Plantasia…we’ll be back!

One thing I have learnt over the last few months is that children definitely bring adventure back into your lives. Our four-year old has a massive hunger for all things exciting and new, he embraces every new environment with open arms, and I just knew that he would absolutely love this gorgeous little place called Plantasia in Swansea, Wales. It looks like a massive greenhouse in the middle of a retail park, so random, but step inside and you step into another World.

Plantasia had a massive £1.1 million re-development and opened it’s doors again in April this year (2019). I have no idea what the old Plantasia looked like, but with this re-vamp, I’m sure it’ll be a hit with families looking for an escape from the mundane!

They have even started introducing some new additions like the adorable little leopard cat, it was one of the reasons we visited, but she was still very new and very shy. But maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll get to see her settle into her new home as she gets more comfortable with her new surroundings.

Our little one had a zookeeper experience, and he had such a fab time, he started off feeding the animal he was most looking forward to seeing, the cutie little meerkats! One preferred grapes and the other preferred mini corns, so funny to watch them roll their food in the sand before they ate them. I guess we all have our quirks, but if anyone knows why they do this, I have a very inquisitive munchkin here who would love to know!

He also got to feed live locusts to the most adorable little monkeys, these ones are called marmosets, and they have definitely captured my heart and are now up there in my top 5 favourite animals! I thought munchkin would have an issue feeding them live creatures, but he seemed unphased, which made for a much more positive zoo-keeper experience that’s for sure!

Meet Rainbow the beautiful parrot, she is definitely the most funky animal in Plantasia, she’s got beauty, she’s got multicoloured feathers and she has got a fiery attitude. Here’s our boy feeding her some pistachio nuts, her favourite snack. Rainbow certainly left an impression on him, he chose to buy a parrot teddy in the gift shop because it looked like Rainbow.

I was really looking forward to seeing the crocodiles, they were quite dinky for crocs. I couldn’t stop watching them. I love how they just float in the water, arms and legs (do they have arms and legs, or just four legs??!) anyway, they would just lie there floating, very strange but compelling viewing! They even have a turtle living with them, the turtle seems to get on better with the crocodiles than with other turtles, interesting to hear all their different traits and characters.

As our boy threw in loads of live crickets for them to chomp on, one of them came right up to where I was standing and just stared at me for what felt like ages, so glad there was something separating us, I don’t think he liked me papping away with my camera…or maybe he did and was just posing, who knows?!

Believe it or not, out of all the animals he fed, the fish were the most viscous of them all! They went mental, fighting for their grub, thrashing around as if it was a Black Friday sale in Asda! They were huge too, possibly the biggest fish I’ve ever seen! They did add a beautiful splash of colour to this tropical paradise.

As part of our special visit, munchkin was also allowed to hold some of the animals. This place is fab for allowing children to interact with and hold various animals, they have handling sessions where children can hold snakes and dragons etc. It was a precious moment to see such joy on our boy’s face as he held a little tortoise for the first time.

He also chose to hold the red corn snake, he is so much braver than I am, you wouldn’t find me anywhere near it. I was holding my breath hoping he wouldn’t drop it…hence why I don’t have a pic of him actually holding it!!

I had been harping on about the place have dragons so there was some excitement to holding a dragon…he did ask first if it would eat him. We had to explain that it’s not like the dragons in fairytales, it doesn’t breathe fire or eat people! It latched on to him with his feet though so he was quick to give the dragon back! Yet another failed photo opp grrr!

He loves his bugs and creepy crawlies, so holding a slimy big African Snail was right up his street. So much bigger than I’d expected it to be. I would be squirming at the feel of that sticky, gooey, slimey creature crawling on my hand, but I guess children today are obsessed with slime so not too different to a little tub of dinosaur poo slime!

I still can’t quite believe that he did try to hold this big cockroach!! It tickled so it was a short-lived hold but he did hold it! So impressed with his readiness and total willingness to hold and touch everything he was allowed to, he seemed completely at ease with the animals. I am so glad, because I am a massive scaredy-cat!

