Trentham Monkey Forest

You can probably tell from my previous blogs how much I love animals. Anything animal related, I’m in. So, when my sister-In-Law told me about Trentham Monkey Forest – and that it wasn’t too far away from us (roughly an hour) I was straight on it.

Since we haven’t been able to take our baby boy abroad, we have been trying to make up for it (like he understands haha) by taking him anywhere and everywhere. So I booked us in to visit the Monkey Forest.

If you book in advance (online) it is £9 for adults, £7 for children and free for under 3s. I definitely advise to book for opening at 10am, as when we were leaving (around 12pm) it was getting very busy. I must add that the forest will be shut from November 1st through to February.

As we were some of the first into the Forest, it felt like we had the monkeys to ourselves. Before entering the large gated area of 140 Barbary Macaques you have to watch a very short video on the safety rules before entering; no feeding or touching, leave 2 metres between monkeys, 3 metres between baby monkeys – the obvious really, but I suppose some people will push the boundaries won’t they?

It probably took us roughly 40 minutes to walk around the forest path, I imagine if Dexter was more confident on his feet walking around we would be there for much longer, as I imagine next time him trying to go up to every single monkey – fun times ahead!

There is a one way system taking you through the forest, you see the monkeys chilling in there own spaces eating fruit and veg, and loads swinging in the trees, playing, and crossing the paths right next to you. I have never been so close to monkeys before, I absolutely loved it, and so did Dexter and Rich. Dexter spent the entire time going “Gaaa!” and pointing at them – at the moment “Gaaa!” means anything and everything!

Staff are dotted around at all of the main monkey points, for safety and questions. They will tell you to just stand still if a monkey is walking close by – not because they will hurt you, but because we don’t want to scare them in there own habitat – after all we are entering their home.

Every hour at quarter past, starting from 11.15, you can watch Monkey feeds and talks – so we made it to the 11.15 show. We learn’t all about this amazing breed of Monkey and watched them have their… brunch? So adorable, Dexter was loving it – maybe he was wanting their bananas, he does love his bananas.

When you are out of the Monkey path, you enter a courtyard-like area where you can find a café, play area, tables and chairs, toilets and obviously, a shop! So we let Dexter have a walk along the grass to stretch his legs, then we headed over to the shop, because we had to get Dexter a monkey teddy. They sold all kinds of Monkey teddies, and Monkey merch – cups, stationary, you name it!

The Monkey Forest is a great day out for families – seeing Monkeys so close is mesmerizing, it offers something a little different to your typical Zoo or Farm.