It’s interesting how many new places you suddenly find out exist when you have a child. Despite working with animals, I didn’t know Cefn Mably Farm Park existed until I was searching for things to do with a baby or toddler around Cardiff, and now I absolutely love it! Cefn Mably Farm Park is a family farm, soft play, cafe and farm shop set on the outskirts of St Mellons.
Cefn Mably Farm Park is open every day of the week from 10am to 5pm and costs £4.50 during weekdays and term time, and £6.50 during weekends and non term time. It’s the same price for adults and children, although those under 18 months were free – and there’s still lots to see and do for this age. If you’re going on the weekend, a family ticket of 4 people (any number of adults to children) is £24.00 and I like this setup as we often go with three adults and a child, as William’s grandmother loves to come with us – as she did on this visit. You also get a loyalty card which gets stamped, and when you visit 6 times you get a free visit!
We visited for the first time on a scorching hot day in April (that very brief heat wave we had) and spent about 3 hours here total. If William could walk, I’m sure that would be a lot longer, but even as a non walker he loved being pushed around the farm, going on a go-cart ride with daddy, playing with the diggers and of course crawling around in the soft play. There are two small sections for under 5s and then a larger section for over.
Whilst going around the farm he got to meet a turkey, chickens, geese and ducks, guinea pigs and rabbits, cows, goats, sheep and lambs, pigs and lots of horses and donkeys, as well as see his first reindeer! Bags of food can be bought at the entrance and you can feed everything except the reindeer who are on a special diet. Even at 12 months he absolutely loved feeding the animals and touching them. This was the first time he’d seen most of these animals so I thought he might be a bit scared – especially of horses since they’re so big, but he was happy to stroke and pat them, and he found animals licking his hands absolutely hilarious. Don’t worry though, there are lots of hand washing stations around.
The cafe seemed clean with lots of tables and chairs, with large sofas then situated around the soft play for parents to chill on whilst the kids run wild and there’s free wifi here. Next to Cefn Mably Farm Park is the Moody Sow Farm Shop, with a butchery counter and lots of yummy local goodies. If you just want to nip into the Farm Shop without going to the Farm Park, it also has it’s own entrance and customer parking so you can always stop in for some meat or delicacies.
I highly recommend Cefn Mably Farm Park for families with children who love animals!
If this appeals to you, you might also like to read about Bristol Zoo, Victoria Park, Roath Park and Cosmeston Lakes – all within easy distance of Cardiff.
Note I wasn’t asked to provide a review, given tickets or in any way compensated. We decided to visit Cefn Mably Farm Park as a family outing and I wanted to share how much we enjoyed it.
2 Comments
This place looks perfect. I love the idea of a soft play and a farm – the kids must be worn out at the end of the day!
This place looks amazing. Don’t know how I didn’t know it existed. We will be visiting when the weather is a bit nicer. They should have a half price discount on rainy days!