Mudpie Fridays >> Christmas Days Out >> Longleat Festival of Lights – Roald Dahl Light Trail

Longleat Festival of Lights – Roald Dahl Light Trail

If you are a regular follower of Mudpie Fridays and you know we love a light trail. In fact, we’ve been very lucky and visited quite a few light shows this year. However, one that I’ve always wanted to visit and never have is the Longleat festival of lights. Last weekend, we finally managed to visit not only the festival of lights but Longleat Safari as well. This year it was the Roald Dahl Light trail with each lantern themed around some of the wonderful stories. All with the historic backdrop of Longleat House. Here’s how we got on when we visited the Longleat Light Trail and finally found our Christmas spirit.

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Longleat Festival of Lights – Roald Dahl Light Trail

Where is the Longleat festival of lights?

Longleat Safari Park is what is one of the first safari parks in the UK opening in 1966. At this time it was the first drive-through safari outside of Africa. It’s located in Wiltshire. It’s also very very close to Longleat Center Parcs which many people I’ve also heard of. It is easy to reach by car on the A362 between Warminster and Frome. You can use postcode BA12 7NW but then as you get close revert to the brown tourist signs.

You can also reach Longley Safari Park by train and then a taxi. The closest train stations are:

Frome Station is the closest station to Longleat and has good service from Bath and London.
Warminster station is about 5 miles from Longleat and is on the Cardiff to Portsmouth line.
Westbury station is about 12 miles from Longleat and is on the London Paddington to Penzance line.

When is the Longleat festival of lights?

Longleat festival of lights runs on selected dates from 5th November to the 9th of January. The lights switch on at 4:30 pm in the evenings and run till approximately 7 pm. Most of the food outlets are shutting by this time. It’s important to know as this means it does tend to close earlier than many of the other light trails we have been on. In fact, we were quite surprised by this on the basis that we would expect it to go on to 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening.

Also, when booking tickets you do not need to select a timeslot. The last entry is 6:30 pm. This does mean that everyone tends to ascend at the same time, a.k.a. 4.30 pm to 5 pm which does have an impact on both the route and also the amenities.

Tickets for the Longleat festival of lights

I think there is a clear intention by Longleat Safari Park to encourage individuals to do both the Safari and the Longleat light trail. This is evidenced by the way that the tickets are priced. It really makes no sense for you to just do the festival of light trail. Due to the difference in price.

A day ticket which included a safari and everything else Longleat has to offer costs £44.95 for an adult and £33.70 for a child. The festival of lights tickets with twilight entry at 3 pm cost £29.95 per adult and £22.45 for a child. This means that the difference is £15 for an adult and £11.25 for a child which is effectively the light trial price. I think this partly explains why the light trail runs the time it does as the majority of people attending will have day tickets as well.

Food options at Longleat festival of lights

There are several different places where you can get food at the Longleat festival of nights. They have several different pop-up artisan food vans. They sell a selection of hotdogs and burgers. But there is also the café which has a varied menu and the pizza restaurant which is popular. If you are after hot drinks then there is a café shop next to the main café where you can access self-service hot drinks and hot chocolate. Which should have been quicker than getting a drink from one of the other outlets but wasn’t.

We ate at Longleat during the day and tried one of the burger van options and I must admit that it was expensive for what it was. I had a chicken burger for £9 and it was a buttered chicken breast in a bun and that was it with the option to add raw onion and salad on the station next door to the burger van. The beef burger was not much better. I would encourage you to take a picnic if you are visiting all day as I wish we’d done this. And look into potentially having a pizza early evening. There seems to be the best value option available.

And how long will you need at the Longleat festival of lights?

You really need a full day. In the morning we went inside Longleat House and looked around the formal gardens and popular animal exhibits. Before heading to the safari. But we still didn’t see it all missing the Longleat hedge maze and the ever-popular adventure castle.

If you arrive in the afternoon as we did after driving around the winter safari drive-through. You are directed down into the main square area where there is a map that shows the route. I took a picture of this, although it is quite self-explanatory and easy to follow. Basically, the square area is the middle of the trail and you can turn left or you can turn right both going around in a small loop similar to a figure of eight.

When we visited it, got dark at about 4.30 pm we probably didn’t enter the light trail till around 5 o’clock as we were looking at some of the on-foot animal attractions. Many of them were closing around five, but if you’ve got evening-only tickets and you should still be able to see some of the smaller animal exhibits that are located just off the square area such as the Jungle Kingdom and Koala Creek.

We left Longleat at around 6.30 pm which would indicate that the trial took around an hour and a half in total. However, we did not eat anything in the evening instead returning to a local hotel to eat there.

