Port Lympne Reserve

A truly incredible safari experience just 30 minutes from Rye — hundreds of acres of Kentish savannah and one of the country's great wildlife parks.

When

Open daily, year-round

Where

Aldington Road, Lympne, near Hythe, Kent, CT21 4LR

Info

Visit the official website or follow on Facebook for more details

The Aspinall Foundation runs Port Lympne as a working conservation reserve as much as a visitor attraction — over 600 acres of Kentish escarpment, home to lions, tigers, western lowland gorillas, black rhinos, giraffes and a breeding herd of African elephants. Many of the animals here are part of European breeding programmes; some have been released back to the wild in Africa. A safari truck takes you through the savannah enclosures; the rest of the park you walk.

Port Lympne is 45 minutes from Rye, on the chalk ridge above Romney Marsh. Stay riverside at The River Haven and make a full day of it — pair the morning safari with lunch on site, and stop at Dungeness or the Romney Marsh railway on the drive back.