Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens
Adventures Beyond the Tent: Our Day Out at Cotswold Wildlife Park 🦏🌲
It’s been a little quiet on here lately, but for good reason! Behind the scenes at Meadow Lake Glamping, we’ve been gearing up for an incredible season. However, this week we finally managed to press pause, put down our checklists, and take a much-needed day off.
Gathering three generations—grandma, mum, a 12-year-old daughter, and our niece—we packed up the car and headed out for a family day trip to the stunning Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens.
After a burst of morning rain (which our gardens and local lawns were desperately thirsty for!), the clouds parted and rewarded us with a gorgeous, sun-drenched afternoon.
The Practical Details (From One Local to Another)
If you’re staying with us at Meadow Lake Glamping and looking for a fantastic day out, here is what you need to know:
The Drive: Just a breezy 50-minute drive from our site.
The Perks: Free parking (always a win!) and discounted tickets if you book online in advance.
- Food & Drink: There are many kiosks around the site, you can take a picnic or there is a restaurant offering hot and cold meals. Very child friendly options for the fussier eater too.
What Makes It Special?
Cotswold Wildlife Park strikes a really unique balance. It sits somewhere between an open-range safari park and a traditional zoo.
Instead of endless heavy cages, the layout uses clever landscaping—like hidden deep trenches—to let magnificent animals like the rhinos roam with wide-open horizons. Other zones are fully immersive walk-through experiences where exotic birds and curious lemurs cross your path, while safety glass and traditional enclosures are reserved for predators like the lions.
Everything centers around a fantastic, sprawling adventure playground featuring massive wooden towers, climbing nets, and giant slides (which may or may not have been tested by the adults in our group).
Feeding Times & Ethical Thoughts
One of the highlights was catching the daily keeper talks and feeding times, which you can drop in on without any advance booking. We caught the lions and the otters getting their lunch (thankfully in very separate enclosures!), which added a brilliant interactive element to the day.
A quick note on ethics: Like many animal lovers, we approach zoos with a healthy dose of critical thought. However, you can really feel the heavy investment in conservation, education, and animal welfare here. The enclosures are impressively vast, and the animals look healthy, active, and well-cared-for.
Mum’s Top Pick: A Living Dinosaur
Hands down, my absolute highlight of the day was coming face-to-face with the cassowary.
If you’ve never seen one, it is essentially a living, breathing dinosaur. With massive, prehistoric claws, powerful legs, and a bizarre helmet-like casque on its head, it looks straight out of Jurassic Park. Then again, after learning at a Natural History Museum sleepover that modern chickens are technically direct descendants of dinosaurs, maybe it’s not so surprising after all!
Planning a stay with us soon? Be sure to ask us for more local hidden gems, walking trails, and family-friendly days out when you check in at Meadow Lake Glamping!