We did find that some of the bigger exhibits such as Willy Wonka‘s Chocolate Factory and James & the Giant Peach had long queues. However, they have set up an excellent queuing system and actually it worked quite nicely.

Where to stay close to the Festival of Lights

Longleat Safari park itself offers various different accommodation types and this may be something we look into should we visit again. This time we opted for the local Premier Inn which is in Frome. And cost around £140 with dinner and breakfast included. It is only a ten-minute drive and so perfect to visit the safari park. Because of this, it tends to book up well in advance. I booked our overnight stay the same day that I booked the Longleat Festival of Lights tickets.

Top tips for visiting the Longleat Festival of Lights.

Definitely combine day tickets, Longleat Safari Park is amazing, especially the Jungle Cruise and it really adds to the experience.
Longleat light trial gets busiest between the times of 4.30 pm and 6 pm so bear this in mind. Although we did not find the queuing to be of any great significance.
Food is expensive and to be honest not that great so bring your own where possible.
The much-loved Santa train which is extremely popular and was sold out when we visited. Therefore you should book these in advance.
You should also book the Longleat Festival of Light tickets in advance as when we visited the yellow sign at the entrance said pre-booked tickets only and that they are sold out.
Make sure your battery camera is fully charged because you will want to take a lot of photos it’s a beautiful trail and genuinely something different compared to so many of the other Christmas trials.
It’s all on flat concrete paths and so suitable for buggies and wheelchairs. They also have an easily accessible starting point if required.
Make sure you leave some time at the end of your visit to catch the gigantic Christmas tree show. Longleat’s famous 15-metre tree has its own light show that runs every 15 to 20 minutes. The best place to stand to watch this is as you come out of the trial. Because there is also a projection that goes onto the building behind it. Standing here will allow you to see both at the same time. There is also a couple of snow machines which the kids absolutely adore. The last show is at 6:50 pm.
Don’t forget your pocket money to buy little gifts in the shops including some rather expensive Christmas decorations.
I wish we had re-read some of the Roald Dahl stories before visiting th Roald Dahl Light Trail.

Longleat festival of lights what will you see?

Longleat transforms into this amazing magical journey with a different lantern scene at every turn. Of course, you do not need to be a fan of the wondrous worlds of Roald Dahl but it helps. The map will highlight the iconic books that the trail covers. Each one is a Roald Dahl story with some of them being much larger individual lanterns than others. Even those that are not Roald Dahl fans would love this light show. They have captured many of the iconic characters, including Miss Honey and the fearsome Miss Trunchbull and Augustus Gloop in the chocolate river beautifully. With many of the Quentin Blake illustrations really shine through in the light-up lanterns.

The trail is run in conjunction with the Roald Dahl Story Company.

The Roald Dahl Light Trail

In total there are 11 stories covered by the Longleat light trail lanterns. Many are favourite characters from the much-loved stories:

The BFG
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
James and the Giant Peach
Esio Trot
The Witches
The Twits
Fantastic Mr Fox
Matilda
George’s Marvellous Medicine
The Enormous Crocodile
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me

There are also book lanterns all over the adventure attractions. Including a giant stack of Roald Dahl books once of the festive main square attractions. As well as a three-metre-tall book tunnel. It is really difficult to portray in the photos just how large these light installations are. There is a 5-metre-tall BFG and the big friendly giant is a small giant in comparison to the rest of the giant country.

Our favourite Lanterns

All the lanterns on the Longleat light trail are brilliant. If we had to pick some favourites then for us, it would be the BFG. The detail that has gone into his cave is immense, and the fact that the other lanterns are so large it really does add to the dynamic.

We also really like Charlie and the chocolate factory and walking through Wonka’s famous factory gates was on of the key moments of our visit. It’s impossible to miss the Willy Wonka factor since it takes up pretty much the whole of the drive. You will see it as you come down to the park. You can actually walk around inside the garden area of the chocolate factory and see the oompa loompas. Although if the queue is large, you can buy pass this all together. However, I wouldn’t it. It’s brilliant.

We also really like James and the Giant Peach lanterns as well as James’ giant peach floating on the lake which is actually the brave shark-infested seas. You can see all of the peaches inhabitants in the garden area where they have put twinkly lights across all of the box hedging. With all the trees in the background, it really does make a beautiful picture.

Each of the stories has a book with an excerpt from the key scenes in front of you. There are several for bigger installations to explain part of the story and what is going on. Don’t forget to get a picture of your children in the chokey when you see the Matilda area.

Having never visited Longleat light festival before. I am glad we chose this year as our first time, to be able to see the Roald Dahl Light Trail. However, if this is the way that they do it each year with the giant lanterns. Then we will most definitely be back next year to experience more of the same. And I can’t wait to see next year’s theme for the lantern festival and illuminated outdoor trail.