Blair Drummond Caravan Holiday & Safari 🦁

Probably my favourite caravan trip ever has to be our trip to Blair Drummond and the Safari park.

We set off on our Blair Drummond caravan holiday on a whim on Thursday evening in June, after a full day of school and work and a whole day earlier than we had originally planned. We were heading down for one of my niece’s birthdays and as always we had great fun travelling down the road in a convoy. Sometimes I feel like we should get car radios or walk-in talkies to make it even more funny! We must be quite the sight!

So, began the 100 mile journey to Blair Drummond. Now most of our kids have been violently car sick throughout their lives but have recently seemed to outgrow this, so this trip was really going to test out that theory! Luckily for us they all soldiered through and the only issues faced were the incessant “Are we there yet?” questions that all parents are familiar with. This is the furthest we have towed our caravan and the old gal did really well!

We stayed at the Blair Drummond Caravan Park and it is truly and honestly one of the best sites we have ever been to. We have travelled about enough now to give us a false sense of expertise and I enjoy knowing how different all the sites can be 😂 and to know which ones we vibe with and let me tell you this ticked a lot of boxes I didn’t even know I had. The hosts were so accommodating in the lead up to our arrival (I must have bugged Lyndsey with about a million phone calls the week prior to us travelling) and with our later than late check in time.

It was so secure with key card entry to site, which our hosts had left at reception for us. The site is based in and around what seems to be an old walled garden from a nearby fancy estate. The play area lay just outside of the 10ft wall (I’m shockingly bad at guessing measurements) and this is where we headed to find our home for the next few nights.

We were delighted as it was a pick your own pitch site and this meant that we knew everyone pitched next to the play park must have children too and so we felt more at ease letting our feral army out to tear shit up.

It was around 10pm when we arrived and having been cooped up in the car for a few hours it meant the children were unleashed upon the caravan site in full manic hyperactivity. I’m sure we were site favourites within the first 15 minutes of arrival! The men decided to go against the prearranged plan to wait until morning to put up the awnings and I have to say I was grateful they did. Plus, because they helped each other out it meant me and my sista-in-law could crack open the wine and chill out while watching our crazy brood monkey around the park before wrestling them into their PJs and beds.

In the morning we made our way over to go and meet the hosts face to face and took most of the children over with us. Lyndsey was a trooper and tried to remember every kids name and take in every story each one of them tried to tell (all at the same time!) while Allen helped us buy the safari tickets that you can purchase through the caravan site. I highly recommend this option, but more on that later in this post! We chatted to both for a while and they were so friendly, kind and helpful and I really appreciate it.

The facilities at the caravan site were clean, well maintained and I have to say that the showers were the best I’ve used at a site before. It felt like my water pressure from home rather than showering in water that my children could spit at me faster and with more power 😂 Not to mention there was space in the cubicle to both shower and keep your clothes dry Another thing I have to rave about is the play park, it had such great things for all age groups to play on and I almost forgot what my kids looked like as they never came to find me to tell me they were bored once. A welcome surprise!

As the park is situated in a really old garden it meant the trees surrounding were ancient and therefore were fantastic for climbing in/up/on/over. I never realised until this moment how few trees there are these days that are worth climbing! I want to point out that I did not attempt to climb the tree, this would have ended badly for everyone involved 😆 but the kids loved them. Us old ass adults took the good with the bad with regards to trees, as it meant we were constantly shuffling our camp chairs back into the sunlight to turn our pasty carcasses into bronzed rotisserie chickens as the sun moved throughout the day.

We really lucked out with the weather as this time of the year can be a hit or a miss and we hit a bullseye and got cloudless, scorching days. Side note - Why does 22 degrees and over feel so different in the UK? I can handle it abroad but here it feels like I’m trying to live my best life in Satan’s arm pit. I was both a complete mum-boss and a mega-geek at the same time with timers set on my phone to reapply sunscreen to the kids and remind them to hydrate. All the while while rehydrating myself with cocktails hidden in a coffee thermos to walk around the Safari park 🤪

The safari tickets we got through the park were the same price as normal admission into Blair Drummond Safari Park but had the added bonus of allowing us unlimited entries for a full 14 days with no booking required. This meant that we could go to the Safari park every day in shorter bursts and really enjoy and take in everything and with no set timings we could fly by the seat of our pants each day. Whoever came up with this idea is a genius!

We broke it up over the 3 days like this:

• Friday - Small walk around enclosures, rides & park

• Saturday - Dinosaur park, drive-through enclosures & park

• Sunday - Flamingo boats, Lemur land & carnival rides

Each morning we could get a chilled cuppa and breakfast, get everyone dressed and ready without worry, pack the copious amount of luggage we need to keep 9 bairns alive and not fried in scorching sun. We could really get ready at a chilled pace rather than the frantic rush it usually is and I felt so relaxed because of this - something that rarely happens even on holiday. We would take the 5 minute trip round to the safari park and spend 2-3 hours in the park doing one attraction at a time and then spending time at the mahooosive kids play area there. We packed picnics to save some money and honestly had the best time ever. Leo was obsessed with meerkats!

Another good thing about these tickets being structured this way was that it meant that if you didn't get the opportunity to see certain animals in the drive-through enclosures or missed a specific animal talk at a certain time you could try again the next day. It's such a fantastic idea - you really get your moneys worth and I highly recommend.

Speaking of the drive-through enclosures - I'm always torn about these things. All of the animals looked healthy and their areas were well kitted out and I love that my kids get to experience seeing these things but I can't help but feel bad that the animals are missing out on being free in their natural homes. I'm thankful they take good care of them but still.

I got the biggest adrenaline rush I've had in a long time while we crawled through the lion's den. As Leo is still so wee I unclipped him and had him on my knee in the front to show him what was going on around the car. Well, we were paused next to where the lions were in a pile lazily soaking up the sun rays when Leo thought it a good idea to open my door which, being the front seat did not have a child lock and the door swung open to reveal us in all our meaty glory! 😅 I don't think my pants were clean as I reached out for the handle to slam it shut as quick as possible and firmly locked it to prevent repeats. Apparently Leo the Lion wanted to connect with his namesake 😆

Everything in Blair Drummond Safari Park was so well thought through. One of my favourite things was the hand washing and drying station at the play park, something I haven't seen anywhere before and meant that when the kids exited the sand pits they could wash off and we could feed them some of the millions of snacks we had brought without the complaints of them being sandy af 😂

Each day we'd finish up at the park in the afternoon and head back to the Caravan park to chill and start BBQing. The kids were more than amused so us adults got a proper break too 😊 On our last day Allen helped arrange our late check out and didn't even charge us for it. Again, it meant we could take the awnings down leisurely in the morning and get tidied away in calm. Usually we are kinda racing against the clock to be out on time but today we were able to get ready to go, then head to the Safari park one last time before popping back to hitch on the vans and head back up the road.

All in all, this was the best caravan holiday I've ever been on and I can't thank Lyndsey and Allen enough for being so kind and keeping such a lovely park to stay at.

I highly recommend everything I've mentioned in this post and would also encourage you to hire a caravan/motorhome or tent if you don't have one to experience such a fantastic holiday.

Our caravan did us proud travelling the 200 miles. She is an old gal being a 2004 model but she is going strong and I love her so much! I feel like it's wrong talking about her without having a name. If you've been kind enough to read this far please help us name her! The kids have chosen the following so help us narrow it down - Cookie, Clara and Cassie

Thank you so much for reading this far!

♥️