Details
Housing a unique collection of all the native lizards, snakes, frogs and toads, including the adder, the only venomous species of snake living in Britain.
These reptiles can be difficult to see in the wild as they are rare and very secretive, so the Reptile Centre is a great place to see them close-up.
The ‘A Date with Nature’ project, a joint venture between the RSPB, Forestry England, New Forest National Park Authority and Carnyx Wild gives visitors the opportunity to watch live footage from the ‘Feeder Cam’ that captures the goings on around the bird feeders near the Centre and footage from the 'Raptor Cam'.
Explore the New Forest Reptile Centre on two wheels by following the New Forest’s great network of cycle trails.
Please note the centre is not open all year round. For more details refer to the visitor information.
CourtneyFulton
17/08/2020 at 3:58 pmPretty cool
There’s an encouraged £3 donation for parking and entry is free. Staff are very knowledgeable about the reptiles they have inside, and there are lovely walks around the surrounding forest
Pepper&Chip
17/07/2022 at 6:48 pmFree to visit, a suggested donation for the car park. Toilets are available. There are about 6-8 enclosures housing a small variety of reptiles. The enclosures are well designed to replicate natural habitat however this can make spotting some of the reptiles quite hard. We paid 2 visits (before and after our walk) and managed to see a few different reptiles across these. There is a discovery trail from the reptile centre which is an easy 1km circular route through the forest on a gravel path.
Note it is not open very often, mainly only weekends during the summer holidays, we were lucky it was open too for the jubilee bank holiday to visit. We had been wanting to visit on previous trips to the New Forest but it wasn’t open on our dates so we had built some anticipation for our visit and were slightly underwhelmed. If you are staying nearby its a nice way to kill an hour or so if need be but personally wouldn’t recommend travelling out of your way for a visit.