A Barbary Macaque at Monkey Forest

See Monkeys Acting Naughty

Monkey Forest

Attraction (General)
in/near Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire,
England Heart Of Inc Birmingham

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Review added: 04/06/2007 13:54
By: katygriff (£0.00 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"On Saturday the sun was shining and the birds were singing and everybody I knew were generally in a very good mood indeed. So with that in mind I was not going to spend my Saturday in the house so I rounded up my Mom, Sister and friend and we all went to visit Monkey Forest which is situated on the way to Stoke-on-Trent. We had an absolutely brilliant time there as it is a very enjoyable and educational place to be if you like monkeys that is. I will let you know why I recommend it fully for a day out.

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What is Monkey Forest?

Well it is a relatively new development in which they have taken a specific type of monkey which is the Barbary Macaques and they allow them to roam free in a 60-acre forest. You are free to walk around the designated walk ways and view the monkeys showing typical behaviours of what they do in the wild. Please bear in mind that the monkeys are not in cages as my Mom actually thought they would be and got a big shock when one walked right past her.

There are 140 monkeys there including some delightful little ones and you are free to spend as long as you like there watching demonstrations and asking as many questions to the members of staff who are situated around the forest. It is a good walk and very enjoyable.

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Where?

Well you will find monkey forest at the following address;

Trentham Estate – Southern Entrance
Stone Road
Trentham
Staffordshire
ST4 8AX

The website is www.monkey-forest.com

I find it easy to find as it is well signposted before the turning and as it is just off main roads leading to Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire it is not to bad at all to find.

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Parking:

There is plenty of parking on site and it was full on Saturday because of the nice weather but we still managed to find a space very easily. There are staff there to guide you into spaces if you are not to confident at parking which I am not. I seriously do not think you will have a problem whenever you decide to visit.

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Price:

£5.50 for adults
£5 for Students
£4 for children – Under 14
Under 3's go free.

They do special rates for groups of people so you can contact them and ask what they can do for you.

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Location:

The forest is situated in a very nice area of Staffordshire which is called Trentham. It provides great links to Stafford and Stoke where you will find a whole host of other attractions. You do leave to the forest off a main road but when you go into the attraction you feel miles away from anywhere industrial or built up.

The actual grounds that the forest are in are amazing and as you are walking through you feel like you are somewhere other than the UK. There are great views throughout and at one spot through the walkway you can see an amazing view of all of the tall trees and if you look hard you can see monkeys sitting at the top of them. Everywhere is signposted where you have to go so you can't go wrong and there is staff there at many sites around the forest to help.

You can also walk to Trentham gardens from monkey forest which is very pretty and houses walks and a lot of craft shops.

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The Monkeys:

The monkeys are very cute indeed and on Saturday there was a good mix of older monkeys up to 26 years old and younger monkeys. In fact the youngest monkey we saw was a week and a half old and it was tiny. It is amazing to see these monkeys acting like they would in the wild and it is truly spectacular to watch and I could have literally spent hours staring at them.

The older monkeys tend to ignore you and most of the ones we saw were either picking bits off each other or eating things out of the ground. They are used to the people walking around and will go on the paths next to you which is quite fun to see. At one point my Mom got scared as she was sitting down and something brushed against her leg. She screamed as she thought it was a monkey but it was actually a child but it shows how close the monkeys do come to you.

The younger monkeys are just a bundle of fun and we spent ages watching them. The funniest thing we saw were two younger ones who were trying to jump onto a branch which was just out of their reach. They carried on until they decided to go for a longer branch. They are very naughty and it is just hilarious watching them. Seeing the real baby monkey was lovely and if you visit over the next couple of months there will be quite a few more around.

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Educational view:

Throughout the park there are many signs and questions on posts that are asked so you can really learn about these monkeys from what they eat, where they sleep to all of the faces they pull. We had great fun guessing the answers as I can imagine anybody would and I can imagine it is great for groups of children to do.

They also do a feeding demonstration at the park where they will feed the monkeys in front of you and then talk about them and the forest. This is good because you can ask any questions you like and it is extremely fun to guess which monkey will be smart and go for the bucket instead of what the staff member is throwing.

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Eating:

There is a café on the site which is very clean and does lovely food. They have a good range of sandwiches and salads at £2-3 each and they do hot food such as chips. They sell water and other soft drinks and also some hot ones. The choice of food and drink is not amazing but it caters for what you need to get by really.

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Shop:

There is a shop which sells things like cameras, T-shirts, caps and soft toy monkeys. Basically what you would expect from a souvenir shop.

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Verdict:

We had a lovely time here at monkey forest and we all agreed that we would visit it again in the near future as it was such an enjoyable and educational outing. I would have no hesitation recommending everybody go to it especially because although it may only take an hour or two to do the forest you can then wander over to Trentham gardens and make a real day of it. I really do suggest you go at some point.

Thanks for reading.

xxx"

Comments

I AM HOPING TO GO WITH MY LITTLE GRANDCHILDREN WHO ARE COMING OVER FROM GERMANY SO YOU RECOMMENDATIONS WERE GOOD AND I WILL BE TAKING THEM
THANKS

i was struggling to find the information i was specifically lookinh for mainly the address to help me to get exactly where i wanted so thank you. also providing the specific website was fantastic!