As we’ve been homebound for the duration of the pandemic, we were excited at the notice, posted in the Orlando Sentinel, that Wild Florida had opened the Safari self-drive section and lowered the price by half to $15 until Memorial Day weekend. We jumped at the chance to get out of the house. I noted what I thought were the operating hours on their website but picked up the “reservation hours” by mistake, so we were there around 8:00 am instead of 9:00 am. It gave us a chance to explore the layout of the facility (it’s large).
It’s a very nice drive out to this area, once you get away from metro Orlando and off the turnpike, which many visitors to Florida may never see. Nothing like the beaches or theme parks. Just acres and acres of nice, dry pasture land and no housing developments to be seen (Agriculture is still huge in Florida, let’s hope it stays this way).
When they did open the gates we were able to use the clean temporary toilet facilities at the entrance. Plenty of room to park if you need to re-arrange the car before entering as you can’t get out once inside.
We’re photographers and brought along the cameras just to see what would pose for us. We tried to avoid any cars, fences, or feeding stations in the background and found that the grounds were large enough that we managed this just fine. The Ring-tailed Lemurs posed on a leaning palm tree, the Bison were calm and close and Watusi cattle were a real visual surprise. Even LiMu Emu joined in as they were as curious about us as we were with them (or maybe they were looking for French Fries, not sure about that).
We enjoyed it enough that we drove through twice. Once may be enough for most but we could tell children, in other cars, were really excited and may demand to go through again. Just so you know.
Here’s the knock. The price is per head not per car at the Safari. At $15 it’s a deal. Once it doubles back to $30 (I see they are advertising now at $29 / head) it can put a dent in your wallet. Take the kids and wife and it starts to be real money.
If you add the airboats: $30.50/head for 30 min or $50/ head for 60 min.
Wild Gator Park: $10/ head. (We have gators everywhere in Fla so this may not be worth it).
Something called a Zoom Meeting Appearance (no idea what this is): $100/ head
Sloth Encounter: $43/ head
Gator Encounter: $23/ head
They have other “encounters” of various kinds but you get the idea. They do have “packages” that may offer better deals if you plan to spend the day. I would check into these if this is your thing.
We loved it but, as I said, it can add up quickly. Now you’re aware.
Enjoy!