Longleat Safari Park

Drive through the lion enclosure with your windows wound up and you'll understand why Longleat Safari Park has pulled families back for fifty years. Based near Warminster in Wiltshire, this is Britain's first drive-through safari park - and it remains one of the few places where you can see African wildlife without leaving your car.

You get two experiences for the price of one. The drive-through section takes roughly an hour, depending on how slowly the animals move across your bonnet, and covers five different reserves with everything from lions and zebras to giraffes and rhinos. After parking up, there's a separate foot safari area with smaller creatures, a decent adventure playground, and the usual zoo attractions - seal shows, bird displays, that sort of thing. Altogether, you're looking at a solid half-day minimum, possibly a full day if you've got kids under eight.

It's worth doing in decent weather. Rain makes the windows fog up instantly, and queuing in the drive-through on a grey afternoon loses some of its appeal. Summer holidays are rammed, so go mid-week if you can.

The location is genuinely convenient for a park holiday. Center Parcs Longleat Forest sits 1.5 miles away, while the Longleat Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite is basically on the doorstep at 0.7 miles. If you're after something different from standard holiday park entertainment, this works as a solid day out. Not cheap, mind you, and the foot safari section can feel a bit tired. But the drive-through bit? Genuinely brilliant, even for jaded adults.