Beale Wildlife Park Review
Over the summer break, the boys, their grandmother who was visiting from Australia, and I went to Beale Wildlife Park.
As both of my boys love animals, I thought this park would be a perfect way for us to see some animals that we don’t get to see regularly.
Here’s my Beale Wildlife Park review from our recent visit, which I hope will help you decide if it’s somewhere that you’d like to visit as well.
In this review I’ll cover:
I hope you find this Beale Wildlife Park review helpful, and would love to know if there’s anything that you think I can add to it to ensure it’s as helpful as can be.
Where is Beale Wildlife Park?
Beale Wildlife Park is in Lower Basildon, and is located on the A329 between Pangbourne and Streatley.
The park’s website says it’s on the west side of the A329, and to leave the M4 at exit 12, then follow the brown signs for Beale Park and Pangbourne.
The park’s sat nav postcode is RG8 9NW. My car wouldn’t allow me to type this in, so I typed in RG8 9NX which led me to the brown signs mentioned above, which I followed, and ended up in the right location.
What is there to do at Beale Wildlife Park?
There are many things to do at Beale Wildlife Park, which include:
Animals
As the park is a wildlife park, the main attraction is animals.
There’s a wide range of zoo and farmyard animals, reptiles, and over 160 species of birds to see at the park.
Some of the zoo animals are:
- Asian Short Clawed Otter
- Black and White Ruffed Lemur
- Black-tailed Prairie Dogs
- Brazilian Guinea Pig
- Brazilian Tapir
- Carpathian Lynx
- Drawf Mongoose
- Emu
- Great Grey Owl
- Macaw
- Meerkat
- Northern Raccoon
- Plains Zebra
- Red Breasted Geese
Some of the farm animals are:
- American Miniature Pony
- Alpaca
- Cameroon Sheep
- Kunekune Pigs
- Pygmy Goats
- Shetland Ponies
Some of the reptiles are:
- Chinese Crocodile Lizard
- Columbian Rainbow Boa
- Emerald Tree Monitor
- Salmon Pink Bird Eating Tarantula
- Sulcata Tortoise
The park’s website, and areas in front of many of the enclosures, have information about each animal, as well as fun facts.
You can also select from six of the park’s most popular animals to sponsor for a full year.
Doing so gets you a tin with a sponsorship certificate, fact sheet, small soft toy, and the sponsor’s name on the park’s adoption board.
You can find out more about this here.
Play areas
There are many play areas throughout the park, which include:
- An adventure playground
- A bouncy pillow
- Indoor play
- Rope play
- A sandpit
- A toddler’s village
- A zip wire
Paddling pool
There’s a paddling pool that opens when the water temperature reaches 15 degrees.
If you’d like to use the paddling pool, you need to bring your own swimwear and towels.
Train
There’s a train at Beale Wildlife Park that’s suitable for all ages.
It’s diesel, runs along a 1.6km track from Howard’s Halt Station, can seat 70 people, and runs every 20 minutes.
Every visitor gets a train ticket upon entry, you need to pay an additional cost if you’d like to go on it more than once.
Gardens
There are some gardens that offer a quiet place to sit and enjoy the park’s surroundings, which include:
- The Water Gardens – this garden has an oriental feel to it, it has bridges, benches, and a lot of greenery.
- Diamond Jubilee Garden – this is the park’s primary rose garden, and has some seating within it.
- Platinum Jubilee Garden – this is the park’s secondary rose garden located outside the ticket office exit, and is filled with roses named after the Royal Family.
- Courtyard Garden – this garden is located behind the elephant fountain, and filled with trees and flowerbeds.
Food options
Aside from an ice cream van that was located near the train on the day we visited, there are two food options at the park, the Peacock Restaurant, and the Pavilion Café.
The Peacock Restaurant has hot and cold food, afternoon tea, drinks, and ice cream.
The Pavilion Café has drinks, snacks, cakes, and ice cream.
You can also bring a picnic, which is what we did, and eat it at one of the many picnic tables around the park, or you can enjoy it on one of the grassed areas.
Opening times
Below are the opening times on the day we visited, with the last entry allowed one hour before the gates close.
Spring and autumn:
- Seven days a week
- 10am – 5pm
Summer:
- Seven days a week
- 10am – 6pm
Winter:
- Seven days a week
- 10am – 4pm
Ticket prices
At the time we visited ticket prices were:
Prices including a voluntary donation:
- Adult £16
- Child £13
- Under 2 free
- Over 70s £14
- One carer per disabled adult or child free
Prices excluding a voluntary donation:
- Adult £14.50
- Child £11.50
- Over 70s £12.50
It’s recommended that you pre-book tickets online. If you have a gift voucher, you can only redeem it in person.
After booking your tickets online, you’ll receive them via email. You need to print the barcode on the email, or show it upon entry on your phone.
The park offers memberships, which you need to do at the park.
Membership prices are:
- Adult 16+ £73
- Children 2 – 15 £57
- Children under 2 free
- Family £232 (2+2 OR 1+3)
- Senior £63
- One carer per disabled adult or child is free
I purchased my tickets through Groupon, which cost £24.61 for 2 adults and 2 children.
So prior to booking on the park’s website, it’s worth visiting Groupon to see if you can get discounted tickets.
Tickets are only valid for the date they’re booked, they can’t be transferred to another date.
The park’s website says it can suspend or close attractions due to the weather, and that they don’t offer refunds or exchanges under any circumstances, including weather conditions.
You can book tickets here.
Parking
There’s a lot of onsite parking, and it’s free.
How long you’ll need for your visit
We spent three hours at the park, which included visiting the animals, going on the train, eating lunch, and playing on the bouncy pillow.
If you want to see all of the animals, have lunch, and visit multiple play areas, then you could easily spend over 5 hours at the park.
If all you want to do is see the animals and have lunch, then 3 hours will allow you to do this.
My thoughts on our day at Beale Wildlife Park
Beale Wildlife Park was a great family day out.
On the day we went it wasn’t too busy, and as the animals were spread apart really well there were no crowds.
Highlights
The Water Garden, it was large, peaceful, and truly beautiful. I felt like I was at an entirely different attraction as I was walking around it.
The animal enclosures were really child friendly, with many of them having clear windows at the height shorter children, and children in buggy’s could easily see the animals through without having to be picked up by their parents.
The variety of birds was fantastic, and their enclosures were large, and had either a lot of water, or a lot trees in them.
There were ponies available for children to pat, which Ryan loved.
The train was a highlight for Thomas, who sat still and smiled throughout the entire journey. We got to see animals on the train ride, and the driver even tooted the train’s horn for us.
Lowlights
There were no paper maps, instead I took a photo of the map at the entrance and had to find it on my phone whenever I needed to refer to it. I also found it hard to find things on the map. If you’d prefer to download the map you can get one here.
Some of the animals were hard to find, and the only way I found out how to reach them was after seeing other visitors cross the train tracks to get to them.
The reptile area was small, and there weren’t many reptiles to look at. As hesitant as I was to look at tarantula, it wasn’t in a position where we could see it, and we looked a few times.
The non-dairy coffee from the Peacock Restaurant wasn’t very good. I was told that they can’t make anything apart from an Americano with non dairy milk, so that’s all I could get. I had to add the milk myself and it was really bitter.
Overall we had a fantastic day, and I’d definitely go back to do the play areas, splash pool, and definitely the toddler village, which Thomas would love.
What’s your favourite wildlife park?