We took a trip down South to visit family during the Summer holidays. It’s a long old drive, and with two small kids in tow that means frequent stops. Sure, we could have just used service stations, but we like to include at least one exciting pit stop on long journeys, and this time, we chose Trentham Monkey Forest.
I’ve had the brochure for this place hanging on my corkboard for three years! So it was good to finally visit, if only to make room on my corkboard 🤣
The monkey forest is part of the wider Trentham Estate, which also has a boating lake, long walks, a big playground, some beautiful gardens, and even a shopping village and garden centre that my other half had to drag me away from. We weren’t there for any of that though, we were there for the monkeys.
So, after three years, was it worth the wait, and would I recommend taking the kids? Here’s my review of Trentham Monkey Forest.
The Playground and Café
The first thing you see when you walk through the gates is the playground and the café.
I’ll get the bad bit out of the way first: the café is rubbish! It’s nice and big with loads of outdoor and indoor seating, but it’s expensive, the selection of food is poor, and so is the quality. Think pre-wrapped dry sausage buns and bleached sausage rolls that look like they’ve been there since yesterday. Yuk. We tried to buy an apple but it looked a bit withered and had some type of white fluff growing underneath, and when I asked if they had any more the 12 year old girl on the till just said no.
Ok, she might have been a bit older than 12, but they didn’t have any more apples, and it was only about 11am. Come on Trentham Monkey Forest! What made it worse was that when we saw the monkeys later on, they were chowing down on tons of apples, so they clearly had plenty more somewhere 🍎🐵
Anyway, enough said about the café.
The playground, on the other hand, is absolutely chuffing brilliant! It’s a proper wooden adventure playground with a maze made from some kind of wicker plants, big climbing structures and walls, tunnels, slides, monkey bars (of course), a lookout tower, rope bridge, swings and those round rope swings that hold several kids at once – all sorts. It’s really big and my boy loved it. There’s also a smaller playground for younger kids which is a good size.
I liked the fact there was educational stuff dotted about the place too. Skeletons of monkeys that used to live there with loads of interesting info about them, information boards about the conservation efforts, that sort of thing.
Oh, and there is a cracking little coffee and ice cream van in the area too, as well as a pizza van. Perfect for parents. We spent about an hour here before we even went to see the monkeys which says a lot.
The Monkeys
Before you enter the forest where the monkeys live, you have a very quick briefing with a ranger (are they called rangers?) and watch a 2 minute video. Basically it tells you not to touch the monkeys, not to feed the monkeys, and not to get too close to them. It’s quite exciting actually, it makes you feel like you’re about to do something a bit special, which of course you are.
Once inside, you will follow a one way circuit around the forest. You’re allowed to stop whenever you like and you can leave and come back in, so you’re free to roam as long as you are generally heading the same way as everybody else.
When we went, most of the monkeys were gathered in the central area with a big opening surrounded by trees. They had just been fed (apples, remember the apples?). I think the rangers feed them here on purpose because it’s the best place to view them from, and what a view you get. The monkey are free roaming so they just dart through the crowd. It’s amazing.
We saw monkeys eating, pruning, peeing, and even doing the unspeakable 🍆😂🙈 Oh and we saw babies! Cute tiny little baby macaques! Oh my gosh they were so cute. My mushy voice came out and everything. It’s great seeing the little ones, especially knowing the species is endangered.
The kids loved it. They were giggling and laughing and constantly showing us things we had already seen. My oldest had lots of questions to ask, and to my fella’s relief, there were loads of rangers dotted around offering information about the monkeys, explaining what they are doing, and keeping people safe. One girl in particular struck up a lovely little relationship with my son and they were chatting away for ages. The staff were all fantastic to be honest, they were really knowledgeable and obviously enjoyed their jobs.
Part way round there was a little hut with a guy doing a demonstration but we were running out of time so couldn’t stop. It seemed like it was for older kids anyway, but everyone watching was really engaged.
Honestly, Trentham Monkey Forest was a really unique day out and we had a blast there.
The Cost
I was very pleasantly surprised at how affordable Trentham Monkey Forest was.
There are two price bandings for peak and off peak visits, but only bank holiday weekends count as peak as far as I can tell. Anyway, the hike in peak time prices is nominal.
- Adults: £13.50 / £15.00
- Children: £10.80 / £12.00
- 2 and Under: FREE
So most of the time a family of four could go for around £50. That’s really not bad at all.
They also have memberships available which cost £35.00 for adults and £25.00 for kids, but you can come as many times as you like for the whole year. That’s amazing value for anyone who lives close enough to come back.
Is it Worth Visiting?
Absolutely. 100% yes.
There are 140 free-roaming Barbary macaque monkeys in the enclosure behaving almost exactly as they would in the wild. You are guaranteed to see them up to their tricks, and it is the only place in the UK where you can experience it. You will struggle to find a better playground, either.
And it’s cheap! Tickets don’t cost the earth and if you’re within easy reach you can even pay a bit more to get come back whenever you like. Plus, parking is free.
We spent about 3 hours there but we could easily have stayed longer if we didn’t need to get back on the road. I would say a family could spend about 5 hours here without getting bored.
Trentham Monkey Forest has just the right mix of everything: outdoor adventure, nature, play, education, and conservation. Your money is spent on protecting an endangered species, making it one of those rare cases where everyone is a winner.
So yes, I would definitely recommend going to Trentham Monkey Forest with the kids, but take a picnic because the café is pants!