So after feeding and handling, we had a little walk around ourselves and I think this here is one of my favourite features. Children can crawl under the meerkat’s enclosure and literally watch them close-up and personal through this dome. Such an amazing idea, these type of things are the features that make it a special day out for children, they really do add to their adventure.

I was quite impressed myself with the weird and wonderful plants that surrounded the place, from giant cacti to this avocado tree, it did give you rainforest vibes. It beat visiting the garden centre, that’s for sure.

And I loved seeing the poisonous and deadly bits and bobs that had it’s own section too. These are called rosary peas, they are toxic, but their vibrance caught my eye. Luckily all poisonous plants and creatures are safe out of reach!

And check out these golden poison dart frogs, so cute but so deadly! Found it quite a calming experience to watch them though. They’re bodies look a bit like plucked chickens, really strange skin, closest I’ve seen to human, apart from them being a bit green!

From one weird-looking creature to the most weird-looking thing I’ve ever seen in my life! Can’t believe it smiled for the camera, so chuffed! This here is the quirkiest creature in this place for sure. It’s an axolotl, a type of salamander. I was mesmerised by it, kooky little thing! Not sure I’d want to touch it or hold it or anything like that but such an unusual creature, you can’t help but appreciate it.

And here’s a good shot of the marmoset, even if I do say so myself! No-one could pull off a funky hairstyle like this, paint the white bits green and you’d have Krusty the Clown! Joking aside, they have the tiniest of faces, the kindest of eyes, and I fell head over heels in love with all four of them.

I loved that there were many interactive parts that helped encourage a child’s imagination, and opportunities for fun and colourful photo opportunities too. Surely everyone needs to have a picture taken being eaten by a venus fly trap?! It is the quirkiest, most interesting plant in the whole wide World, so this totally makes sense in Plantasia.

And this sloth is an amazing feature. We had to pry our boy away from there, he just kept wanting his picture taken as a sloth! Now, I have always joked that I look like a sloth in some pictures , even some from our Wedding Day! Soooo, this had to be done. Sloths are my favourite animal at the moment too, they’re so cute and cuddly.

I think the waterfall is a stunning bonus feature that really adds to the rainforest effect. We of course needed to take a picture of our boy on the top of it. From this view, you get to see the whole place beneath you, I was so focused on getting a good picture of our boy, I don’t think I appreciated it enough at the time. Next time we go, I’ll need to spend more time there taking in what the view has to offer.

And I love that there’s a little tunnel underneath the waterfall too. Felt like a real adventure trail, as if you were in a secret world within a jungle. The imagination put in to this place is stunning, a lot of research must have been done to get the place looking and feeling so authentic.

Towards the end of our walk around, we came across a wishing tree. Our boy’s first wish was to have all the toys in the shop, but after asking again for a sensible wish, he said he wished he could be a sloth. I absolutely love this wish, I love the wishing tree, I think it’s such a special idea, hope it stays there for years to come. We all love a chance to make a wish don’t we?!

Our awesome time out in this fabulous little gem of a place ended in their Canopy Cafe. Munchkin loved his mushroom toastie, it did look amazing, he just keeps asking for toasties most days now! And we had the most delicious stone-baked pizzas. I recommend The Garden Club pizza, tasted just like the ones you get in Italy. It was a real treat and a lovely end to a magical day.

As soon as we left, our boy’s first words were “oh, I miss all the animals, can we go back tomorrow?” This is definitely somewhere we would like to visit again in the future. It’s reasonably priced, and has definitely got the thumbs up from our very busy 4-year old. Seeing our boy’s eyes light up so many times in so many hours was the best thing about this unique experience. We left with a stuffed parrot, stuffed tummies and our hearts filled with memories to treasure.

So Plantasia definitely gets this Quirky Shopper’s seal of approval. For more details re price, location and opening times, please see their website or Facebook page.

If you know of any unusual experience you think we would enjoy as a family, please do let me know. Do you have a quirky or unusual day out for us? Would you like to be featured on this blog? Please do get in touch! We’re all about having amazing adventures now as a family so the more suggestions the better.