Drusillas Park in Sussex is a great place for a family day out. We have visited before, last summer, and decided to go back again for another visit this month since our boys enjoyed it so much.
There’s a great mix of activities at Drusillas, with a large zoo, great playground areas, soft play, water play areas, the Thomas the tank engine experience, and Hello Kitty’s secret garden!
When you first enter Drusillas, you go into the zoo where they have a good selection of monkeys and other animals.
I really like how the zoo is kept engaging and interactive with plenty of displays for the children to press buttons, read information, move parts, and get them really thinking about the animals.
They also have a Zoo Olympics feature with plenty of active physical activities for the children to take part in, all linked in to the animals. This helps them to really understand animal facts, like how long a chimp can hang from bars for, or how fast certain animals can run. Just reading the facts is interesting, but when they compare these animal achievements with actually having a go themselves, it really sinks in much more effectively, and will stay with them for longer.
Having these opportunities for them to keep active and use up their energy around the zoo makes it much more fun for the children too!
They also really like the Meerkat section, which has a tunnel they can crawl through to get to the viewing area in the middle.
They can also go inside the Giraffe periscope, to allow them to see as far as a giraffe, which is pretty cool.
The scientific explanation is given on how it works too, in a simple way for children to understand.
These are just a few of the interactive and fun activities that are included in the zoo at Drusillas.
After exploring the zoo, the boys spent a long time playing in both of the playgrounds – Go Bananas, and Go Wild. These are some of the best adventure playgrounds we’ve seen at family day out venues. They both have so many bits to explore, and have features that are a bit different from your typical park, and more exciting.
This spider climbing tower was a big hit, with Z making it all the way up to the top.
They also enjoyed the main climbing and adventure structure with plenty of slides.
And this giant hamster wheel!
For under 6s, there is a brilliant sunken trampoline in the Go Bananas section, and there’s a real sunken jeep at the front of the Go Wild play area too. If we lived slightly nearer, we would probably come really often just for the playgrounds as they’re a lovely way to spend a few hours on a sunny day!
Next time we visit, we’ll have to play in the water play areas. There is a new Get Wet area for 2016, but unfortunately on the day we went it just wasn’t quite warm enough so we didn’t bring the kids swimming things. It does look really good though!
Before we went home, the kids wanted to make sure they got in a few rides in the Hello Kitty Secret Garden. This is quite a small area with three rides, but it’s a great addition to the park and my kids always enjoyed the rides. The price of the rides is included and you don’t have to pay anything extra, which is great.
They enjoy all three of the rides, the tea cups, the hopper ride, and the Hello Kitty car ride. While riding around in the car ride, you’ll see a few Hello Kitty facts at the side of the track, as part of a quiz. I have to admit, I learned a few things myself – I never knew that Hello Kitty apparently weighs the same as three apples!
For fans of Thomas the Tank Engine, you shouldn’t miss the Thomas experience either. We did this last time, but didn’t get chance to ride Thomas again on our visit. For any little ones who do love the little blue engine though, it’s a must!
As you can see there’s loads to do at Drusillas Park. For anyone who lives within a couple of hours, or will be visiting this part of the country, I would definitely recommend it as a fun family day out with plenty to please all ages from toddlers upwards.
Visit the Drusillas site to book tickets online.
We were provided with tickets in order to review
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.