Do your kids recite a new fact about animals to you every other day? Is their collection of toy animals always growing? Are they planning to become David Attenborough when they’re older?
Then now is the perfect time to consider planning a holiday to visit some animals up close and make your budding zoologists smile.
Luckily you don’t even have to go all the way to the savannah to meet lions or sail out to Hawaii to see dolphins.
When it comes to planning a cheap UK holiday for families there’s plenty of amazing opportunities out there for your kids – and you! – to interact with animals.
Get hands-on with alpacas
What better way to give your children a day to remember than by letting them get up close with a furry friend?
Alpaca walking is an increasingly popular activity for the family, offered by farms and even some holiday parks in picturesque locales such as Wales and the New Forest. Unlike their cousin the llama, alpacas are calm and friendly by nature, making them great companions for a stroll.
For those a little older – and bolder – several zoos offer wildlife experience packages to give people a taste of the zookeeper life. At Longleat Safari Park you can meet and feed a variety of animals, from lions and tigers to giraffes and red pandas.
Search the sea for dolphins
But what if they prefer fish to felines? Of course, there’s a variety of impressive aquariums around the country to choose from, but how about something a little wilder?
There are few things quite as special as seeing a dolphin pop up out of the waves just meters away with your own two eyes. Luckily there are many tour boats around the UK that head out in search of dolphins, seals and even whales in the summer months.
If you don’t want to brave the waves you can also find seal colonies resting on the beach at spots along the coast, with a number making their home down in Cornwall. Maybe throw in a trip to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary near Helston to get even closer to them and hear more squeals of delight.
Become a perch for parrots
Those looking for friends of the more feathered variety, on the other hand, can’t go wrong with a trip to a bird park.
Witness owls and other impressive birds of prey in flying displays or take pictures of a parrot perched on your child’s shoulder. Some centres also offer the opportunity to handle and fly birds under supervision.
Birdland in the Cotswolds is home to more than 500 birds of a wide variety of species, ranging all the way from flamingos to penguins, and is sure to please any bird lovers in the family.
Or, if your kids have the patience for it, head out to one of the RSPB’s reserves and hunker down in a hide for a spot of wild bird watching.
Go strolling through a house of butterflies
Even if creepy crawlies aren’t up your street you can still satisfy the bug fans with a visit to a butterfly house.
Walk through greenhouses filled with lush plant life as the tiny wings of dozens of different species of butterfly flutter by. If you stand still long enough – and wear a colourful enough outfit – one might just decide to land on you!
One of the largest tropical butterfly displays in the UK can be found at the Butterfly Farm in Stratford-upon-Avon. Home to more than 250 different species of butterfly over the course of the year, the farm features an area where the family can even witness butterflies emerging from their chrysalises up close.
Whatever the type of animal your kids love, there’s holiday experiences to be found around the UK that can make their year and leave them with some truly special memories. Unless their obsession happens to be dinosaurs, that is! But even then, there’s some great museums for that too!
So, don’t delay, get organising your next UK holiday and give your kids an experience with wildlife to remember.
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