Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, Isle Of Wight

I saw the lion from so close to I had the best of the experiences. The key is that you need to be in the right place in the right time. If you go to the animals right after food was served, they'd be probably sleeping at a corner. So choose your time wisely. Also, they give some questions and stamping games to kids, so it keeps them excited. Good place. Note: you will end up walking a lot so wear shoes and carry water bottle.

Awesome and well looked after with a lot of renovation going on to to make it even better. This is not a zoo it is a sanctuary for animals to have a better life. It has some lions, tigers, racoons, lemurs, goats and many more different animals. The big cats all look happy and you can get surprisingly close and they don't care you are there, they just go on there daily business. Lots of information is dotted about as some animals have injuries from being Miss treated from previous owners. It also has information about each animal and there characteristics. This place is not big but you could spend a long time looking at the animals as they are so close and can even watch some of them being fed. It has a cafe which sells really nice food and a small shop. The play park will be an added bonus. When we went it was half price so fantastic value and a lot of work is going on to make a new small monkey enclosure which looks really good. For everyone who says it's unfair to keep these animals I say they are rescued and now have a chance of a life with great keepers. Just listening to them shows they care. On a side note you have to pay for the car park which was £3 for 10 hours as it's owned by someone else.

I really enjoyed it here. The place isn't massive but you can tell straight away that it is about the animals they do have and not how many people they can pack in. The staff were friendly and informative and the animals seemed very well looked after. I also enjoyed the fact they have left some of the original WW2 fortification in place (now part of the surrounding wall) that you can still look around in places instead of just blocking it off.

Highly recommend breakfast with the tigers. Got to see the lions up close, the monkeys being fed and the tigers walking around. The sausage and egg roll was also very nice. And a bonus of a hot drink or juice. 90 minutes and we got to see every animal and sit and eat our breakfast. Only £7.99 per person. Will be returning.

Had a nice time here seeing all the animals and they are very well looked after.....Best to plan your day around the feeding times and animal talks though as we had just missed a couple and the animals were asleep after their feed so not so active, the meerkats were funny and it was nice to get close to the Lemur...there are some lovely plants in and around the place too....cafe clean but the ice creams were rather expensive but a nice afternoon out. Family friendly and dogs welcome