Warwick Castle and Longleat - any tips?

absfabs

Got my tickets for Longleat and Warwick Castle (tesco points) today, looking forward going there in the Easter hols!:j

Any tips as to what's best/what to leave out?

There'll be 3 adults and a 14yr old, and and one of us being disabled we will probably want to spend no more than 3 hours at each site.

Anyone got any experience driving through the monkey jungle? Would like to hear good and bad, so we can make the best informed choice :rolleyes:

Will 3h be enough for safari park and house at Longleat, or should we not even attempt this?

Grateful for any advice :A

Raspberry_Swirl

longleat - in my opinion you would need more than 3 hours. when i've been it's just been 2 adults, no kids and we still didn't do it all in about 5 hours!
if you have the full longleat passport then you have till the end of the year to see and do all the attractions, so if you only do about half the stuff there during easter you could go back in the summer and do the attractions you missed.
they stamp each attraction on your card so anything not stamped can still be done later.

joey_2

Yes I agree with Raspberry Swirl you will need loads longer than 3 hours for Longleat! We go there using clubcard deals every year, this year we are planning on going several times so we can actually do everything for the first time as we never fit it all in in one day!
The monkey jungle is a bit of a gamble, we saw the car in front of us and others getting ripped apart by the blighters (luckily didn't happen to us) but the kids did absolutely love it especially when one of them sat on the sunroof showing them his bum! Depends how much you love your car I spose!
The thing we love most is the safari boat which goes around gorilla island and you get to buy food to feed the seals but we didn't get to do that last yr as the queues were ridiculous (middle of August) so will be there first this yr actually might just do that and not the safari park for this trip. Also missed the animal shows in pet corner last yr - loads we didn't manage to fit in - you definitely need several visits!!!

misgrace

I went to warick castle last year, it was a good day out, we are thinking of going to longleat in the next month or so, so looking for any tips or deals.

Joey, you mentioned clubcard deals, could you explain what you mean by that, and could you give me an idea of how much the entrance is etc.

Many thanks for any tips and advice.

joey_2

Hi Misgrace,

we collect clubcard points at Tesco (do all our shopping there inc petrol for this reason) which we then swap for clubcard "deals". There's a huge list of "days out" to choose from.

Longleat for us (family of 2 adults, 2 children) would cost I think it was £72 and I think it was £20 in clubcard points so huuuge saving well it's free really as we do our shopping there anyway.

absfabs

I had only recently swapped to collecting/saving Tesco clubcard points, used to go for the money off option ,
like Joey I think the clubcard deals are really good value, with us going to Warwick Castle and Longleat we are saving around £70-£80.

Thanks for everybody's advice so far, keep it coming!

misgrace

Thanks for the advice, is it only tesco that does these days out, I have loads of points with sainsburys, would they have the same deals?

absfabs

Personally I found much less use for Nectar points from Sainsbury's, check their website.

But there is always the option to use them for money offat Sainsbury's or Argos for stuff we really need.

There is also a thread from Martin (I hope this link works)
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=394025
on Nectar sales on at present.

joey_2

Just had to order an extra Longleat passport as it seems we are now taking my niece as well:rolleyes:
It was £5 (in clubcard points) for an adult passport ticket and £4 for a child one. Bargain!!!

plane_boy2000

Deff allow a full day for longleat. We go most years and buy the passport which allows you to go back another day and do the things you didnt have time to do!

We have found that with 3 kids under 5 its a long day for them so we tend to do it at a leisurly pace and manage to make 2 days out of it going maybe this time of year and again in a couple of months. Good day out and we all enjoy it, but if you do really only have 3 hours then dont bother going as you will miss out on loads.

absfabs

Thanks for all the positive feedback!
Will follow your examples and try plan at least 2 visits for Longleat.

Any more pointers, anyone, please ?
E.g. what was the best bit of your visit,
did you drive through the monkey jungle,
did anyone visit the house?