer the ticket I've already paid for to visit the safari park on a different day.

The whole experience has been like something out of Kafka, an administrative maze that no-one seems to know the way through, which isn't helped by the concealment of Longleat's telephone number on their website and emails - what's wrong with including a phone number for people to contact them directly when they don't have seven days to wait for a response to an email?

I am left incredibly disappointed and with little faith in reply or recompense. This is the worst customer service I've ever received. Absolutely hopeless. Lord Bath would be turning in his grave.

Longleats pricing is so prohibitive for ordinary families. We where quote £205 for our family!!!

Thats just to get in!!!

Total joke and a real shame as have such fond memories of going there ourselves as children.

While I appreciate the money goes to caring for the animals to some extent, a quick search on their financial accounts shows they are just ripping off families.

DISGUSTING.

Rip off
Bought membership for my wife and myself for a year
Cant ever visit on a weekend
Or bank holidays
We both work so would have to take time off to visit
Will not be throwing my money down the drain again
Surely a membership should allow people some sort of visiting privilige
RIP OFF

We arrived by 09:30 and were allowed to pass the kiosks around 09:50. We headed straight to the jungle cruise which did not disappoint. Good to get there early as there weren't even 30 of us taking the first cruise of the day as such we were able to move from side to side of the boat for photo opportunities. Saw the hippos immediately and before even setting off - they were snoozing but still good to see. Next up were the black and white colobus monkeys, as well as seals and sea lions. We then saw the gorillas and then circled back to the seals and sealions where you were given the opportunity to feed them. We didn't partake as we didn't want our hands to smell like fish but the other visitors did and we were entertained and also got some good photos, whilst managing to stay dry and away from the splashes.

We took a slow walk around the animal discovery area and spent a bit of time with the Koala's - a couple of which didn't even look real until they blinked or ate. Also took a short walk around the family farmyard but didn't feel the need to visit the adventure zone as we are a child free couple.

We had our VIP Bronze Experience booked for 14:00-16:00 and it was the full two hours down to and including the last few seconds. Our guide, Ben, was fantastic! Very informative and knowledgeable, friendly and funny, as well as extremely passionate about his job. In the car was the two of us and one other visitor, and of course Ben. When we say we went off road and got up close to the tigers, lions, cheetahs, the extremely mischievous monkeys (a number of which had very small babies), red deer (who we also fed) as well as the Zebras and Giraffes, we honestly do not exaggerate! We highly recommend the VIP Bronze Experience as much as we do Ben. If you have the opportunity to book this tour, do it, you will not be disappointed!

Thank you.

Fantastic concert last night. Can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much.
Well done Longleat.
Long may summer concerts at Longleat continue.

Went to a concert here last night – will not return unless management team has a major rethink.

Prevented from bringing any food or drink (or an umbrella) to the concert and expected to pay for overpriced food and drinks, we were then prevented from leaving the concert early to ensure that the road was clear to allow the performers to leave immediately after the concert!

Great shame as the concert itself was good (but not the dreadful warm-up act) and the location/setting is fantastic.

Visited longleat yesterday for the first time wow…,
We had an amazing time. The drive through safari part was amazing especially the monkeys the trying to figure out where they are on your car when you can only hear them equals to a lot of laughter the only thing I would bare in mind is the waiting to get in and out of each part but then you can see why as it’s to keep the animals safe and where they should be.
The place itself stunning my personal favourite is the secret garden.
The feeding of the birds and giraffes made for an unforgettable memory for our children which they will remember for a life time.
Only gripe is the park needs to be more marked out we have managed to miss quite a bit even down in the African village as it doesn’t state what’s down there and up in the walking zoo part we missed some stuff.
However, you will notice we have given 4 star and this is for one reason and one reason only …. There was absolutely no sign of Ian! We as a family were desperate to see him after watching animal park I don’t know what we were more excited for seeing the animals or meeting Ian.
But overall an amazing experience one you would never regret having.

The drive through the Carnivore enclosure saw us sitting in a traffic jam for around an hour. Too many cars were allowed in and it was gridlock. Plus the second car in our party was hit by a gate and then the staff asked for insurance details in case the gate was damaged! We enjoyed the walk-through zoo in the morning but queue too long to go on train and boat. They should ration tickets and not be so greedy. DON"T GO ON A BANK HOLIDAY

Five stars to Nikki in Customer Service!

Super speedy response to our unusual request and followed it up the next day. So excited for the outcome!

Best wishes,

The Foxholes people - L and J

EDIT 06/06- Couldn't have asked for more! Emma C. has done an amazing follow up job and made us truly happy with the whole Longleat experience!

Absolutely disgusting!!! Over £300 spent on a VIP day, they do not have the curtesy to reply to emails or phone calls. DO NOT BOOK A VIP DAY WITH LONGLEAT. Worst customer service I have ever experienced, this is coming from a user experience designer btw!

Had a fab time but it using a debit card for items that cost a quid is ridiculous . We have toive with Co vid . This is not helpful to kids and adults who have a disability .