Our First Trip to Finkley Down Farm – Andover, Hampshire
After our flying visit to Athelhampton House, on our way home from our break in Weymouth, we stopped off at Finkley Down Farm for the rest of the day. However, we didn’t bank on it being the hottest day of the year so didn’t spend quite as long there as we would have liked.
Dave remembers going to Finkley Down Farm on a school trip as a child and I think it is quite a popular place for school trips as well as families like us. When we arrived there were clear social distancing markers everywhere, hand sanitiser and one way systems – a fantastic start.
We started our visit to Finkley Down Farm with lunch whilst we decided what to do first. We managed to get a picnic bench in the shade and bought lunch from the Finkley Down Farm cafe.
They had lunch boxes for the children for about £5, a variety of hot meals and loads of sandwiches and cold drinks. It was pretty typical tourist attraction food and typical prices too.
There’s so much space to sit and have a picnic, with plenty of shade under huge trees too. The picnic areas are right next to the children’s play areas so fantastic if your children are old enough to go and play whilst you supervise from a distance.
The outdoor play options at Finkley Down Farm are fantastic. There are sand and water play areas, ride on vehicles and play house, go karts and real vintage tractors to climb on.
There are also trampolines, huge adventure play structures, a zip wire and even crazy golf at no extra charge. I was impressed with how much there was included for the entrance price and was expecting some activities to be at an extra cost. But no, it was all included.
Finkley Down Farm also has the typical animals you’d expect to see on a farm with some extra surprises too like meerkats and alpacas. The farm had a great one way system around it and plenty of hand wash stations too. There was animal feed available to purchase and it was all organised really well.
The children got to meet friendly rabbits as part of an animal handling session and I was impressed how well thought out this sort of activity was. They still wanted to offer interactive sessions but knew they had to do it in a safe way during the pandemic – and it felt safe throughout.
There were a whole host of animal experiences, keeper talks and demonstrations throughout the day. You could easily spend a whole day at Finkley Down Farm, there were so many different things to do, and we only cut our visit short as it was far too hot but I know we’ll be back in the future.
The only real part of Finkley Down Farm that was closed was the indoor play area and soft play and I know LP and Little Man would love to go back once this is open again.
You can find out more about Finkley Down Farm park and book tickets over on their website. It’s a great day out if you’re ever in that part of the country!
