African Lion Safari with Toddlers

We love hearing about active families getting out and exploring all there is to see and do in Hamilton Halton Brant. Samantha, a mom to four-year-old twins, brought her family for an African Lion Safari adventure and chronicled their day on her delightful blog, Loving You Is Cherry Pie. Thanks for letting us share your post Samantha, and bring those darling girls for another outing in Hamilton Halton Brant soon!

WE WENT WILD AT AFRICAN LION SAFARI

SAMANTHA – I have lived in the Great Toronto Area all of my life (other than my time living in Kingston while going to law school), and specifically the Halton region for the past six years. We love Halton! It’s especially great to live near the Niagara Escarpment with all of the unique spots for outdoor adventure out here. Even though our girls are quite young, our family has already hiked, visited waterfalls, picked strawberries and more. When we were offered the chance to visit African Lion Safari, we were very excited (we would have liked to try the Wake Up the Wild Adventure; however, children must be at least 8 years old). If you don’t know it, African Lion Safari is a drive through wildlife park located in Hamilton, Ontario dedicated to the conservation of declining wildlife species.

The day of our visit to African Lion Safari started with intense thunderstorms (or as Alexa likes to say, “hunter storms”) and we weren’t sure if we could visit as planned. We took a risk and made the 40 minute drive, and by the time we arrived, the clouds cleared and later the sun came out. It was the perfect weather for an outdoor adventure.
Our first stop was the 9km drive-through game reserve. Despite initially planning to take the Safari Tour Bus, we changed our minds at the park and drove through in our minivan to get up close and personal with the animals. And that we did. Shortly after entering we saw the lions and I can’t deny that I got nervous when this guy (or girl, I’m not sure?) came within a few feet of my window. He was just looking for some shade under the tree but for a second I was a little wary.
African Lion Safari
Hamilton
The rest of the drive was just as exciting as we got to see so many different kinds of animals. The girls really were in awe of the animals roaming around out there.
African Lion Safari
Hamilton
After parking our car, we walked to the elephant area and got a front row spot for the elephant swim. Again, they came so close!
African Lion Safari
Hamilton
We then walked around and checked out the grounds, rode the ponies and had sno-kones… once the girls saw the Misumu Bay Wet Play Area they were unstoppable. They had an absolute blast here and could have stayed there all day going down the slides.
African Lion Safari
Hamilton
Once we were done there, we climbed aboard the Nature Boy Scenic Railyway Tour. It was so picturesque to travel by train through the forest with my little family. By the time we left the train, tiredness started to set in and we had to abandon our plan to ride the African Queen Boat Cruise unfortunately. It’s definitely something I would want to try next time but we had to make the decision to end our adventure as we could sense our girls were so tired they were bordering on meltdown. They slept the entire way home and another hour once we got home, which is to say that they had a fantastic time. We all did, it was a great family adventure!