This summer, you can experience a taste of safari on home soil. Waking up to the rumble of a lion’s roar needn’t be saved for that bucket list trip to the Kruger. A plethora of wildlife parks now allow you to drive, eat and sleep beside the fauna you might see on a safari in Africa, right here in the UK.
It’s a big year for the UK’s zoos and wildlife attractions. Wiltshire’s Longleat – the UK’s first drive-through safari park – celebrates 60 years in 2026. The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), meanwhile, celebrates its bicentenary, adding tours and extra attractions to 2026 London Zoo Lodge stays.
While safari sleepovers are harder to find in Scotland, make a note of Auchingarrich Wildlife and Adventure Park in Perthshire, where you can camp a short walk from the meerkats and lemurs.
Elsewhere, wake up to giraffes in Chester, marvel at elephants from a waterside lodge in Worcestershire or, perhaps, observe rhinos from a hot tub in Pembrokeshire. All the organisations mentioned here carry out important conservation work which might include scientific research, wildlife education and participation in rehabilitation and international breeding programmes.
All approximate prices quoted are for a family of four staying for one night over summer 2026 unless otherwise stated.
London Zoo
London
London Zoo’s colourful lodges – themed to honour moments from ZSL’s 200-year history – are a mere whisker away from the zoo’s vibrant Sasan Gir-themed Land of the Lions. And you’ll be reminded of that every time you hear the roars of its Asian lion pride reverberate through their leafy gardens.
Guests can access London Zoo’s 20 habitats (plus the ZSL’s Whipsnade Zoo if they wish), home to gorillas, sloths, Sumatran tigers, giant Galápagos tortoises and more. A two-course dinner and buffet breakfast plus sunset, night and morning keeper tours are included.
Lodge stays (sleeping four, children must be aged five plus) from £152.50pp
Chester Zoo
Cheshire
Watching a giraffe flutter its eyelashes at you as you wake from a slumber needn’t be saved for that dream Tanzania trip. At Chester Zoo, 15 of The Reserve’s 36 new lodges hem the zoo’s sprawling “savannah”, providing guests with ringside seats for watching zebras, ostriches and antelope species one would typically spot on a game drive in Africa.
Its Giraffe Retreat Lodges come with al-fresco roll-top baths, while its most luxurious Giraffe VIP Lodges have a platform for feeding and watching its tallest creatures.
Book the Animal Encounters VIP Experience for evening ranger talks, meals at the lakeside Amboseli restaurant and the chance to feed the giraffes yourself. Early access into Heart of Africa – a 22-acre zone of 57 African species – is also included.
The Retreat offers Animal Encounters VIP Experiences with two-night Giraffe VIP Lodge stays (sleeping six) from £2,150
Watatunga
King’s Lynn, Norfolk
If you like the idea of a wilder, more open safari experience where animals roam wide-open spaces, visit this 170-acre reserve home to more than 20 species of antelope and deer. You’ll join a convoy of electric buggies kitted out with live radio commentary and glimpse rare Père David’s deer – now extinct in its native China – alongside water buffalo, oryx and various other ungulates.
The reserve is also caring for a brindled wildebeest – the icon of East Africa’s great migration – and myriad exotic birds such as the endangered Swinhoe’s pheasant.
Of its four accommodation options, its chalet-like Safari Lodge provides the best views of these animals. Don’t miss the summer-only twilight tours.
Two-night Safari Lodge stays from £1,136
West Midlands safari park
Bewdley, Worcestershire
A big picture window: that’s all that’s between you and your pick of the park’s wildlife when you’re kicking back in one of this park’s 38 lodges, two of which have hot tubs. Choose from giraffe, tiger, lion, hippo, white lion, rhino, or – if that’s a little intimidating – the bamboo-chomping red panda as your neighbour.
The elephant lodge veranda views might evoke Zambezi river vibes, and accommodation comes with African or Nepalese-inspired interiors. Two-day park access – including its four-mile driving safari and theme park – plus breakfast and dinner are included.
