"Ice Age" at West Midlands Safari Park

Our first day trip was a visit to the Ice Age animatronic attraction at West Midlands Safari Park, to set the scene around the first settlement of England by modern humans.

There are not that many Ice Age or Stone Age re-enactors around, probably due to lack of solid information about the people and cultures, but in this safari park blockbuster attraction you can at least come face-to-face with large, realistic and often (slightly) moving animals from pre- and post- Ice Age Britain. If you want to start earlier in history, there is also an excellent animatronic "Land of the Living Dinosaurs" just around the corner at the same park.

The Ice Age attraction has three zones covering different time periods - the first zone was too early for our purposes, but the Pleistocene Epoch (2 million years ago to 10,000 years ago) is the environment which local human ancestors and the very first modern human settlers would have lived in, and the Holocene (10,000 years ago - Present) with its dioramas of woolly rhinos and mammoths covers the start of the three Stone Ages in particular.

Attraction details at time of visit:

Ticket prices:

Adult – £24.00 Child (3-15yrs) – £19.00 Concessions (Student or Senior 65+) – £22.00 Under 3s – Free

All of these tickets include a second "free" visit for the same people using the same car, within a year and showing the original ticket at the gate.

Opening times:

Pretty variable throughout the year - there is a semi-closed season in winter and there are extended hours in other school holidays, but overall the Safari Park is usually open in some form (usually a full day) five days a week. Check details before you go!

Food:

This is a major destination, there are lots of small refreshment huts (and toilet blocks) around the park and a handful of places to sit indoors and eat. It is also a good place to bring a picnic as the kiosks are all fairly expensive and a lot of the food options are fun but unhealthy.

Mobility Accessibility:

If you can't walk a long distance you will struggle without wheels of some kind as it is a huge place and not overly provided with benches. I have borrowed a basic wheelchair for free at this park, which is helpful only if there is someone to push it for you! If you are relying on this, phone to pre-book and make sure there is a chair left for you to use. You can also bring in your own mobility scooter and use that on everything except the safari bus and fairground rides - there isn't dedicated secure parking whilst using these but there are corners you could leave it in. With much effort with doors I have even taken a scooter successfully right into the ladies' loos (by Dinosaur Land) and out again. There is a large blue badge parking area near the way in, but you can be several minutes sloping walk away if you park in the standard car-parks, which is worth factoring in to your energy use.