Costa Blanca Travel Spots – Rio Safari Elche

Rio Safari Elche - Whether you live on the Costa Blanca or are just on a holiday in the area, you must take time out to visit the fabulous Rio Safari Elche. One of the best loved tourist attractions on the Costa Blanca, the Rio Safari is a great place to take the children and is excellent fun for all the family. Situated between Santa Pola and Elche the Rio Safari animal park sits amongst over 4,000 palm trees in some beautiful surroundings and is a place where the whole family can spend an entire day.

Part of your preparations before taking a trip to the Rio Safari Elche, should be to visit your local Tourist Information Office, this will be a good place to pick up some promotional literature on the park (you should be able to get a map and an information leaflet), if you are lucky, you may also find 'kids go free' or money-off vouchers.

The Rio Safari Elche has other facilities apart from just the animal park - the swimming pool is open during the hot summer months, so take some towels and swimming costumes (and especially suntan lotion!) and enjoy a cooling dip while you are there. Tabled picnic areas are provided, so you can take your own snacks and refreshments (though refreshments are available on site).

A unique part of the whole experience of the Rio Safari Elche is the 'train' ride through the park. The train takes visitors in with the animals (not the lions and tigers!) and offers some great photo opportunities. Also included in the ticket price is free entry into the animal shows - these include a sea-lion show, an elephant show and a parrot show, all with commentaries in Spanish and English and all worth visiting and highly entertaining.

Feeding the many animals is one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole Rio Safari Elche experience and you can do this whilst walking through the park during free periods between the 'train' rides and animal shows. The most fun to feed are the giraffes, who are very gentle and graceful and do enjoy a nice juicy carrot (or three!) - they will take one from your hand, using their long tongue.

The Goat Pen - Another of the popular attractions, especially with the children, is the goat pen, here visitors can go in with, and feed the goats (carrots are on sale at the entrance), goats of all sizes will gleefully grab a carrot from any hand. A gentle warning though, be vigilant with young children, as the goats do get rather over-enthusiastic when faced with a juicy carrot.

The variety of different animal species that can be seen at the Rio Safari is mind boggling and includes crocodiles, chimps, monkeys, deer, antelope, buffalo, emus, ostriches, lions, tigers, jaguars, llamas, camels, giraffes, an elephant and a hippo. Another popular section is the parrot house featuring some very colourful specimens, also the reptile house and aquarium, with a good variety of snakes, lizards and fish.

Some recent refurbishments to the Rio Safari Elche have given it a fresh new feel, and have resulted in a much enhanced experience for visitors to the park, as these improvements continue, it is hoped that the park will attract even bigger audiences.

So there you have it – if you are in the area and fancy a day out with a difference why not try the Rio Safari Elche and enjoy a day with the animals? It will surely be an experience you will not forget.

Easy to find and well signposted, the Rio Safari Elche is situated just off the Santa Pola to Elche road ( the CV-865).

This article on the Rio Safari Elche was written by Steve Locke who lives in Cabo Roig on the southern Costa Blanca. To see more pictures and information on the Rio Safari look here:- Rio Safari Elche to see a picture of the baby hippo look here:- Baby Hippo Picture and to learn more about the nearby city of Elche famous for its palm tree forest click here:- Elche