Review: Romantic Break for Two at Giraffe Lodge, Port Lympne Reserve, Kent

Recently it was my husbands 44th birthday and it happened to fall on his busiest work weekend of the year, so needless to say he slaved away and the day passed by pretty much unnoticed. I knew this would be the case so I was intent on finding a local night away for us that would be memorable. I needed it to be pretty close to where we live as we had limited time with a babysitter and at first I booked a night at the 5* Grand Hotel in Eastbourne for a spa stay over.

We then had our family day visiting Port Lympne Reserve in early August and as we travelled past Giraffe Lodge in the safari truck I knew this was where we were supposed to be staying. This really would be a special night away for the two of us, truly memorable and very different to anything we have ever done before. Thankfully when I spoke to Port Lympne they were very happy to host us and allow us to stay for the purpose of a full and honest review.

View from the Laapa restaurant, across the Romney Marshes and English Channel

Take a Safari Experience in Kent with Port Lympne Reserve

My word, I have no idea how I missed this gem for such a long time. We've lived in East Sussex for just over four years now and a couple of friends had mentioned Port Lympne but just in passing. It's around 40 miles from me and I had (mistakenly) thought it was a small animal conservation centre, so I hadn't made any effort to take the family over there.

Then I sat down in June to plan our Summer holiday days out and was looking around the web for places to visit as a family. It is always fun to see somewhere new and my husband is a real bird and animal lover, so I was checking out zoos, farms and the like for him to be able to practise his photography. I came across the Port Lympne Reserve website and realised what we have been missing out on for the last four years!

Will we go back there, now we know?  An absolute yes, it is the most amazing day out and because so many of the animals are roaming free I bet it never feels like the same experience twice. Who knew there was a UK based safari experience? And don't think I am exaggerating, as we drove around in the safari truck we saw Giraffes, Water Buffalo, Antelopes, Rhinos, Eland, Greater Kudo, Ostrich, Zebras, Deer and Wildebeest and all of these were roaming free as we passed through their home. There are dozens more types of animals too but I'll mention more about those later.