Last weekend saw us return to Hatton Country World. We had a brilliant time there earlier this year, when we visited at Easter, so were keen to get back and see Hatton in the autumn.
It’s a beautiful setting. It has that perfect balance of activities, playground fun, animals and education, and wide open spaces.
We went the day after Halloween, so everywhere was still pumpkined up, much to Boo’s delight, as she’s really taken an interest in Halloween this year.
When we first arrived, we attended a magic show in the family theatre, which Boo loved. There’s always a full programe of events for the day, so that’s well worth checking out as you arrive so that you don’t miss a thing. We then headed off to visit the animals. I liked this criss-cross pair of rabbits!
And then they have pretty much every farm animal that you’d imagine there….
One of the things that I really like about Hatton Adventureland is how well the animals are all integrated into the grounds. As well as the big barns with them in, you’ll be wandering around a play area and there’ll be some alpacas in amongst you (they are fenced in!) or be tearing around on a JCB and a sheep pops it’s head up at the fence and ‘baas’ at you!
There are also plenty of sessions throughout the day where animals can be handled, so Boo took advantage of the guinea pig stroking…
I loved that escapee guinea pig! They have so many guinea pigs there, in their lovely village..
There’s also a Scales & Tails house, and I’ve always enjoyed a reptile house, and looking at creepy crawlies. Boo’s not sure about spiders, so I’m trying to reassure her that they’re fine whenever we see them. They also had some snails available for handling, though the kids preferred to just look at those in their box! I do love how they’re both desperate to peer into every cage and vivarium, and it’s such an easy way of chatting and introducing them to the natural world…
The kids both remembered the JCB Track from our last visit and were desperate to have a go again, and we struggled to get them back off them and onto other things!
Whilst the children were then racing around a playground and swinging, Boo spotted ponies, so a pony ride was next up (you do pay a little extra for a ride)…
I really enjoyed sauntering round looking at the falconry centre, and the kids took a real liking to this owl in particular!
And this is them happily looking at him! They are still doing impressions of that owl, a week on!
They do put on amazing displays there, though we didn’t time our visit right to see one this time around, but we still saw how beautiful and impressive these birds of prey are….
There are so many play areas there, the children were literally running from one to the next, and then back again, over and over! Boo went down the helter skelter, was all over the huge inflatable slide, Little Man loved seeing the animals in amongst the slides, and they will always be drawn to clambering all over tractors, of which there were several to choose from…
It only seemed right to round off a lovely day out with a cream tea and a little browse around the shops in the village there, which of course included the sweet-shop 🙂
We had another fabulous time there, the kids adored it all. Again, we were fortunate to be visiting on a dry day as I really feel that’s best to get the most out of your visit. There are indoor areas, and if you look back at my Easter post you’ll see how much the children enjoyed the soft play area, but they also have a blast outside, so I’d recommend dry days to enjoy every aspect of the fun.
Next up, they have their Enchanted Christmas Kingdom and Adventure World Festive Fun running, 29th & 30th Nov, 6th & 7th Dec, 13th and 14th, and 20th To 24th December 2014. I can only imagine that it’ll be an amazing day out!
Disclosure: We received entrance tickets FOC for the purposes of this post, though all words and opinions remain my own.
I always read your posts wishing the place was slightly closer to us. It all looks so good, that guinea pig made me smile, he looks so determined 🙂 z was really scared of them last year but think he might like to stroke one now.
He was very determined! Yes, they do change what they like so much when they’re little. It’s hard to keep up! 🙂
I haven’t been in years. By the look of what you say, it has developed a lot since then and I can see both our two getting something out of a visit. Your posts have persuaded me=we’ll visit there next year 🙂
You’ll all absolutely love it! x
Looks like you guys had great weather too! I love open spaces, especially ones with animals and this looks like a fab place 🙂 #countrykids.
Yes, lovely bright day, perfect for running around in!
I’ve seen so many lovely posts from here the past couple of weeks. I love the way you describe the animals as being integrated through the play areas. It looks like such a well organised place and full of fun for children. Thank you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
Yes, I really love that part of it, it’s such a lovely idea and way to do it. It’s very well-organised and thought out, and the kids love it there x
It’s wonderful there isn’t it. We’ve only ever been in the summer, must go back at some point #CountryKids
Oh yes, it’s brilliant 🙂
Seems like you had a great time. We’ve never been to Hatton Country before but it seems lovely! 🙂 x
It’s a really good family day out, lots to do x
What a lovely day out. There’s a lot of Guinea pigs there, wow, my girls would love that!
They were just loads, all over the place!
Looks like a kiddie wonderland…so much to see and do!! I wish there was something like that here in Melbourne for me to take my little munchkin to. x
Yes, that’s a great description of it!
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