Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster is dubbed as the UK’s no.1 ‘walk-through wildlife adventure’ where you can see incredible animals and experience endangered species while supporting the charity’s conservation endeavours.

The park started out as a zoo in 2009 and has quickly grown over the years; now a home to rescue endangered species and to attract tourists far and wide.

We sent our reporter Sophie Mei Lan Malin to find out why it’s one of the top places to go in Yorkshire.

Every time I propose a day trip to the older children in the house I have to do my best sales pitch to lure them off their screens and into the fresh air.

placeholder image — Sophie Mei Lan Malin and family

I managed to persuade them off their teen pacifiers (screens) showing all the cute animals on tiktok we could find at the park.

It was time to take our city dwelling children to Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

On our journey to South Yorkshire, the grey clouds hung loomed over, I wondered whether maybe it was only the UK's number one walkthrough adventure when it’s sunny?

As our clan disembarked from our people carrier, we were met with a modern looking hotel, glass fronted shops and a welcoming entrance. It looked more like a state-of-the-art theme park than a wildlife safari.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster is dubbed as the UK’s no.1 ‘walk-through wildlife adventure’ where you can see incredible animals and experience endangered species while supporting the charity’s conservation endeavours.

Once we were checked in, it was to explore. Much to our surprise and relief the kids ran to look in the water. There was vast amounts of space for the animals to be in their natural habitat. We were walking through their home rather than expecting them to fit into confined spaces in zoos. The paths are lined with benches and each stretch is broken up with toilets and places to refuel or play. Even the indoor soft play area overlooks monkeys through the glass window. You could get higher in the hideouts.

It was pretty impressive, even though a lot of the animals were out of sight. Just being in the presence of giraffes, tigers, lions, polar bears and hundreds of other species was phenomenal. By this point, we were two hours in and we hadn’t heard anything from the older children who were happily wandering freely, until they needed some money for lunch because they wanted a burger rather than the picnic I had made.

My husband, my brother, my sleeping baby and I sat down on one of the picnic benches to have a bite to eat and bask in the surroundings.

My brother has aspergers so he can often get sensory overload. He was lapping up the freedom the park offers. We decided to take shelter in a cafe when the rain got heavier because the indoor playcentre was heaving. It was just past lunchtime so the rush was dying down but there were still long queues.

We queued up but by the time we got to the start of the line, most food had sold out. My husband tried a sandwich but it was quite dry as it had been left out canteen style, which is easily done at the end of service.

We then finished our day, tracking down the kids who then were excitedly showing us the videos and ‘snapchat’ photos they’d taken of the animals. Finally, the baby woke up as we headed through Pangea, our final experience of the day with over 30 moving life-size dinosaurs, it was a guaranteed powerful way to end the day.

Our final adventure was to get the kids out of the park through the gift shop without purchasing too many items.

It was a brilliant full day-out, relaxing, engaging and educational. I would definitely recommend keeping costs down and taking a picnic then enjoying a treat at one of the coffee stops rather than the main indoor cafes.

It was incredibly accessible too for families of all ages and backgrounds.