Rhino Lodge stays (sleeping six) from £1,069
Port Lympne Reserve
Lympne, Kent
You’ll pinch yourself when you sit inches away from Port Lympne’s prowling lions, separated only by the big picture windows of Kikuyu or Jibana, the reserve’s luxury Lion Lodges. Take open-top truck safaris beside free-roaming animals such as giraffes, wildebeest and waterbuck.
Then visit gorilla, tiger and spectacled bear enclosures, plus three different rhino species on your complimentary golf buggy or on foot. Guests enjoy complimentary dinner at the reserve’s mansion hotel plus entry to co-run Howletts Wild Animal Park (30 minutes away).
Lion Lodge stays from £2,599
Whipsnade Zoo
Whipsnade, Bedfordshire
Are you looking out to the Chiltern Downs or is it a vast Laikipia escarpment in Kenya? As you sip your welcome drink from the elevated position of Whipsnade’s Lookout Lodges, you might be inclined to imagine it’s the latter.
This is the UK’s largest zoo, where rhinos and elephants pad about capacious open-air paddocks, brown bears scamper beneath elevated walkways, and wallabies and Patagonian maras bounce around 600-acre grounds. There’s a railway, optional safari drive and – for staying guests – breakfast and dinner (plus London Zoo entry) and three after-hours zoo tours included. Bring your tent for a wilder experience.
Lookout Lodge stays (with shared shower facilities) from £129.75pp; camping £60 per adult, £55 per child
Longleat
Wiltshire
Settle into the peaceful sun terrace of Longleat’s stylishly furnished Keeper’s House and your vista of roaming Nubian giraffes – plus Grant’s zebras and wildebeest – could feel as enthralling as Kenya’s Giraffe Manor. Seven characterful abodes – including an arched gatehouse – share the 900-acre parkland with the stately Elizabethan Longleat House, but Keeper’s House and Keeper’s Cottage are the ones to pick for views of the animals.
Full park access plus walking, boating, railway and driving safaris – including through its “Lion Country” – are included, as is Continental breakfast for your first morning.
Keeper’s House stays from £1,100
Yorkshire Wildlife Park Resort
Auckley, Yorkshire
You needn’t fly thousands of miles to the Okavango Delta to observe an African painted dog; book into a balcony room on the park side of the contemporary Hex Wildlife Hotel, and you might experience the howl of these curious canines or perhaps hear a whooping Lar gibbon – right here, on the edge of Doncaster.
During your stay (which includes breakfast at the Wild’s Café Bistro) you’ll see some 400 animals, from big cats, polar bears and spotted hyenas, to an array of primates. Sip a latte beside striding giraffes at the Maasai Coffee House and pick up meerkat plush toys at the adjoining shopping and dining complex.
Hex Wildlife Hotel offers park-side family balcony rooms (sleeping four) from £258
Folly Farm
Begelly, Pembrokeshire
Ever heard the grunt of an eastern black rhino? Chances are you will when you escape to Folly Farm’s Kifaru View Lodge (kifaru means “rhino” in Swahili), the hot tubs of which afford views of the field where four of these snuffling giants roam.
Fans of Africa’s tallest species, meanwhile, gravitate to the wood-and-canvas Twinga Tents, decorated with photos of the zoo’s bachelor giraffe herd. Then there’s the cute Simba Lodge, celebrating the zoo’s five-strong pride. Hear them bellow at dusk. Camels, lemurs and a range of tropical birdlife share the site alongside a fairground and petting farm.
Four-night Kifaru View Lodge stays (Mon-Fri, sleeping six) from £2,295
Combe Martin Wildlife & Dinosaur Park
Combe, Devon
Check into this park’s smart new lodges and you could enjoy the bark of a sea lion as your alarm clock, plus – if you pick a Bay View cabin – sweeping views of the verdant Combe Martin valley. With your unlimited zoo entry, you’ll see everything from Amur leopards and Bolivian squirrel monkeys to emus, porcupines and fruit bats.
Animal experiences – which include feeding the park’s grey wolves – are half price for staying guests. Newberry Beach and other lovely sandy coves lie 10 minutes up the road.
Four-night stays in the two-bed Bay View Cabin (sleeping four) from £390