December 23, 2021

LION COUNTRY SAFARI

2003 Lion Country Safari Rd, Loxahatchee, FL 33470

“Lion Country Safari is a drive-through safari park and walk-through amusement park located on over 600 acres in Loxahatchee, in Palm Beach County, Florida. Founded in 1967, it claims to be the first 'cageless zoo' in the United States. In 2009, USA Travel Guide named Lion Country the 3rd best zoo in the nation.” Wikipedia

I’ll admit the only reason I even thought about coming to Lion Country Safari was because the KOA campground I booked myself into is next to it.  I was a little skeptical about whether I would like the safari but went ahead and booked the drive-through tour.  I read on the website to plan 45 minutes to drive through the park, the person at the gate told me it would take an hour, I ended up spending 90 minutes and actually wanted to do the whole drive again.  An audio tour, accessed by pulling up their website on my phone, did a super job of giving a background about all the animals, and was the timing was almost perfect for the pace I set. 

The drive took me through seven different habitats.  The only animal not roaming freely in a habitat was the lion.  The rest of the animals mingled with other animals in their habitats.  There were too many different animals to name them all, but included Greater Kudu, Ostrich, Gemsbok, Wildebeest, Asiatic Water Buffalo, Giraffe, White Rhinoceros, and Zebra.  There were also islands that housed Chimpanzees and White Gibbons.  I took a lot of pictures and only got told to roll up my truck window once, a rule of the park that I saw other people breaking also.  And honestly, my windows were shut whenever I was moving or if an animal, especially the ostrich, was around.

After the drive through part of the tour, there was an Adventure Park offering a walk-around experience.  My research told me this was mainly an amusement park for children with some animals around, so I almost skipped it.  I did wander in and found a few animals to take pictures of, so I’m glad I made the effort to go in.

If I returned, I would definitely plan on driving through the park twice.  The free roaming animals reminded me of wildlife in a national park, in that you never knew where you might find the animals, so each trip is different.