Review of The Great Brick Safari at Whipsnade Zoo
By Ruth Freed - April 2019 We recently got the chance to visit Whipsnade Zoo, and to experience their latest attraction, The Great Brick Safari, which is a must see for any lego enthusiasts! They have about 20 life size animals, including lions, giraffes and an elephant, made entirely from Lego, which in itself are amazing to see, and each exhibit has interesting information about the animals, and also about how many bricks and how long it took to build each one. The guides who showed us around the lego brick safari were very friendly and enthusiastic and told us lots of interesting facts about the animals. The children particularly enjoyed seeing how big an elephant poo was! The other fun attraction which is part of the brick safari, is a mini-jeep safari ride. The jeeps are miniature size landrovers and the children can drive them independently around a track which has various terrains to cross through such as sand, stones, grass and even water. This is at an extra cost (£5 per child) to the brick safari, which is included in the entry price to the zoo, but the children really enjoyed it!
There is also a huge pit of giant bricks for younger children to have fun creating their own structures, inside the adjacent marquee (which is also home to a little colouring area) which would keep little ones entertained for a while, giving their parents a chance to relax for a bit! We thoroughly enjoyed our day out at the zoo. It was fabulous to be able to see so many different animals in one day, including lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, bears, penguins, sea lions, wild dogs, meerkats, monkeys, lemurs, owls, fish, butterflies, parrots, flamingos! The children really enjoyed the adventure playground which is huge, and we particularly enjoyed the sea lion show, and the Birds of The World show. 
Some of the amazing creations in The Great Brick Safari Thoughts from the children: Sophie (10) - “I liked the Lego elephant best because I love elephants and it looked real and it was actually life size. The jeep ride was amazing because it was so fun, and you actually felt like you were driving. I really liked the meerkats, and I liked the Mara who just wandered around free. It was so cool how you could get so close to the lions, and the play area was really good as it was so big.” 
There are some beautiful animals to be seen around the zoo. William (8) - “I thought the Lego animals were really cool, because they were life size, and I liked reading the signs about them and how many bricks and how long it took to make them. I thought the jeep ride was fun because I kept on crashing. The giraffes licked our shoes and their tails were so long.” 
The Mini Safari Cars are a great idea and the children love them as they can drive themselves Alice (11) - “I was impressed how realistic the Lego animals are and how well they were made. I thought the jeeps were really fun because I liked the obstacles. I loved the sea lion show as they were all so tame and I thought that was one of the best parts of the trip. I really enjoyed all the shows we saw, and I thought the butterfly house was quite fun. The play area was really big and really good. I thought the bird show and the sea lion show were really good.” 
There is lot's of fun to be had at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, it really is a great family day out Joey (4) - "I really LOVE Lego and the animals made out of Lego were really really good. I loved being able to drive the car on my own and it was funny when we went over the bumpy parts of the track, it made me and my daddy bounce around and we laughed a lot. The zoo was fun and I liked seeing all of the different animals, the sea lions were my favourite, the donkey made me laugh when he made funny noises but I didn’t like the rhinoceros much as they were very smelly. I did like climbing on the big pile of elephant poo though" (please note this was a stone feature made to look like a pile of elephant poo, we didn’t let our children that loose :-) ) A big Thank you to Whipsnade Zoo for inviting the Toddle About Team to experience the brilliant Great Brick Safari and to also allowing us to enjoy a day at the zoo, we all had a truly great time.
To find out more about Whipsnade Zoo and The Great Brick Safari, please visit www.zsl.org/zsl-whipsnade-zoo